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Sandbox Exploration

Source Ultimate Campaign pg. 154
These exploration rules can work well in a sandbox-style game. Essentially, a sandbox campaign provides many different locations on the map where the PCs are offered tasks to resolve, and locations where the tasks can be executed. (Each task might or might not take place in the same locations it was offered.) A task can be as simple as clearing evil monsters from a patch of forest or as complicated as helping a fledgling kingdom acquire resources in its back country.

When designing tasks for sandbox gaming, have them be things the party can choose to do, not that they must do. By leaving the choice of which tasks to undertake up to them, you allow the PCs to be wandering heroes— masters of their own fate who travel the land setting things right.

This kind of nonlinear play encourages PCs to move out into the world, search for new tasks, and claim their rewards. You can also use these tasks to introduce new sites in the world by offering the characters jobs delivering goods, escorting travelers, and the like.

Archives of Nethys

Rules Index | GM Screen

Sandbox Exploration