The Golden Rule of Sandbox Refereeing

Where to next?

At the end of each session, ask your players what they are going to be doing next session. Then use the intervening week or two to prepare for that.

That's it. By following this rule, you can present a truly open sandbox to your players with NO extra work for you! You can present them with five or six dungeons near town and still only have to prepare one. You can litter your dungeons with adventure hooks, stuff your random rumor table full to bursting, and as long as you ask your players what they want to do NEXT session, all you have to do is prepare just as much as you would anyway. No extra work - you're working smart instead of hard.

"And what if my players change their minds between sessions?" I hear you asking. Just be straight-up with your players, tell them that whatever they pick at the end of their sessions is going to be what they're doing the next session, so they'd better be sure. As you add maps to your referee binder you'll have some more degree of flexibility as well. A shrine they explored a few sessions ago can be re-explored with a simple re-stocking procedure.

This idea is probably (almost certainly) not a new one, but it has radically transformed my games and refereeing style for the better, and I don't see it talked about enough, so I figured I'd jot down a quick article for it.

Another question you may have, especially if you don't already have a game in progress, is how to make this principle work for your first game. To that, I say just begin your first session outside your starter dungeon. Simple works best. "Here is a dungeon. There is treasure in it. Go get that treasure," works perfectly to begin with. Then, stuff that dungeon with interesting adventure hooks - treasure maps, dead adventurers' journals, denizens of the dungeon who barter their lives for information about other caches of treasure around the countryside - and ask your players what they want to follow up on the next time they meet.

An example: in my home game, my players were exploring a megadungeon, but had passed by a wizards' tower on their way to the main dungeon. At the end of one of the sessions, they told me that next session they wanted to check out the tower, so in the week between our sessions, I mapped and keyed out the tower and threw some other hooks in the tower: a gaggle of gnomes who had lost one of their number to a carrion crawler in the cellars beneath the tower, an animated suit of armor who was the servant of  the wizard who owned the tower a hundred years ago, a dwarf frozen in magic ice from a far-off land, a former apprentice of the wizard's, cursed to take the shape of a mountain lion and chained to the central staircase... one thing I love about this method is that I can truly go wild with my adventure hooks, because it doesn't matter if I come up with one or seven - the work load on me from week to week doesn't change! My players ended up exploring the tower and taking a special interest in the gnomes, so when they told me at the end of THAT session that they wanted to help rescue the gnomes' friend, I spent the week between mapping out the cellars of the tower.

I hope that you find this principle useful, and can use it in your games.

Session Report 1/24/2020: The Battle at Fennburgh

Kyle the Halfling assassinates another bandit.

Persons mentioned in the text:

• KYLE, a level 3 Halfling
• GRACE, a level 2 Dwarf
• ARMAND, a level 4 Cleric
• GREG, a level 2 Fighter
• KENNETH, a level 2 Thief
• TIMON, a level 1 Fighter
• SELENE, a level 2 Elf
• JOB, a level 2 Fighter

The time:
    The month of GARNET, first month of the year 1120 Anno Daedalus

The place:
    FENNBURGH, a swamp town in the GREYMARSH, on the continent of KATHON, on the planet YRTH.

The story so far:

    Our Heroes, after letting the Keep on the Borderlands fall to the Orcs, travelled North to Greymarsh, where they briefly explored a huge ruin of barrows underneath the marshes near the town of Flume. Finding them too dangerous, they went south, exploring the tower of Florymonde the sorceress. Near the tower, they found a hut, and disturbed the feral vampire dwelling within. They nearly defeated the vampire, but it turned to grey mist and summoned a pack of wolves, and not before charming Kyle. A chance encounter with an eremetic wizard on their way back to Flume resulted in the charm being lifted from Kyle, but for a price: the wizard, Pyrrhus, wanted his ring returned after having it stolen from him by a circle of Moon Druids living in the Small Mountains in the northern jungles. He directed them towards the floating town of Fennburgh, a few days’ travel to the south-east.

    Upon arriving in Fennburgh, the viscount Salmoneus Bondeville, a pale and severe man, greeted Our Heroes and alerted them to the troubles the town was facing: disappearances, bandit raids, necromancy, and religious strife. After exposing two chaotic apprentices within the Guild of Frog-Giggers (involving a heroic but ultimately futile and fatal attempt to save a child by the late Cleric, Dickon) and killing a roving band of raiders, Our Heroes decide to take the fight to the bandits, two days’ ride southeast.


