wanna start a sandbox fantasy pathfinder game, how do I drop

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>pathfinder

Ugh

>>54997613
>haha

got me :^)

"Sandbox" is a retroactive grognard fantasy to pretend that their randomly rolled dungeons they made when they were 12 have some sort of integrity that actual campaigns with an actual plot don't.

Also, it's impossible to make one in Pathfinder, since the system breaks in half if you don't have appropriately scaled challenges.

>>54997559

Session zero. Especially in a 'sandbox' game.

That means you sit down with your players before your game and talk about things. Their expectations for the campaign in terms of theme and tone, what elements of the setting they're interested in or their backstories are connected to, as well as figuring out a relationship between the PCs so you can leap right into the action rather than floundering and trying to keep people together.

When you know what your players care about, you can start seeding the world with them, ensuring that no matter where they go, they'll find things to engage with and enjoy.

>>54997667
Huh? We're gonna play a light combat campaign with more roleplaying than fighting. I don't even give a shit if you don't like that its PF, not gonna change my mind.

>>54997693
We've established that we want something with roleplaying freedom since we tried a 40k rpg just about combat and it wasn't fun at all, and they already have some pretty cool character concepts that wouldn't be too hard to pull together.

>>54997559
>sandbox
Just take them to the beach dude

>>54997559
I would take >>54997613 advice and skip out on pathfinder. There's better DND editions and there's other systems than DND.

As for how to start a sandbox campaign, here's my approach. Make session zero semi-linear, in that something happens that either circumstantially forces the players to stick together for the time being, or brings them together as characters. Make them walk into accidentally scamming some major warlord and have to cover each other's backs trying to survive his disdain while doing whatever they like. After that, it's easy. Have the group do whatever they feel like doing, while still having to stick together due to the common enemy/threat. If they later on manage to defeat him, good for them. By then, they're forged together and will willingly work together on whatever goal they set themselves by then.

>>54997559

Pretty sure the DM guide has a bunch of random tables to roll on. Use those.

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>>54997559
I wouldn't do Pathfinder, as others have suggested. Unless you're doing the kingdom building stuff from Ultimate Campaigns or somesuch.

Also make sure you know what they want to be doing, and that you're ready to roll with that.

Nah I'm playing pathfinder, question was about sandbox not mechanics :^)

Or if I shouldn't play PF at least suggest a better system instead of being niggers about it :^)

>>54997559
>wake up at the middle of a crossroads
>each sign seems to lead to somewhere bad
(Mt. Dead Echoes, The Bladecry River, The Burning Plains, Sunlost Forest).
>what do you do?

>>55000437
Pathfinder has one thing going for it.
It has an insane amount of options.
If your players are good and don't mind taking bad options, pathfinder can be loads of fun.
Sadly, it often leads to party imbalance and shit, which is not fun.

>>55000444
now these are the kind of ideas I'm looking for

>>55000459
Obviously its got a lot of problems with the mages and shit, but we're not really playing to fight, and some classes are gonna be better at RP than others, but we've all agreed we want something that lets us do more story instead of fighting. PF has a shit ton of options and stuff already made for it. plus they're mostly newbies so it'll be fine for their first rpg

>>55000480
Pathfinder can be a bit overwhelming when you're a new player. Make sure to help them out with character creation unless all of them like reading a bunch of shit.

A sandbox campaign is more work than a simpler plot driven campaign just to get the same level of engagement. Are you sure you're up to it ?

If your players don't have something giving them direction, they will get bored and blame you for running a boring game. If you're lucky, you will have one or more players who create that direction. If not, that's your problem to deal with. My suggestion: Have a plot planned out. If the players can't pick a direction for themselves, they will follow your plot. So you're basically planning out a non-sandbox campaign.

If they pick their own direction, you'll have to either let them (throwing out most of your prepwork) or show that you were lying when you promised a sandbox campaign.

You also need to understand the motivations of the major NPCs/factions within whatever setting you're using and what they are all up to so that you can quickly figure out how they react to the PCs interference. Since you can't predict what direction the PCs will take, you will be doing this for NPCs/factions that the PCs never interact with.

