The Joys of Sandboxing

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So the idea what simple: a zombie invasion of a city powered by the Vornheim supplement. Today I had four hours for players to be in my sandbox.

There are no specific goals, but a number of options and ways the players could effect things if they chose to and played well. Several escape opportunities. And of course there is always DOOM! I was prepared for a few likely options: a drawn out survival scenario, an investigation into the nature of the undead and even delving into the bowels of a giant.

They went with option D, which was to look to Thor’s cathedral for answers. I had to make up the details for the endgame, which needed some sort of challenge and mystery but which had to play out in about 20 minutes or so. I was lucky that circumstances made it possible to present a mystery ending and leave the party to an uncertain fate in a city clearly burning to ashes.

Luckily, I had quality players who, if they didn’t get on the same page regarding goals, at least were not fools. They soon got the LotFP is a game where combat is to be avoided when not necessary. Some would clearly have wanted to fight more, but in the end, a four hour minicon game is not going to give everyone what they want. At least, not until I am a much better GM.

I’m going to release some of the monsters and set pieces here on the blog over the next week and get things going. In going back and rereading old pieces, I felt proud of a few of them and remembered how much this blog stretches my imagination, muck like GMing ‘on the fly’ did today.