What's the attraction in Sandbox roleplays?

[Mirandae]

I cannot seem to wrap my head around the sandbox roleplay concept. I assume that there is some kind of plot, no matter how minuscule, but what's your incentive for continuing after the initial buzz wears off?

Why do you like sandbox roleplays? How do you motivate yourself for them? What are some of your best memories?

[Ether]

Most Sandbox roleplays are inevitably going too be character-driven, because there's little plot to speak of except the backstory, and one that spawns from the player character's own initiative. That said, the appeal of sandbox RPs can be summarized as:

• Exploration of the given setting.
• Interaction between different player characters.
• Character development, which is arguably one of the ultimate goals there is in a sandbox RP.

Being character-driven, it's terribly important for sandbox PCs to be more fleshed out. They generally have long backstories and thorough, deep personalities. While a story-driven fantasy RP will have you pondering which skillset is the best for your odds of being awesome, a character-driven cyberpunk RP will have you thinking more on what motivates your character, what caused them to think and see the world like they do, and (perhaps most excitingly) the various possibilities they can develop into; basically making your character 'fun' to interact with. This is the backbone of a sandbox RP, and the reason why such RPs filled with tragic broody loner characters die faster than you can say 'Fonz'.

Still, I found one aspect often neglected in sandbox RPs: A stopping point. Odd as it may seem, the maturation of your character's personality provides a degree of closure, but not enough to conclude the RP from a collaborative writing standpoint. 'Graduation' is the logical stopping point for sandbox school RPs, a conclusion most never saw. 'Start of the War' is the stopping point of an old fantasy military base sandbox RP I was part of in the oldguild (the fates of the characters left ambiguous).

When you look back through the various conversations, swordfights, and interactions that made your character way more than what they were when you first posted their character sheets, you know that the sandbox RP you participated in was worth it.

[Dinh AaronMk]

A sort of freedom or ability to organically involve one's self in a plot or the inevitable plot of the RP as a whole. Or if not that: not partaking directly in the plot as a whole.

Precipice of War for is and has always been a sandbox NRP for the four/five years it's been active. Through that time the longest-ran nations have managed to organically assume their positions in the world and from that arrange the currently growing centralized plot as organically as possible. There's no force involved with breaking any sort of national or regime character, since by now everyone has arranged themselves in such a way that no one's scrambling to find some mundane reason to go to the war that we've been at the precipice of for all these years, and for two decades of lore time.

[Keyguyperson]

A sort of freedom or ability to organically involve one's self in a plot or the inevitable plot of the RP as a whole. Or if not that: not partaking directly in the plot as a whole.

Precipice of War for is and has always been a sandbox NRP for the four/five years it's been active. Through that time the longest-ran nations have managed to organically assume their positions in the world and from that arrange the currently growing centralized plot as organically as possible. There's no force involved with breaking any sort of national or regime character, since by now everyone has arranged themselves in such a way that no one's scrambling to find some mundane reason to go to the war that we've been at the precipice of for all these years, and for two decades of lore time.

@Dinh AaronMk

Have you, like, vowed to spread the good word of Precipice to all that may listen?

[null123]

<Snipped quote by Dinh AaronMk>

Have you, like, vowed to spread the good word of Precipice to all that may listen?

@Keyguyperson

Pretty much.

[Vilageidiotx]

<Snipped quote by Dinh AaronMk>

Have you, like, vowed to spread the good word of Precipice to all that may listen?

@Keyguyperson

Eh, for several of us that is our main RP, so we sort of compare everything to it.

I mean, this is the Roleplayers Guild, you sort of expect us to talk about our Roleplays a little bit.

[Dinh AaronMk]

@Keyguyperson@duck55223

<Snipped quote by Keyguyperson>

Eh, for several of us that is our main RP, so we sort of compare everything to it.

I mean, this is the Roleplayers Guild, you sort of expect us to talk about our Roleplays a little bit.

@Vilageidiotx

Pretty much this.

I can understand it might sound rude. But you know, this is RP Discussion. It would go without saying that we can call upon any example of an RP - dead or alive - as a part of discussion.

[Nilesapa]

Well some people like world building with a small side of story. Sandbox RPs allow for people to put more things together than in a non-sandbox RP since every app adds to the setting, making it like collective world building.

Issue is world building when overdone can rapidly become a disease of the creative mind. World building all the time is extremely dangerous and I know this because I suffer from this I llness. I have six months of documents about galactic history, astronomy and cosmology, worlds, alien civilizations and technologies yet barely any stories.

I recently just made it all nebulous and scrapped anything galactic history related because it sucks all the intrigue of a universe to know all that history. It also sucks the excitement out of a fictional setting by spoiling all the mystery than wonder why everything got so stale.

So I start from scratch again.

I need help.

Immediately.

All in all world building may be overdone at times, but with Roleplaying it is nessecary simply to keep everyone on the same page in terms of what the GM's setting is like. However what is good world building balance is something I have no real clue since it seems I kept making settings that are overengineered and I've also seen some quite overengineered application sheets in a space RP I've been in.

Perhaps a good share of other NRPs people who will go spend 6K words writing their app and making lists and stats of all their tech. This may be why NRPs tend to start so slow and die in the crib since once everyone is done making their nations they get creative block the second the word "character development" comes up. This issue doesn't affect some, but I've seen it happen before when people just start inexplicably vanishing the day IC starts despite making a massive app sheet the size of a novella only to do nothing with it.

But the tangent in world building aside, the general appeal I have is I really don't know. I just ended up on sandbox RPs more since they're less predictable and there's more mashing of minds than in some other less sandbox oriented RPs. Or that's what I tell myself to keep playing them. I don't know what went wrong.