Session:

    Job has been obsessed with learning the mysteries of the Guild of Frog-Giggers. At the beginning of the session, he stole a basket of frogs from two apprentices and tried to swim away in the River Grey. His so-called friends, Kenneth and Kyle, alerted the apprentices. Half-drowned already, Job dragged himself from the river only to be attacked by a Bog Body and die.

    Our Heroes hired two sturdy young men to take them ranging and lead them to the encampment of the bandits calling themselves the Fearless Fighters. After a few days of travel due to over-encumbrance, Our Heroes found the camp. Armand the Cleric approached the camp and offered his services as a healer. As the bandits were religious zealots who worshipped the same god as Armand, they welcomed him. Armand gathered information and relayed it to Our Heroes as they camped in the treelines. There were about 30 bandits in the camp, and one of the generals had a pair of wondrous bracers. Their leader had a magic sword.

    That night, Kyle the Halfling snuck into the latrines on the outskirts of camp and cut the throats of a few bandits as they went to use the privy. The bandits were suspicious about Armand being a spy, but he performed miracles for them to convince them of his loyalty. The bandits packed up camp and prepared to raid Fennburgh. Our Heroes sent back their two hirelings to warn the people in advance, and harassed the band from the trees as they made their way towards Fennburgh. Once there were only 20 bandits left, Armand convinced the bandits to form up and search the treelines. In their haste, they left their tents unguarded, as Kenneth and Kyle were making noise in the trees to draw them out. As the bandits abandoned camp, a few of Our Heroes snuck in, threw their sleeping gear and tents in a pond, and looted the camp, wounding their horses. Furious upon returning, the bandits forced a march towards Fennburgh to make a last stand. By the time they arrived, they were only a force of about fifteen, including four generals and their leader. A contingent of ten young men met them at the border to turn back their assault. During the melee, Selene blinded the leader with a Light spell, and the bandits suffered heavy losses. In the end, only a wounded general and the blinded leader remained. The general cut his former leader’s throat and surrendered. Our Heroes were hailed as champions by the town. Timon the fighter claimed the wondrous bracers for himself, and Greg availed himself of the sword.

Factions for City / Overworld Play

• Cities are factions, and factions are cities
• Tie factions to treasure / rewards for the PCs
• Place lairs and camps nearby

In my last post, I talked about generating factions. Here is an example from my home game on how to create a town, relying primarily on factions. To see how it played out, check out the session report.

Many referees use towns as simple ways to rest and re-stock. However, if your players like to roleplay, sneak around, and generally bother NPCs, it can be useful to have something more fleshed-out. Here is how you can create a memorable town in less than fifteen minutes, using perhaps a single sheet of notebook paper.

For context, my players are searching for a magic ring. They’ve been told that someone in the town of Fennburgh can help them, but they’re not sure who.

Step 1 is to write one to four sentences to serve as an introduction to the town.

Fennburgh is a city built on stilts and rafts on the River Grey. They eat frogs and trade with the town of Flume by shipping goods down the river. It is a small and dreary town.

Step 2 is to place some lairs and camps nearby (1-2 hexes away). You can also have wandering monsters like a dragon, giant, or basilisk, that is giving the townspeople trouble. Of course, if you have a central (mega)dungeon, this should be included. The “main” dungeon in my game is near Flume, so Fennburgh does not have one nearby. You may reveal as much or as little about these sites to your players as you wish. You may concoct a rumor table as well to encourage your players to interact with townsfolk.

Near Fennburgh, there are:

• A camp of bandits
• A circle of Necromancers
• A pack of beast-men
• The lair of a great river-snake
• A wandering giant made of carrion

Greymarsh. The house symbol marked 10 is Fennburgh. Lairs and camps surround it.

Step 3 is to select three to four faction circles in or near the town. I pick from these general categories:

• Religious (temples, shrines, cults, & c.)
• Noble or Government (mayors, viscounts, headsmen and gaolers)
• Mundane Guilds (bakers, miners, masons)
• Fantastic Guilds (giant snail-riders, artificers, apothecaries)
• Underworld or Criminal (thieves, gamblers, pit-fighters)
• Magical (wizards, oracles, vampires)
• Military (guards, rangers)

With each circle, generate one or two important NPCs for each. Some “factions” may indeed only be one person. Some may be hundreds.

