There's been a lot of internet talk about sandbox games of late, mostly in relation to That Dungeon Game, but I couldn't see why Call of Cthulhu should miss out, so I'm in the process of putting together a freeform sandbox type campaign. I was wondering though if anyone out there had any experience of running or playing in such a game, and if they had any tips of making this game style work with CoC?
Don't want to see these links? Register & Log in to YSDC.
Sandbox in this sense?
"Two in the head, you know he's dead." <heh-heh>
Sort of, yes. It all seems to spring from this blog post, and the Dungeoneers are all very excited about it. I am too, although my game of choice relies far less on wilderness exploration and dungeon-delving. I'm pretty confident that I've found an approach that works, where the "map" is instead more of a network of clues and contacts than an actual spatial map, but I was wondering if anyone else had approached CoC in this manner?Originally Posted by skaye
Like the Lovecraft Country campaigns ?
The Return To Dunwich especially was very unusual in being more a description of an area than a set plot. And yet the players were given motivation to explore and investigate "what exactly is wrong with Dunwich".
I think this sort of game can work with Call of Cthulhu as long as the GM pre-plans at least one major event for each game session regardless of the players actions. If you don't do this the danger is that by chance the investigators could have sessions where they miss all the interesting encounters and the campaign starts to drag.
Recently I've started to think of game sessions more like episodes of a television series. People want something interesting to happen each and every session or they are just going to switch off ( mentally anyway ). Having a selection of encounters which are not triggered by player actions can help liven up an evening which otherwise would be all research, or travel or interviewing Mrs Miggins from the Post Office.
"You forget, I was present at an undersea, unexplained, mass sponge migration"
I've been playing sandbox-style games with CoC for a few years. Essentially, I take my cue from the actions of the investigators. All the clues, adversaries, and even the final culmination of the scenario are dropped in the scenario based on the actions of the investigators.
One of the keys to this type of game is that I know the people I game with and can set the pace accordingly. I know when to drop something in to keep the players interested and motivated.
How do you get a sandbox campaign started? Do you drop them players in it with four or five possibilities to investigate, or do you start more traditionally, and open it up later?
Most of the games I've played have been in this style since the 1980's...I often nudge GMs into this style of play. I've never been much interested in modules as much as freeform play. The dreaded "Tunnel shooter" style of adventure (AKA most published adventures) are far to specific, and long to mesh well into long running freeform campaigns.
My wife loves to be a Keeper and only runs this style of campaign, throwing in the occasional adventure (From the free downloads section here or at Chaosium) to great effect.
Her best campaign was based on a fictional town called Carlton where she had every house listed with NPC descriptions and plot seeds for each house. It was extremely creepy and was a dying little town. It had an abandoned mental hospital and amusement park that both closed down in the 60's with about 40% of the shops in town closed down as well.
It was a place that most people, most sane and healthy people avoided. In fact you had to make rolls just to turn onto the exit, as a supernatural force made most people not even notice it.
It took a while for characters to realize why so many sadists and other weirdos seemed attracted to the location. It was really disturbing for characters to notice the town did not exist at all when they checked the satellite images from google maps. It was a total blast, and was downright creepy and often scary without a single planned out adventure.
Yogsoggy
NRA Endowment Member
Gun Collector, specializing in weapons from
1905-1945. Role-Player. Amateur Gunsmith
Bozeman Montana
A lot of times, I'm not sure what we're going to do until everybody sits down and we get rolling. Because of that, the start can be a little bumpy but once we get moving, there's no looking back.
I resent the encroachment of computer and video game styles on my RPGs. But I always thought sandbox style went the other way since I have been playing 90% sandbox games in every system I've used since around '81. You just have to let go of the attitude of "But you MUST experience my BRILLIANT and BEAUTIFUL device, I spent days designing it." Sandbox is easy, if you know the world well in general and can handle a little improv.
Brilliant!
So those who have run such a game, how much preparation is done beforehand? How much of the setting is, er, set out before you start? Do you sandbox Keepers have a big plot in mind, or is the whole thing improvised, and if you do have a central thread running through it all, how much of that do you have prepared?
Sorry to ask so many questions, I'm just quite excited by the prospect of running one of these games, and I'm eager to soak up as much knowledge and inspiration as possible!
