I can blame it on the pain in the ass it is to write while sitting on a bed in a wooden hut in a shithole country, but the simple truth of the matter is that when you find yourself making more characters for a half-formed sandbox than you do writing patron encounters or other GM material, you have hit a wall.
Wall, meet head. Head, meet wall.
I came up with one sub-sector plotline I am pleased with: The Subsector Governor has been creating, through conquest, an empire of his own. A flagrant violation of Imperial Laws of War, what makes this interesting is that the Third Imperium has done NOTHING. There has been no fallout from the Sector or Imperial administration about this. Needless to say, the subsector has no idea what to do about this. I've got ideas for the whys and wherefores, as well as how the players can get involved. I'd also like them to have the choice to NOT get involved and just have the events play out in the background, with second and third order effects being the ones the character sees.
Other than that, I'm not seeing much in the way of intrasubsector plots.
I've got a whopping three patron encounters written. I set a pretty ambitious goal of 150. Clearly, that is excessive. I'd like to have a good number for the systems that are actually players, tapering off as the interest in the system wanes. I'm actually thinking of getting jiggy with 760 Patrons, 1001 Characters, and a bunch of system names in a hat. Take a patron or a character, the system description, and apply vigorous Referee hammer blows to make it work.
This is kind of a venting post, so if some of you more experienced GMs have any advice for getting over the hump, I'm listening.
A few questions. First, where are you writing from? Sounds a bit grim. Second, do you have a gaming group, and are you planning on running this soon?
ReplyDeleteRob Conley's advice on prepping a sandbox is excellent, but I don't think you must have everything he recommends in place before you start running. I regard it as an ideal goal, not a minimum. In many cases, you only need to be one or two moves ahead of your players to give them the feeling that their choices matter. That's the real nub of sandbox play for me: players' choices affect the game.
As to patron encounters, I think you have plenty of ideas right here. Look at your world write-ups. Make an NPC for each faction. Who is he? What does he want? Why does he want it? How far will he go to get it? Look at Ahmadi. Make up an anarchist leader, his second in command who's willing to sell him out, a few representatives from the competing corps. Make agents for Aaltonen and Mattila. Personalize the factions.
Any of the characters you created could become a patron. Vesna Begovic is an awesome adventure just begging to happen! Pick your most impulsive player. Find out which actress he really likes. Then casually mention that Vesna closely resembles said acctress. What red- blooded hero wouldn't come to her rescue?
Just one more thing: don't be so hard on yourself! Everything you've posted so far is great!
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