In Fennburgh, these faction circles are active:

• Noble - Mayor’s office and viscount
• Mayor Adur Codd
• Viscount Salmoneus Bondeville
• Criminal - Den of Thieves
• Led by “Briar” (actually Mayor Codd!)
• Religious - Shrine to Nature Spirits
• Led by vicar Irus
• Fantastic Guild - Xipas’ Panaceatorium (sells potions and salves)
• Xipas (a werewolf)
• Magical - Margie Squatt, the Oracle
• Margie Squatt, exiled medicine woman living on the outskirts of town
• Mundane Guild - Frog-Giggers of the River Grey
• Led by Reggie Squatt, son of Margie Squatt
• Grett and Robb, chaotic apprentices
• Mundane Guild - Riverfront Merchants
• No clear leader or standout NPC (yet)

Step 4: Now that we have our “outside factions” and our “inside factions,” let’s generate motives, obstacles, and plans for each. Occasionally, we will also add a “twist” to a faction - a defining characteristic that makes them a little odd and memorable.

• The BANDITS want to LOOT FENNBURGH but are TURNED AWAY by its natural defences, therefore they are LEADING RAIDING PARTIES. On my calendar, I mark a raid to happen on a random day each month.
• Faction twist: the Bandits are religious zealots
• The NECROMANCERS want to CONTROL THE WANDERING ROT-GIANT but it is TOO POWERFUL, therefore they are KIDNAPPING AND SACRIFICING VIRGINS from Fennburgh to appease it. On my calendar, I mark a virgin disappearance every 13 days.
• The CHIROPTERANTHROCENES (man-bats) want FOOD, but they are WEAK AND OUTNUMBERED, therefore they are UNDER THE AEGIS OF A FERAL VAMPIRE. Chiropteranthrocenes are only active at dawn and dusk.
• SESS, the river-snake wants to EAT, but it is HUNTED by the denizens of fennburgh, therefore it has TRICKED TWO CHAOTIC APPRENTICES TO SACRIFICE CHILDREN TO IT. Every ten days on my calendar, I mark that a child disappears. Grett and Robb are the chaotic apprentices.
• The ROT GIANT wants... ???
• Note that some monsters may be mysterious or mindless. The Rot Giant is brainless.

And now our in-city factions:

• Mayor CODD wants to MAINTAIN the status quo, but the MURDERS AND DISAPPEARANCES are making the townsfolk paranoid, therefore he will REWARD the PCs for any help.
• Mayor Codd is secretly the leader of the THIEVES’ DEN
• Salmoneus Bondeville wants to HUNT the feral Vampire that leads the Chiropteranthrocenes, but is TIED TO HIS DUTIES AS A VISCOUNT, therefore he STUDIES VAMPIRES IN SECRET in his study.
• Salmoneus Bondeville is secretly of a heretic religion, but is Lawful despite his crabby demeanor.
• The DEN OF THIEVES want to STEAL Xipas’ goblet, but the townsfolk are on HIGH ALERT, therefore they are WAITING until things cool down. When the murders and disappearances are in a lull, Xipas’ goblet will be stolen.
• The DEN OF THIEVES’ mysterious leader, “Briar,” is actually Mayor CODD.
• The SHRINE wants more members, but SALMONEUS is taxing them too heavily, therefore Vicar IRUS is FOMENTING UNREST towards the viscount.
• XIPAS wants to SELL HIS POTIONS, but he TURNS into a Werewolf at the end of each month, therefore he KEEPS HIS LYCANTHROPY A SECRET.
• Xipas was cast out of the Moon Druids for his affliction, and knows where the ring is.
• MARGIE SQUATT wants to RE-ENTER the town of Fennburgh, but was EXILED by SALMONEUS for practising witchcraft, therefore she will HELP the PCs if they PLEAD HER CASE.
• The FROG-GIGGERS want to SERVE THE TOWN, but sometimes GAME IS SCARCE, therefore, they WORSHIP Opo-Palua, the frog spirit.
• Reggie will be grateful if his mother is let back into the town
• Two CHAOTIC apprentices, GRETT and ROBB, are kidnapping children to sacrifice to SESS, the River-Snake, in return for its favor.
• The RIVER-FRONT MERCHANTS want to TRADE WITH FLUME, but BANDITS attack them from the banks, therefore they have SHUT DOWN TRADE on the river until the bandits are destroyed. 

Step 5 is to make a quick map for lairs and camps and mark their location on your hex-map. I have made a map for SESS’ lair, the lair of the necromancers, the caves of the Chiropteranthrocenes, and the bandits’ camp. These maps can be small and loosely keyed; I will flesh them out more as it becomes more apparent where the PCs are headed.

Quick lairs, can be fleshed out later.

