I've often wondered why so many rpg "modules" still follow the "railroad" style, rather than "sandbox", since apparently so many people say sandbox is what they prefer. I've found that many players suffer from Choice Paralysis, when it comes to sandbox-style play. I guess my preferred GM style would be a sandbox, with many paths to find and follow within. And thanks for sharing the CWN Beta!
Yeah I'm really excited about the book, not just because I'm working on it! I think it's a great system. Free League and Kobold Press have published a couple of things I've seen that are more sandbox but I love the tools here especially.
The sandbox style requires more improv skills from the GM to be fun. If you just plop down different factions and areas, and don't plan on changing any of them, it's way more boring than a railroad where things are happening - even if you don't affect much. That was my problem with a Rogue Trader game I played back in the day. Granted, my group was still learning to do rpgs at the time, but we were given a sandbox and were told to play it in, but the only goals we had were "make money, to upgrade ship and weapons, to make more money". I wanted to do something purposeful, but in the Grim Darkness of the 41st Millennium a small band of adventurers doesn't have the power to affect very much on a grand scale. At least that's what the GM said. The best games are either railroads with different tracks that you can switch to at key times based on the decisions you make, with different possible endings (how the walking dead game should have been), or a sandbox with clear and important goals, with locations that players can make lasting changes to. Both require work, one more improv & the other more storytelling, but it's always for the purpose of making sitting down and playing a game for hours feel like you've accomplished something in that time.
I don't know the game you're running right now for us is pretty sandboxy if you think about it! Lots of different factions that are vying for supremacy and control and shifting borders. I think it definitely does take more prep though than something that's totally on rails with a clear beginning middle and end though. But either could be boring I think, I guess I just prefer to have more agency and feel like my choices matter more. But yeah I think it does require improv, you're right, but it's more fun that way.