Do all that and then you are ready for session zero. Before anyone writes anything on their character sheet you need to get everyone to figure out why their character is sticking with the group in the long term. A good in-character reason. Fail to establish good in-character reasons and you've screwed over roleplay before the game has begun because you need the PCs to act out of character just to keep the game running. A plot driven campaign makes this simpler because you just need each PC to have a reason to follow the plot, but you can't do this in a sandbox campaign because you don't have a plot.

Now lets talk about NPC stats. Do you think you'll be able to stat up NPCs on the spot to create an encounter appropriate to the situation the PCs have got themselves into ?

Because you will need to when the PCs go any start a fight you weren't expecting.

>>55000664
>Do you think you'll be able to stat up NPCs on the spot to create an encounter appropriate to the situation the PCs have got themselves into ?

Lets run a quick test for you:
- PCs are in a bar.
- One tries to pickpocket another patron
- The PC got seen.
- Barman doesn't like his customers being robbed. Friends of the person the PC was trying to pickpocket also don't like it.

Time how long it takes you to get them statted well enough that you can get everyone to roll initiative and start the fight. Now ask yourself if your players will be willing to wait that long.

>>55000617
Yea, they're used to playing other complicated table top shit so once I sat down and started explaining how some of the mechanics worked they picked it up pretty fast.

>>55000664
These guys are pretty good at coming up with stories

>>55000664
>>55000692
really not as hard as you're making it seem, just have a few generic stat sheets for towns people, maybe have one or two notable, and swap names and shit. There are applications that generate NPCs. Plus these guys are really strong at taking control of the adventure.

>>54997559
Do something like this:
>have players describe their characters
>tell the player to your left to explain how the group met each other
>tell the next player to describe the last adventure they went on (maybe it was their first adventure together?)
>ask the next player how it went horribly wrong
>how they escaped
Pick it up from there.

>>54997559
Take a quebfrom early Elder Scrolls games. Have them be spies for the king on a mission to "gather information on the people and the political climate" or something along those lines. Something which allows them to do essentially whatever while still being able to tie anything they want to do into a bigger plot if the need arises.

ITT:
>Hey /tg/ how do I do this thing
>You don't
>Pathfinder is bad
>I also think pathfinder is bad

Right, so...

You want to be guided, but not so guided that it ceases to become a sandbox.

The general advice for making a compelling sandbox is to set up a goal that is tangible, but not really something you can do right away.

For instance, in Fallout 1 your goal is to find a Water Chip. You are given directions to a neighbouring vault which might have it, which proves to be a dead end, but in the process you find a town which opens your path to the greater world.

This is especially good because the town you encounter presents an immediate choice: Proceed forward to the vault, or check out this town in hopes of learning more of the world and getting better equiped for what might come ahead.

Anyways, from these first areas, you get mentions of other towns and areas that may help you in your quest for the chip, which sort of slowly daisy chains you to a goal. It's guided enough to be an actual story and not "lets wander the lands aimlessly," but not a linear path either.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter what the water chip is... It's just an excuse to go out and explore and sandbox. You might have the quest be to 'Find the heart of the lich terrorizing these lands,' 'Find the magic item that can grant a wish,' or even 'find the lost princess who has fled somewhere in these lands.' You just need an attainable goal that encourages exploration

A lot of games also try giving you a goal of 'Kill the Demon Lord/Ganon/Whatever.' This could very well work, and does work pretty well in the recent Curse of Strahd, but you have the potential problem of players just outright rushing to the endgame as soon as they begin. If you do that, try to have some barrier to force the players to explore first... Say, the BBEG lives in a floating castle and the players need a way to fly to get to him or need to discover his weakness or some such thing.

>>55003923
Pretty much, worst part is the faggots that said dont do pathfinder didnt even give an alternative

>>55004258
This is kind of what I was thinking. I dont want them to just start the game trying to kill some bbeg just because, but start with small objectives that turn into larger ones that they make.