Sandboxes and GM Preperation

Some good discussions going on at Monsters and Manuals about sandboxes and GM preparation.

Basically, Noisms suggest a spectrum of how much the Players are determining the direction of the game and how much the DM is. If the players are are mostly reactive, then the DM doesn't need to prepare as much since he knows what's coming.  If the DM is mostly reactive to the direction that the players determine, then the DM needs to prepare for more possibilities.

So a superhero sandbox, where players sit around waiting for crimes to happen, would be on the far-right and a hex-crawling party of adventurers would be on the far left.

Note that both types of games are in the list of games I'd like to play.

Is it a Sandbox?

Upon reading the post, I was a bit confused about what noisms is calling a sandbox.  On one hand he says:

"At the extreme left are the most sandboxy sandbox games"

On the other hand he says:

"The Samurai Sandbox leans towards the right."

and in the comments:

"We're all talking about sandboxes here. Just different kinds"

So which is it?  Do sandboxes tend to be on the left-side of the spectrum or can they also be on the right?  The answer lies in this line:

"A superhero game would tend to be more towards the right, even if notionally it is "sandboxy" and there is no predetermined plot or end point"

The point is that noisms defines a sandbox as an open-ended game. The whole spectrum can have games which conform to this definition, but some conform to it more than others. The superhero game is a sandbox due to lack of predetermined plot/endpoint, but the plot is more deterministic from the DM's perspective, than a hex-crawl type sandbox game.

Railroads vs. Sandboxes

Another interesting quote from the article:

"rail roads do not feature on the the spectrum because they are not actually games"

Note that Noisms' definition of a Sandbox is basically the inverse of a railroad, which does have predetermined plot/endpoints.  My question is, according to his rather inclusive definition of a sandbox, is there some middle-ground where a game is neither a Sandbox or a Railroad?

Like if I as a DM say, "I'm running module T1 for you", it's not quite a railroad, but the player choices are quite limited to within the module.  I think that according to Noisms' definition of sandbox, it would not be considered a sandbox, because a sandbox let's the players make the big-decisions, whereas here it has been made for them already.

Tales of Blood and Glory: Eaters of the Dead

Vikings

I haven't had much time for gaming lately, but I have had some time for reading.  The latest book I read is Michael Crichton's Eaters of the Dead.  I read some of Crichton's books back in High-School, starting with the then popular Jurassic Park, but it was my first time reading this Viking-themed title.

Framing Mechanism

The book begins with an interesting framing mechanism: that of a scholarly translation of the 10th century manuscript of Ahmad ibm Fadlan's account of his travels. As it turns out, there really is such a manuscript, and it includes one of the earliest first-hand accounts of the Vikings. Crichton's book follows the actual manuscript for the first three chapters, at which point Ibn Fadlan is then kidnapped by the Vikings and the real story begins.

Beowulf

I really didn't know what to expect from this book, but I quickly began to notice familiarities.  I've never read Beowulf, but I've familiar enough with the legend that it immediately came to mind when I read names like Buliwyf, the Wendel, the Wendel's Mother, and the Glowworm Dragon.  As Crichton explains in the note at the end of the book, "Eaters of the Dead was Conceived on a Dare" to show that modern audiences would find the Beowulf story exciting, if not the original telling. In my estimation he succeeds quite well at this goal.

Horror

The story blends adventure with horror, a tough feat to do. The Vikings are no typical helpless horror victims.  Their valor and skill in battle is made abundantly clear. So the reader is left open-mouthed to learn of the paralyzing fear they have of the Mists and the monsters they supposedly bring.

And Crichton does a good job of only revealing facts about the Mist Monsters one step at a time. The first encounter with the monsters is a good example of this: the battle is chaotic and Ibn Fadlan doesn't get a good look at the hairy beasts in the dark and in the mist. When he awakens, after being hit in the head, the narrator finds that the monsters have withdrawn, but left no bodies.  The only remnant of the struggle is a couple dead vikings and a severed arm, covered with knotted muscles and monstrously thick hair.

Now You Killed It

The story ends with Ibn Fadlan shaken by the unnatural terrors he has met in the cold North. It would have been nice if the book ended here. Instead, the framing device returns, and we have the notes of a fake academic speculating whether the Wendel might have been Neanderthals or even a primitive tribe of Homo-Sapiens. But the reader is still left with a bit of doubt, as the theory still doesn't explain their association with the mist, the oracular words and magic weapons of the Dwarves, or the snake-covered Mother of the Wendel.  But then comes the final Note by the Author, where he states clearly that no, the Wendel were Neanderthals.

Lovecraft complains about the horror stories of "Mrs. Ann Radcliffe...who set new and higher standards in the domain of macabre and fear-inspiring atmosphere" that she has a "custom of destroying her own phantoms at the last through labored mechanical explanations".  After reading "Eaters of the Dead" I now know firsthand why this bothered him.  After so artfully building up the weird horrors and connecting them to our reality via the text of Ibn Fadlan, Crichton kills his creation stating that they were just Neanderthals, now long extinct.

Gaming

As a DM I think I have a lot to learn from Eaters of the Dead.  With PCs often armed for WWIII, it can be difficult creating an atmosphere of fear. Eaters of the dead manages this well and many of it's techniques are applicable to gaming.  In particular:

• terrified NPCs
• hard to get a good look at the monsters
• victories are hard-won
• victories are partial--most of the monsters escape to fight another day

Polish Resistance: Skills

Continuing from the previous posts on character creation for Polish Resistance here and here, here is the list of starting skills. 

