Getting Off the Train

We were in our local hobby shop the other day, and had a discussion with a fellow game-master about the Pathfinder adventure path The Jade Regent. The GM mentioned he didn't like the adventure, since the story required the PCs to travel with a convoy of NPCs to the farthest reaches north, cross the arctic, and save the princess. The players did not like the NPCs, balked at getting on the convoy, and just wanted to run off and do something else.

Roleplaying is strange like that, players can up and decide to go east when the path leads west, decide the plot of the movie isn't for them, and frequently revel in the chance to take the railroad off road. Pathfinder's adventure paths are kind of like mini-movies, and you think by agreeing to play one, players would suspend their free spirits for a while, and play through and see what happens. We didn't really delve too deeply into the circumstances, and the GM could have been using the adventure as his weekly session, so there are a couple unknowns there, to be honest.

We wrote SBRPG with the spirit of player freedom as one of the central concepts in the game. We explicitly say that GMs should not write adventures, period. All interaction in the game's sandbox should be through the game's internal faction system, and players should get out there and makes things happen. It is a different take from most games, in that SBRPG requires players to be active participants in the world, with only minimal plot decisions being made by the referee. The referee can set the stage, like having the crying dame setup the next mystery for the private eye to solve, but beyond that point, the players should drive the action.

It requires strong improvisational skills from the referee, the ability to track plots, and quickly come up with 'what's next?' The referee can set the stage for the next part, such as the car chase by the bad guys trying to silence the gumshoe, the frantic call by the lady in red saying someone is following her, and the big reveal by the bad guy and mad scientist attempting to escape in the building-top zeppelin. 'What's next' can be mini-scenarios, story parts, and anything in the dramatic book that advances the plot (or not, it depends). Getting to these points is up to the players, and they need to be active participants in the story.

It is different than your traditional dungeon experience, where players can only go where the tunnel leads next, or an event-based story where players proceed from one prepackaged situation to the next. The closest analogy for SBRPG's gameplay is to the Grand Theft Auto games, where the player is the motivator, and the sandbox provides endless opportunities for danger, involvement, natural hazards, monsters, NPC interaction, and fun activities. The price players must pay is adopting the 'go out there and do something' play style, and the GM determines 'what's next.'