Step 6 is to generate some treasure and tie it to the intrigue. Most treasure is mundane, but there are some artefacts the players will hear about. Notably:

• The leader of the BANDITS has a MAGIC SWORD, and his general has MAGIC GAUNTLETS
• The NECROMANCERS have SPELLBOOKS, WANDS, and SCROLLS
• MARGIE can make FABULOUS POTIONS
• The FROG-GIGGERS can synthesize POISONS from the frogs

 As your players choose to help some factions and hinder others, they will find themselves making friends and enemies organically, and you should reward or punish them as you see fit. In my home game, my players caught the apprentices and extinguished the bandit camp, for which they were rewarded with some vials of frog poison and free transportation down the river when they desire, respectively. They also looted the bandit camp for gold, and took the magic sword and bracers from them. Now they have their sights set on the Moon Druids to the north.

I know this seems like a lot of work, but it really took me only a few minutes to jot down. I take laconic notes that I can understand, but I have expanded and elaborated upon them for the purposes of demonstration. This has taken up a single sheet of notebook paper in my DM binder. Also, these are more notes than I started with. I had added to the document throughout three or four sessions of play. For your first session, no more than two or three inner-city factions and one or two outside factions are necessary. I hope you use these in your games, and enjoy them.

Behold, Fennburgh. These are all the notes I have on it.

Certain names changed for simplicity's sake.

The Four Blanks Method of Faction Generation

[FACTION] want(s) [MOTIVATION], but [OBSTACLE]. Therefore, [PLAN OR METHOD OF SURMOUNTING OBSTACLE].

1. A faction. Easy to generate, just roll on the random monster table. If you roll the same faction twice, it could indicate that the same members within that faction might have multiple wants, or it could mean that there is strife within the faction!
2. A motivation. Treasure, security, food, revenge. Sharing the same motivation across multiple factions means vying for the same cause! Rivalry, or shaky alliances?
3. An obstacle. Factions can also share obstacles, a fertile field for PCs to sow their machinations.
4. The faction's plan to get around their obstacle. PCs can help or exploit this as they see fit.

Here's the balancing act: if you, the referee, don't flesh out your dungeon factions at least somewhat (how many you have depends on the size of your dungeon floors, but in my opinion at least three is a good start for a "normal" sized dungeon), then your players don't have the option to interact with them in meaningful ways outside of combat. However, there's no guarantee that your players will happen across a certain faction, or that they will engage in "faction play" (parlay) rather than simply attack whoever they come across. Therefore, over-preparation of factions will end up wasting your time.

With this method, you have what is absolutely essential to begin meaningful faction play, composed in a method conducive to rolling on random tables. Indeed, the first three blanks can be filled quite easily by generating a random filler, while the fourth can be filled in with a little creativity and minimal effort on the part of the referee. Once you have your tables set up to your liking, generating factions on the fly can take under a minute per faction!

Important to note: this method can also be applied to creating factions within cities. Rather than using monsters from a random table for factions, do some light brainstorming on what can be found within the city. I like to use broad terms to spark my imagination: "religious" "guild" "criminal", and then another table within those terms to further flesh them out. "Religious" might be "orthodox" and thus signal the local sanctuary, or it might be "heretic" or "cult" - maybe an eremetic clan of druids on the fringes of the city? "Guild" could be as mundane as gong-farmers or as fantastical as breeders who farm water-striders on the river large enough to ferry up and down the coast. "Criminal" could be a band of thieves or grave-robbers... you get the idea. Remember that factions can also have internecine conflicts. If I roll "goblins" twice, maybe half the goblins want a golden chalice hidden within the tombs, but the other half want a magic hammer that was lost in the flooded catacombs! Or perhaps there is a broad "treachery" conflict on your Obstacles table. This gives PCs ample opportunity to play factions against themselves.

Motivations are usually very simple, falling into a few broad categories I've already mentioned. As motivations get less "concrete," I find it becomes harder to tie them into the fundamental game engine of old-school style play. A group of orcs searching for a chest of platinum coins is easier for the rules (and myself) to handle than a group of monks seeking enlightenment. However, you can easily see how flavorful and imaginative these can become, and if you feel confident running them, go for it!

Obstacles can be monsters, environments, other factions, or even the same faction. As noted earlier, two factions who share an obstacle are primed for alliances that the PCs can leverage to their own advantage. I like to use vague terms in my tables to keep their application broad. Things like "terrible beast," "intelligent monster," "treachery," that serve as a jumping off point for my own creativity.