Mostly I just removed any hi-tech skills from the original Cyberpunk 2020 skills list. Players are welcome to invent their own relevant skills if they don't appear here.

I mentioned this in a previous post, but I'll say it again since it's relevant. I dropped the CP2020 class system since most of the classes don't make sense in the WWII setting.  That and the fact that CP2020 is a skills-centric system, so dropping the classes doesn't have any adverse effects, as opposed to DnD where classes are the main mechanic and skill systems were tacked-on later.

Random Mission Generator for Polish Resistance

Ok, as promised, here is the Polish Resistance Random Mission Generator.  Basically, you roll three dice: two to determine the two Parties involved and the third to determine the Action going on between them.  Note that I didn't pick dice-friendly numbers since I'm constantly adding entries and anyway I'm mostly using a random number generator anyway.

For example:

5- A Cultist, 1- Kill, 4- A Local Business Man

The party hears through their underworld connections that a hit has been put out on the owner of a small local courier service.

Their investigations may reveal that the hit has been hired by Dr. Anna Janowski, of the Anthropology faculty at the local University, who spent her youth in Africa due to her diplomat father being stationed there.  The courier opened a package from the Dr., hoping to to steal a valuable relic, but instead found something so strange and horrible that he failed to turn up to his job the next morning.  No one seems to know his current location or what he did with the package, and in fact Dr. Janowski is desperately trying to locate it and eliminate the one witness to it's contents.

.	Die Roll	Party(A and B)	Die Roll	Action
.	1	British Intelligence	1	Kill
.	2	Criminal(s)	2	Seduce
.	3	A Politician	3	Maim
.	4	A Local Businessman	4	Blackmail
.	5	A Cultist	5	Deliver something to
.	6	An occultist	6	Sell something to
.	7	An Entertainer	7	Protect
.	8	A Smuggler	8	Intimidate
.	9	A Scientist	9	Escape From
.	10	Monsters	10	Spy On
.	11	Civilian	11	Rob
.	(12-14)	German Army	12	Kidnap
.	(15-17)	Polish Resistance	13	Extort
.	(18-20)	Russian Army	14	Cheat
.	(21-23)	A German Officer	15	Frame
.	(24-26)	A Polish Resistance Member	16	Sabotage
.	(27-29)	A Russian Officer	17	Attack
.			18	Rescue
.			19	Pass a message to

Luck

I appreciated noism's recent post about expanding the usefulness of the luck stat in CyberPunk 2020. Basically, when players are problem solving and ask the DM a question like, "is the guard alert or did he fall asleep at his post" the they can roll their luck stat to determine the answer.

In addition to adopting this, I think I'll use it to expand my use of clues. i.e. if the player makes their luck roll then there is a clue to be found.

I wonder how far can we take this before it breaks?  For instance, in determining treasure: "You're lucky and he had just made a large cash withdrawal before you mugged him."

Random Clue Generator

One of my favorite Random Generators for running a sandbox is the Random Clue Generator. One option for presenting adventure hooks is to have NPCs who offer the party jobs. This is certainly straightforward, but not very engaging.  Another option is to drop leads and clues that the players can choose whether or not to investigate.  Of course, this changes the style of the game, making the party not just adventurers but detectives.

Random Clue Generator for Polish Resistance

For example, this is my random clue generator for my Polish Resistance game.  To determine the clue's relevance, I'll either pick one of the various plots floating around in my head, or I'll roll up a mission on the Random Mission Generator.

Die Roll	Form
1	Note
2	Diary Entry
3	Photo
4	Book
5	Ticket-Stub
6	Overheard Conversation
7	Coin
8	Painting/Statue
9	Telegraph
10	Business Card
11	Advertisement
12	Letter
13	Pamphlet/Program
14	Map
15	Article(Newspaper/Journal)
16	Body
17	Body Part
18	Key
19	Tattoo
20	Radio Report

I recently used this generator to get the business card in session 5.

An Example

So continuing from my post about The Fugitive, let's say the youth doesn't make the jump and the party searches his body.  Let's roll up the clue they may find:

17- Body Part

And on the random mission generator(I'll have to do another post with that at some point) I got:

15 German Officer, 15 Frame, 7 Entertainer

So we'll say that the party finds a severed finger, and if they investigate, they may find that this guy is a trombone player who a German officer framed for kidnapping a German pilot(that's whose finger it is) who recently went missing.

There ya go. Instant pulp.

The Fugitive

I'm in need of some random generator fun.  How about a random event around town for Polish Resistance...

I rolled up the Pulp Oracle - High Adventure in Exotic Locale, which yielded the following:

"A high waterfall; seemingly the only escape from impending doom."

So here goes:

Upon entering the town square, the party sees a group of people pointing upwards.  Following their gaze, you see a young man in a brown suit leaping from roof to roof.  He's followed by a couple of trench coated Gestapo men.

The youth reaches the end of the last building and stops, cornered.  Four-floors down a carter with a full-load of hay is passing by at a quick trot.  The youth looks down, contemplating the leap, while his pursuers approach, automatics drawn.  You'd give him maybe one in four odds of landing safely on the moving cart below.