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Post by the0gekko0state on May 29, 2018 11:28:33 GMT -8
Hello again all.
I am wondering who here has run a West Marshes, Hex Crawl, Sandbox style game?
I am thinking of prepping one, possibly Star Wars, and wanted too see what other people have done. Or even tips and tricks for it. I know it's not for the feint of heart. And some of the styles I mentioned go together but don't at the same time.
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Post by kurtpotts on May 29, 2018 12:09:51 GMT -8
You mentioned West Marshes, so I'm assuming you've already read/watched about that specifically. I would recommend checking out Stars Without Number for the Faction Turn.
As for Prep I was lazy when I did my hex crawl. I had very brief notes, just points of interest, written and then fleshed stuff out as the group drew closer or expressed interest. It was a fantasy island game in Savage Worlds. In fact Tomb of Annihilation came out right as I was finishing it. Probably would have been useful.
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Post by Houndin on May 29, 2018 12:53:37 GMT -8
Stars Without Number is specifically designed as a Sandbox Sci-Fi. It has some really great add-ons too, like sectorswithoutnumber.com/ (Revised Edition compliant) and swn.emichron.com/ , which lets you download the sector for both GM and Party as wiki-style pages, to help you on your way to populating the sandbox with interesting things. Though you may want to also look at White Star too, which is another OSR clone that includes Jedi-like "Star knights" with their "Energy Swords".
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Post by the0gekko0state on May 29, 2018 16:27:58 GMT -8
Thanks guys. I do have the old edition of Stars Without Number. The one from 2010-11, would that still hold up well? Or should I splurge a bit for the revised edition? Both of those websites look really cool! Thanks Houndin
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Post by kurtpotts on May 29, 2018 17:10:50 GMT -8
There is a free version of the revised but I don’t recall if it has the faction turn.
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Post by ericfromnj on May 29, 2018 17:57:48 GMT -8
West Marshes inspired me to do one in basic dnd.
I have to agree with the whole flesh stuff out as they get close. I also used the five room dungeon design as much as possible.
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Post by uselesstriviaman on Jun 5, 2018 10:35:05 GMT -8
I was inspired by the West Marches sandbox style, but my campaign's set in a large city and we don't have the rotating cast of players.
21 sessions in and we're having a ball with it.
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Post by Houndin on Jul 9, 2018 8:54:59 GMT -8
Thanks guys. I do have the old edition of Stars Without Number. The one from 2010-11, would that still hold up well? Or should I splurge a bit for the revised edition? Both of those websites look really cool! Thanks Houndin The original SWN has nothing wrong with it, per se. The new edition is just more streamlined and adds a little. But the splat for 1e is fantastic.
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Post by yojimbohawkins on Jul 25, 2018 7:45:33 GMT -8
So I work for a technology company that, as it turned out, has an unfeasibly large complement of tabletop gamers. We have some nwr forums for gaming, and someone floated the idea of a West Marches-style campaign. I manage an internal tabletop webpage, mostly for discussions or gaming stories, but I put up a page asking if anyone was interested, and the response was, well, enthusiastic. We even had people from parts of the business in other countries wanting to join in!
We decided as a community that we'd use D&D 5E for the system, and as so many people stepped forward to both play & GM, we had to set up a GM's council to try and maintain some sort of organised narrative. The premise is that there is a vast unexplored area bordering the in-game kingdom, which GM's are welcome to fill in with stuff for their adventures, as long as they keep the council updated with what they've done. GM's are similarly welcome to collaborate on adventures and plots, and we have an vague idea of a background storyline for anyone to run with if they wish. Characters are created by the players with specific guidlines, i.e. only officially WotC-published material is acceptable, and characters are subject to GM approval. It was quite cumbersome to start off with, but everyone is pretty gung-ho to get into it, so it's working fairly well. We may have gone too large out of the gate, tbh, but games are happening, so it's all good so far.
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Post by the0gekko0state on Jul 25, 2018 19:24:00 GMT -8
So I work for a technology company that, as it turned out, has an unfeasibly large complement of tabletop gamers. We have some nwr forums for gaming, and someone floated the idea of a West Marches-style campaign. I manage an internal tabletop webpage, mostly for discussions or gaming stories, but I put up a page asking if anyone was interested, and the response was, well, enthusiastic. We even had people from parts of the business in other countries wanting to join in! We decided as a community that we'd use D&D 5E for the system, and as so many people stepped forward to both play & GM, we had to set up a GM's council to try and maintain some sort of organised narrative. The premise is that there is a vast unexplored area bordering the in-game kingdom, which GM's are welcome to fill in with stuff for their adventures, as long as they keep the council updated with what they've done. GM's are similarly welcome to collaborate on adventures and plots, and we have an vague idea of a background storyline for anyone to run with if they wish. Characters are created by the players with specific guidlines, i.e. only officially WotC-published material is acceptable, and characters are subject to GM approval. It was quite cumbersome to start off with, but everyone is pretty gung-ho to get into it, so it's working fairly well. We may have gone too large out of the gate, tbh, but games are happening, so it's all good so far. That just sounds spectacular!!! Please keep us updated!
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Post by askewdragon on Oct 8, 2018 18:58:47 GMT -8
I’m actually in the process of building a West Marches game (first session is in two weeks, wish me luck).
I know for exploration and hex cral, the Alexandian blog has some excellent articles for designing and running such a game.
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Post by askewdragon on Oct 8, 2018 19:04:55 GMT -8
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Post by askewdragon on Oct 8, 2018 19:07:33 GMT -8
West Marshes inspired me to do one in basic dnd. I have to agree with the whole flesh stuff out as they get close. I also used the five room dungeon design as much as possible. Aside from some broad brushstroke work I’ve done, this is basically where I’m at. Also: Huzzah for the five room dungeon design. I’ve used it in several different groups to great effect.
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Post by the0gekko0state on Oct 9, 2018 17:59:31 GMT -8
Thanks Askewdragon! Best of luck on your game. I’ll take a look at the things you’ve linked/ talked about.
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