[Dinh AaronMk]

Perhaps a good share of other NRPs people who will go spend 6K words writing their app and making lists and stats of all their tech. This may be why NRPs tend to start so slow and die in the crib since once everyone is done making their nations they get creative block the second the word "character development" comes up. This issue doesn't affect some, but I've seen it happen before when people just start inexplicably vanishing the day IC starts despite making a massive app sheet the size of a novella only to do nothing with it.

@Nilesapa

Not to mention the OOC on top of OOC establishing each other among the group before the first IC post is laid out. Though this may come into the same boat, but I've watched it happen all too often.

It's fine and all to try and orient yourselves like that. But ideally I think that should be handled organically in IC by the writer's own ways as opposed to going on for months and months about who-knows-who, what-is-what, and who has a relationship with who. It starts things off artificially and with any source of conflict neatly patted out early.

[NuttsnBolts]

Why is Minecraft popular?

It's because people have a large amount of freedom and feel that they can do as much as they want with little restriction, both on personal character development and your creativity in the world.

[Dedonus]

I would like to talk about the issue of the lack of an ending in sandbox roleplays, as @Ether mentioned. I could see the concern that a roleplay without an end point could make things fizzle out due to there not being an end in sight.

One solution I have seen elsewhere is to break up the roleplay into "seasons". These chunks allow players to wrap up whatever they are doing so that there would be some sense of closure until the next "season" starts back up again. Also, one other thing that help makes this work is that eventually there will be an overarching story arc that the GM/co-GMs cooked up. While not everyone is required to partake in the event, the event helps tie everything together at the end.

[Vilageidiotx]

I would like to talk about the issue of the lack of an ending in sandbox roleplays, as @Ether mentioned. I could see the concern that a roleplay without an end point could make things fizzle out due to there not being an end in sight.

One solution I have seen elsewhere is to break up the roleplay into "seasons". These chunks allow players to wrap up whatever they are doing so that there would be some sense of closure until the next "season" starts back up again. Also, one other thing that help makes this work is that eventually there will be an overarching story arc that the GM/co-GMs cooked up. While not everyone is required to partake in the event, the event helps tie everything together at the end.

@Dedonus

This is going to depend on styles though. For me, something the GM cooks up that isn't through their character/faction will inevitable feel artificial and unnatural. I think which you prefer is going to depend entirely on your personality.

If a sandbox RP lives long enough, it will develop a story, but the story will grow out of cooperation and unpredictable sparks of creation rather than pre-planning.

[Dedonus]

@Vilageidiotx: Obviously it will not work for every roleplay, but the superhero genre (the sandbox roleplays that I have and still am participating in) can usually accomendate for this type of storytelling. Eventually, someone's villain will become a threat greater than only on ehero can handle. The JLA, the Avengers, or an equivalence to these teams will eventually form to face the threat. Heck, it does not necessarily have to involve uniting a team of heroes (things like Ultimatum - not the greatest comic but a good example: a "game wide" event that affects everyone but has originated from one of the player's rogue gallery).

[Mirandae]

What would be a good balance between story and sandbox? Those 'seasons' sound like a good option, but is there another?

[Dedonus]

I think a good balance of solo writing and interacting with the other characters helps out too. Get other players involved in your story arc would be an example of the latter. However, one thing I like to do is to have at least one character doing a solo arc at any time so that if you are waiting on a response, you can be working on the solo post in the meantime.

[AlteredTundra]

If I may chime in.

Whenever I think of Sandbox Roleplays, I think of The Elder Scroll video games or Game of Thrones. Both have a large, fantasy setting that allows for multiple groups of characters to have their own story arcs at the same time without conflict. There is minimal amounts at best. Or at least that's what I'm led to believe.

As for the attraction, I believe it's only for people who don't want the limited crawlspace of a set plot. I, myself, am part of that group of people who, while can go for a set plot game, also like that feeling of creative freedom that sandbox games allow. You can do your own thing and don't have to worry about anyone turning it down or say "oh, instead of that, let's do this."

Of course, there are instances that this can totally backfire on someone. Case and point: what@Nilesapa said about too much world-building and how it could be a terrible illness for us creative folk.

This is why I believe at least a minimal plot should be enforced. If not an organization, then maybe some monster or impending doom within the rp's universe coming. No one would know what it looks like or when it will come, but they still will have to face it at the end of the day. For example, in a DC sandbox game, something like Vandal Savage joining up with some all-powerful being or whatever you have it. Just something that every character, no matter where within the set universe or planet, at least senses is coming in the near or distant future and all must band together to fight the great evil.

[The Harbinger of Ferocity]

Provided the Game Master in question implements and weaves plot here and there, not making the players the center of a story and letting them decide their own fate by their deeds and misdeeds alike, the concept of being part of some "larger world" feels far more credible in a sandbox style game. You have to develop your own motives, typically; fate (or the Game Master) isn't taking you by the hand and leading you to the waters of the story.

Things will, or will not transpire with and without you as a player.

I tend toward this approach because characters are forced to evolve and involve themselves, and many do with time. They might wander here and there, lost for a while, but they'll come to find something that motivates them, if they lacked it initially (as many oft do). Sometimes by the time they do, things are too late and the darkness has encroached - the fight is more uphill than ever, but such is the nature of reality. One's actions, or inaction, can come with great opportunity cost and detriment.

In many ways, a sandbox story is much more akin to reality... which is what I try to bend my settings to; to operate in their own realities, even if that perception of reality isn't a direct parallel to our own; of course a fantasy world's "reality" would differ from ours, as example.

While the players may or may not be the heroes, the rest of the world will keep going on with or without them. It is just they have a greater opportunity than most to shape it. That's the admirable attraction to it, or so I believe; you, by virtue of your deeds or lack there of, can be the crux of a major plot that wasn't solely focused on you.