The faction's plans, which I refer to as "methods," are important because they can tie the faction to the dungeon in a naturalistic way. Let's say we have a group of Kobolds who want to survive, but have run out of rations. With this alone, the PCs might tend toward offering rations of their own, but by fleshing out their method and saying that the kobolds are farming mushrooms to stave off their hunger, now the PCs have a few more toys to play with. What if the farm is threatened by another faction? What if the PCs decide to poison the mushrooms or raze the farm? Where is the mushroom farm in the dungeon map? PCs can aid or hinder these methods as they see fit. Methods could conceivably be written into a table, but as I  see it, they're dependent on the three previous factors, and it takes me very little time and brain-power to come up with a solution (indeed, it's about what players are tasked to do every session: interact with the game world as if it was their own), so I come up with whatever piques my interest.

If a faction is sufficiently present in a dungeon, some other details you can consider may be (presented in what in my opinion is a descending order of importance):

• Relations to other factions *
• Important figures within the faction (leaders, enforcers, traitors, spies)
• Area controlled by the faction

*I actually find this extremely important, but have found that by interconnecting my motivations and obstacles, arises organically. Nonetheless, it's important to note, especially if factions share physical space.

I also like to occasionally come up with "faction twists" that give a unique flavor to my factions and really force my imagination to start working. A d100 table is superior for this purpose. Maybe those within the faction are all dying? (Of what? How quickly?) Maybe they all have tattoos? Or they're all carrying wooden idols? These vague characteristics add an air of mystery and help the hundredth goblin band the players encounter stand out from the ninety-ninth.

Exercise 1: Dungeon Factions

Let's come up with three dungeon factions, two of whom share a motivation. Let's stay pretty vanilla and say they're Orcs, Kobolds, and Goblins. We're already 1/4 of the way done! For goals, let's say the orcs are hunting a great shaggy beast with white fur and poison fangs for its gallbladder, which is said to, when eaten, confer a state of frenzy upon its consumer. As an obstacle, the beast has killed a dozen of their own already, so the orcs are trying to trap it with a series of net traps outside its lair. Both the kobolds and goblins are seeking a fabulous gem, which in the interest of tying everything together, let's say belongs to the orcs. However, the kobolds' obstacle is the goblins, and the goblins' obstacle, the kobolds. The kobolds are waylaying straggling goblins and robbing and killing them, while the goblins are raiding the storerooms of the kobolds. In this way, their methods become the other's obstacle. So, let's type this all out:

• The Orcs want the gallbladder of the Great White Beast, but it has killed a dozen of their best hunters, so they have set up traps outside its lair.
• The Kobolds want the Onyx pendant of the orcs, but goblins have been raiding their food stores and weakening them, so they are killing off stray goblins, one-by-one.
• The Goblins also want the Onyx pendant of the orcs, but kobolds have been killing their scouts, so they are raiding the store-rooms of the goblins to starve them.

Already we have a web of intrigue ripe for the PCs to exploit. Do they let the Kobolds and Goblins fight each other and come in and sweep up the remains? Do they convince the Kobolds and Goblins to ally against the orcs? Do they convince the orcs to offer up their gem as payment and take a host of Kobolds and Goblins to storm the lair of the beast?

Exercise 2: City Factions

Again, three factions. This time, let's have two of them share obstacles and two share motivations. I like to have religious, criminal, and magical for my factions. Let's say a cult, an illegal underground fighting ring, and an apothecary shop. Let's have the cult and the fighting ring share a motivation, and the fighting ring and the apothecary shop share an obstacle. Both the cult and the fighting ring want an amulet of healing that was lost in the ruins a day's march north. The cultists cannot enter the ruins because of an ancient dweomer that turns them away from its entrance. The hired fighters can enter the ruins, but it is patrolled by a basilisk, which has also ambushed apprentices of the apothecary as they are gathering the herbs nearby, let's say they're searching for an extremely valuable lotus. Typed out:

• The cult wants an amulet of healing, but cannot enter the ruins it's been lost in; therefore, they are researching a way to dispel the dweomer on the ruins.
• The fighting ring also wants an amulet of healing, but are turned back by the basilisk patrolling its entrance; therefore, they are gathering a band of brave men to run it off.
• The apothecary shop wants a valuable lotus near the ruins, but the apprentices are being turned to stone, therefore they are offering a gold reward for its head.

In these exercises, I've explained them more in-depth before typing them out simply, but in practice it would be the other way around. Generate vague obstacles and motivations, then refine them to something that suits your game.