How to Create a Sandbox Campaign

Advice on how to get your sandbox campaign going.

Support the channel via Patreon

Random Generators:

Thumbnail Image - Philippe Druillet

My Podcast (s)

Stuff I use and often refer to:

The Hateful Place

Dungeons & Dragons 5e Player's Handbook

Dungeon Crawl Classics (PDF)

DCC Rulebook Hardcover:

Basic Set PDF (BX)

Expert Set PDF (BX)

OSE Tome PDF

Chainmail PDF

Check out my other channel BANDIT'S KEEP ACTUAL PLAY:
Where I stream Various TTRPG systems.

Follow me on:

Some links are affiliate links.

#dmtips #osr

[benephelps]

I’m a simple man, I see a new Bandits Keep video, I click on it, like it, and watch until the end.

[Marcus-kien]

For Session zero, I took my house in google maps and measured out 15 miles in the four cardinal points, and screen captured that 30 mile x 30 mile square (my hex size). This gives the players a sense of how big a hex is. In my case I have no less than 5 different terrain types right in my back yard - Coastal, Mountains, Hills, Steep Valleys, wide plains. There is about 900 square miles in a 30 mile hex. That is a lot of area to adventure in before you ever leave your first hex.

[RoDaGrier]

Best campaign start plan I have heard on 36 years of DMing.

[TheGladGolem]

The Bandit’s Keep Camera is looking CRISP.

[Dyundu]

Timely as usual—just started to gather players for my first West Marches game

[anyshittynickname]

Sandbox campaign wil begin this thursday, with session zero. This is exactly the kind of video I needed.

[funwithmadness]

donjon is an awesome resource! I use it pretty much every time I build an adventure for something, particularly names. The random menu is quite a bit of fun, too. It occasionally produces results that actually sound tasty. :)

[MuskyPickle]

Watabou's Procgen Arcana is an excellent map making resource. Good looking maps in about the right size for a starting adventure. I like to turn off the bells and whistles and print off a copy for me and one for the players. Mine gets the info, and theirs gets filled in by the party as we go.

[chrisragner]

Great resources! Yes, the “campaign” I have been running began January 2020. It has morphed into something I never planned because of this style of play. Someone must like it because we have continued together.

[madagrinde]

One of the best resources for creating a sandbox is Worlds Without Number. Incredible game with amazing tools for creating a sandbox campaign.
It has a free version that has all of the good stuff. The "Creating your campaign" chapter has a awesome section called tags. The ruins and wilderness tags is especially usefull. The book is mostly system agnostic, but the game itself is also great!

[MatsJPB]

Great video! A must for me whenever I prep a sandbox (or any campaign) is to have along list of random but setting appropriate names so I can instantly name NPCs I make up on the spot, or no-name NPCs the players decide to take an interest in. and I make sure i have enough space after each name to note down what NPC I gave it to. I'm horrible with names, I can not make them up on the spot.

[thingamarob]

This video is a goldmine. I’ve seen a lot of “tools” videos along these lines, and this is the best. Chock full of the goods. Thanks.

[jarrettperdue]

Not to be pedantic, and you may have talked about this in an earlier video, but having conversations with your players in advance so that they understand the conventions and expectations of a sandbox game is really important.

[Droid]

Exceptional vids.
The OCD part of my brain couldn't use bigger hexes because a 5 mile hex is perfect since realistically all villages would be within 5 miles of another village or town.

[williamozier]

Random idea: In session 0. Identify 10 treasures in the campaign, each player rolls 1D10, and that is the fantastic treasure their player knows about. Then identify 10 NPCs, each player rolls, and that is the NPC who knows where the item is buried. This way, even though a sandbox, your players wll still have some idea of what to shoot for, and start to plan to get it/..

[underfire]

Great stuff as always just what i needed for getting me back into finishing my west marches setting!

[totalpartykill]

the way i see it, when it comes to the OSR, i see players coming back to these old systems and they want to treat their characters as frontiersman and explorers in a wondrous and dangerous world, as opposed to superheroes with complex skill trees. the idea of procedural generation has always been appealing to me, as each new campaign with fresh characters can start in a brand new setting. no need to use existing settings, the players should feel surprised by what they discover.

[GeneralTantzu]

I run Sandbox game and this is very useful, lot of helpful things I will take in account for my future GMing.

[Drudenfusz]

Horses have a higher maximum speed sure, but if you push them constantly for that during exploration or just travel, then you will exhaust them quickly. Horses simply are not like cars!

[Frostrazor]

Very timely and good video.
I'm currently running a sandbox campaign in Dungeon World; we sketched the continent map out together each player taking turns adding a contiguous area and then filling it in with everyone taking turns adding rumors in various areas. Turned out great. the campaign is in its infancy at the moment.
I will say he's spot on with the importance of NPCs and plethora of rumors/plot hooks. With each one they pursue and complete, they learn 1 to 3 more new ones.
This video is very helpful, had I seen this before I started, I may have done the hex map aspect as he depicted - rather like that.
For anyone that hasn't tried out Dungeon World - it's a perfect game system for sandbox, since the complications from PC actions can lead to all sorts of interesting twists that none of us considered until we started conversating about it. BK is right - the actual game design is primarily done at the table as a group discussion.
I've been putting it all on World Anvil, building the world up as we go. I've been gaming and DMing for 40+ years, but never actually ran a true sandbox game before where I had no idea what was going to come from each session. It's been quite the learning experience. I wish i had done it sooner.