For what it's worth, I do have a central plot in mind (although I am keen on the sandbox aspect, so if the players ignore the plot, then I'm happy to let it go), a cult dedicated to getting a Thing from Hyperborea into a position of political power, sort of a mix between The Boys From Brazil and The Omen III (which sounds awful now I've written it down!). The starting point, I think, will be the suspicious "suicide" of a government minister who stumbled upon that plot. I wonder how much between Point A and Point Z needs to be filled out in detail.
I expect the amount of background would mostly depend on how comfortable a Keeper is with her/his powers of improvisation. I know that -- when I have developed "worlds" for other systems (harking back to my mid-70s DnD days) I tended to have a lot of mostly unused detail in place. Nowadays, I'd probably base a CoC sandbox in Lovecraft Country and build on the excellent work of the published materials.
As to plotting, if I had a regular group to set this in motion with, I think I would develop a number of "Points Z" to which various interweaving threads could lead.
"Two in the head, you know he's dead." <heh-heh>
I find this type of game can work well if you have players who go and LOOK for trouble, but if you have players who want to be spoon-fed the plot "hook" and given a REALLY freaking good reason to go poking their noses into the existence of Things That Should Not Be... it's not so easy.
I've had little success with sandbox campaigns because my group is very adamant that their characters MUST be genuinely motivated. In D&D if you don't give them a damned good reason to leave town swinging swords... they start buying property and setting up trade deals. Might as well play Settlers of Catan!
Some advice from someone who has tried and failed with the sandbox approach: Don't leave it ALL up to them at first; give them choices.
What I am doing this time is working much better than previously. I picked a few published adventures (you could simply pick a few creatures from the Malleus Monstrorum and seed your setting with clues) and seeded the story with little invitations.
Example:
I started them out with the adventure "The Crack'd And Crook'd Manse" from Mansions of Madness.
During that adventure (near the end) they will be hearing some rumors of other specific haunted houses in the area (should they choose to investigate one, they will end up in that rumor's corresponding adventure; either The Haunting, The Edge of Darkness, etc).
Also they'll be invited by an NPC they meet to join him at a speakeasy in Boston that he really enjoys; if they decide to go there, they enter the adventure "Dead Man Stomp".
If at any time my investigators go insane and need care, they end up at an island sanitarium in "The Sanitarium", as inmates.
Whether they choose to go through any combination (or none) of those, they will come upon a boy in the street who pulls them into The Plantation.
This isn't quite as "sandboxy" as you are likely thinking, but just by plunking a bunch of mythos creatures into a setting you can achieve much the same thing. Having SOME structure and letting the characters choose which way to go is easier than going GTA IV on them, giving them guns and saying "have at it then."
Big suggestion: if you want to do a sandbox campaign, your NUMBER ONE best resource would be to get a "Secrets of" book. Arkham, Kingsport, Dunwich, Los Angeles, New York, Morocco, Kenya, Japan; Even the Miskatonic University book. This will give you a TON of things for your investigators to do in an open area. (Arkham is my favorite.)
Whatever you choose... have fun!
I agree that it takes the right kind of players to fully embrace a sandbox setting, but what you just described above is the beauty of the sandbox setting. The players are free to do as they choose, and as I start sprinkling in bits of mythos, they are completely free to ignore them. As things start to go worse and worse they begin to get motivated. All on their own.
I'll typically have a basic idea in mind. Usually nothing more than what sort of entity I feel like incorporating.
In a classic game I take a historic event and build mythos ideas around it. That's my usual "plot" idea, everything else is usually improvised. I built a six month real worl length (eighteen month in game) campaign around the second Tunney v. Dempsey match . . .Brilliant!
So those who have run such a game, how much preparation is done beforehand? How much of the setting is, er, set out before you start? Do you sandbox Keepers have a big plot in mind, or is the whole thing improvised, and if you do have a central thread running through it all, how much of that do you have prepared?
Sorry to ask so many questions, I'm just quite excited by the prospect of running one of these games, and I'm eager to soak up as much knowledge and inspiration as possible!
For what it's worth, I do have a central plot in mind (although I am keen on the sandbox aspect, so if the players ignore the plot, then I'm happy to let it go), a cult dedicated to getting a Thing from Hyperborea into a position of political power, sort of a mix between The Boys From Brazil and The Omen III (which sounds awful now I've written it down!). The starting point, I think, will be the suspicious "suicide" of a government minister who stumbled upon that plot. I wonder how much between Point A and Point Z needs to be filled out in detail.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks