How to Sandbox in D&D (Without Hating Yourself) 

Back The Shrike sandbox campaign setting here! www.kickstarter.com/projects/joello/the-shrike-0?ref=awlpw0 Yes, all kazoo pieces were performed by yours truly.

There’s something equally validating and frustrating about hearing valuable advice from a source I respect, and realizing I’m already doing it for my game. Good video

There are two kinds of Sandbox DMs: the "All of this is snippets of 600 different IPs stitched together" and the "I have improved everything in the last 60 sessions and the players think that I have notes"

I still can't get over the "It's just a game, enjoy it however you want" joke, it's just so good. Because it's true, a very valid advice otherwise, but the inherent frustration from seeing people make mistakes that could be prevented easily, it's very real as well 🤣

"Graduating as a stealth archer archmage" killed me on the spot, I feel so called out XD

I’ve been replaying elden ring and I walked into the first micro crypt and had a brain blast. Killed all the enemies and grabbed some graph paper and room by room just YOINKED that 5-10 room dungeon. Add some dnd monsters, sprinkle in some quest hooks, add some treasure and WAMMO. Sandbox dungeon free of charge in only 20min of prep

The best way I have found to run sandbox is to start players at an adventure site for the first session, ask them to select from a choice if you'd like. At the end of the session and each subsequent session you ask what they plan on doing next time, then prepare that content. Create factions with goals. Rumours received in towns are a vital way to inform players, give them a choice and show the impact of their choices.

If your editor left, you would still have all that random stuff that you throw around. We’d just have to watch you clean it up every time.

I dont remember where I got it from but one piece of advice that stuck for me as a DM is; "Create some factions in your world, then give each faction some goals. Once they have goals you see how you can make those intersect with each other and cause conflict in the world." Once you have some factions you naturally give them areas of influence (aka where do they live and where do they want to go) and you plonk your players into a roughly "neutral" area. In my experience, players will over time start to align with some faction goals creating natural story hooks and reasons for other factions to take interest in the players. A bit into the campaign and the players start to become their own faction in the world and the story naturally evolves from there.

The Neverwinter Campaign Setting from 4e dnd is the best template for a sandbox game I've ever encountered. Running that game was effortless. Nearly no prep required, and the players could go anywhere and I'd have something for them to do. And all based on a single city, blooming with variety. Anyone looking to design their own should definitely give it a look.

Improv skills is one of the most useful tools a DM can have and sandbox campaigns flex that skill the most. It's probably the best type of campaign to improve that skill. Just remember that having at least a vague world direction with some factions is a good idea, because it gives you a prompt for improvisation when there is none. It's good to have a Mordor that is raising an army and elves calling a council somewhere in your world, even if the players aren't interacting with it. It gives you some paint for your brushes.

I’ve been DMing for years now, and been currently running a campaign for 2 years. We somehow meet up every saturday, that’s the most magical thing of this campaign lol. I run my campign just like this, and one day one of my party members asked how i do it cause he wants to dm someday. I didnt know how to explain my process, but your video on this is so perfect! Thank you!

My favorite events to add in “random” encounters is to add something from a character’s backstory every now. It gives some structure and progression to their own respective quests while still having the liberty to venture out and discover the world around them.

I’ve learned so much more from your dnd videos than I have from any other resource because your videos also feel like practical tips I can actually use instead of abstract ideas of what ideal dnd should be. Plus, I love your style of content and humor

DF you are making me HARD with thiiiiiiis. I love making those type of campaigns but I can't wait to use your wise words to improve

Every video is a freaking masterpiece. By far one of the best D&D DM assistance channels out there! I’m my group’s forever DM and every single video you post I leave with like stacks of notes for my next session! Thanks for the stellar content 🎉

Your videos are so great. 😊 I’ve been DMing for over 3 decades & I still find myself being inspired by your content as though I were a tiny nekkid newbie DM. 👑⚔️💀

Something from Trekos to spice up the encounters between the points of interest: In addition to the monsters, roll up a *objective* "Treasure. They got some treasure, you can swoop in and get it or take the chance to leave" "Aftermath. They are all dead! Who coulda done this" "Hostage. Looks like they have a hostage."

I can't believe your channel doesn't have more subscribers. Absolutely wonderful presentation, humor, and practical advice. I've been a DM for over 40 years, and I enjoy everything I've seen from you. BRAVO!

Was feeling super brunt out DMing but have been taking your advice to heart. It's helped immensely and I can tell my players are having a better time too! Thanks Deficient!

I don't think any explanation I could write could do justice to how incredibly eye-opening/helpful these videos have been. This one in particular completely changed my table/my prep/my approach and we're having infinitely more fun because of it.

I can't express how true the "make your starting town boring" advice is. I've ran like 3 games where I felt the need to really flesh out my starting town, and every time I do the players take 2-3 sessions to leave. It always kills the pace.

I actually bought the peeples you suggested in another video (not sponsored lol) and they really are a game changer for encounters, especially improved ones, we even use one of each colour to track the initiative on the side of the game mat. Thanks for all your slick ideas!

You are the BEST RPG content creator on RU-vid, man. Can’t wait to see how far you go.

You have inspired me to create a sandbox based on only TLC shows.

Little known fact: DM is a subclass of Rogue.

In my games, Tortle warlocks are not only not banned, but they're the *only* playable race/class combination.

It’s great to see that I’m not the only one who thinks of “sandbox” in this way. I’m currently running a sandbox game that started all the players in an eastern village where they lived as guards. Based on the Druid’s subclass and backstory, I set up a “call to action” scenario back in his home village on the far eastern coast, where they played through his story arc and finished there at lv 5 and with a newly “acquired” pirate ship. I then set up a city near the western part of the continent, where the Druid would find answers about his powers, and the Barbarian would pick up a clue about his backstory to follow later. In between all these, were random encounters in the form of battles, towns/villages and landmarks that might yield future story elements later. All of these were totally random, and generated from the PCs story lines. And while I do have an overarching plot developing in the world, it won’t concern them until it naturally does. Everything feels pretty organic, and even I’m surprised at how each story beat unfolds. And to think all of it started with a single village and a handful of POIs.

Excited for the new video! I wish I could find players available at the same time. Your channel makes me want to try DMing again.

I am obsessed with that Minecraft edit at 1:10. Thanks for the wonderful video as always!

I feel like the editing of your videos becomes better and better every time you post. Great content as always, except for the fact that I now really want to impulse buy 20 different resource modules I do not have the money to acquire... :)

You are my new favorite dnd content creator. Started looking into DMing as I FINALLY agreed to be a DM for three friends who’ve never played… oh boy. I will never feel ready but your guides are super enjoyable and insightful.

I specialize in running Sandbox, Single Player games. The fun part is that it actually gets easier the longer you go because after a certain point, the story and the adventure basically writes themselves and you can just sit back, relax and provide the necessary rules, stats and mechanics as you watch the player's actions fold in on themselves. The HARD part though is setting up the world to make it happen. One of the worst and most unorthodox thing I did (And I recommend you DO NOT do it) is what my player described as a "Here's a City; go find adventure" start. My adventure began with "You have arrived in the city. What do you do." Do not do this because this basically gives the player nothing to latch on to and no intuitive way to do things in this world you made up. I got lucky as shit when my player decided to ask me questions and run around the city until they stumbled on a quest. The part about setting up the world such that it does snowball with the Player's actions that worked for me was that I had a list of "Main Events". Each of these can be used as the basic skeleton of a campaign by themselves. I did not write out the various steps or quests that make up these "Events", like you might want to if you were to run a normal non-sandbox campaign. Instead, the only thing I did was prepare the answers to "Why is it in summery?", "What do the people involved want?" and "How are they trying to achieve it?" Then I prepared the very first mini-quest for each of them. The player doesn't necessarily need to go on the first quest of any of it. These things are just there to provide a context of what is going on in the world with or without the player and once the player starts their adventure, these things will simply influence the type of things the player might encounter and the type of outcome it might have. For example, the very first thing my player did was go to the tavern to try and take up mercenary jobs. They got one. Found an NPC captive at the dungeon. Rescued them and then that eventually led them to where they are now as they interacted with the NPC's story and goals. A lot of times, the events of the next part of the adventure where created simply due to asking, "What consequences does this action that the player took have?" And that is how the game kept going.

This is easily your best vid yet, and a vid I’ve really been waiting for. Good shit!

This man is a genius, comedically and otherwise.

Dude. I just discovered your channel today, and I just binge watched all of your videos. The editing is soon good! And you've made me laugh out loud at least once per video.

I've ran a story focused sandbox campaign for two different groups for a combined 7 years now in the last 4 years, and I can say these are some good tips. Start small, and expand outwards. I did have my full world map already before revealing it to the players, but setting limitations at the beginning definitely helps. I didn't make my starting town the most boring though, I made it the jewel of the continent, just to chase the players away from it to leave them yearning for more. There are different styles to make sandboxes work, but as long as there's always something to discover the world will feel real.

Bro, I love the shade you throw xD Keep up the great work! (Not just the shade, also the content itself, your videos are some of my favorite)

I've watched a lot of Dungeon Master wisdom videos and this was among the very best. I love this channel and I sincerely appreciate your effort in sharing tips, tactics, and philosophy for being a great DM. Much respect!

Seriously, anyone sleeping on this content is missing out! Ive heard so much cut and paste "DM advice" that misses the mark. Its refreshing to hear something genuinely useful and and relatable! Looking forward to future content 😁

Ah yes, Elden Ring, the Spanish game about Den Ring

I just discover your channel some days ago. After 20 years being a GM finally i found the perfect creator, with my same mentality (at least with rpgs). Dungeoncraft and Questing Beast are almost there, but you have everything!

Totally forgot about my random tables and using one note, back to rewriting everything again

The Marine Corps Hymn on kazoo really hit the spot

Love this idea, I've been working on my sandbox. The Castlevania show has been a source of NPCs for me. Isaac the Forgemaster is gonna be in there for sure.

A video so good I have to take notes to keep track of all the great points you've made. You're on fire, DM. Keep at it. (And thank you!)

Love this video. You simplify the creative process so well for me and it’s seriously inspired me to DM again thank you!!!

I loved the video, I especially loved the little nudge to the "Character Builds Suck" video 12:10 . The only thing I missed was the mandatory Ginny Di joke reference that you make in (I think) every video.

I was NOT expecting caves of qud, or space engineers fun music in this video, good work!!😊

Just signed up to your Ko-fi for monthly support! Keep up the great work DM! I love the exploration video. It's such a hard pillar of the game to do right.

I love that sniper girl reference at the end hahah The epitome of reusers

I solved my sandbox prep issues with objective based xp system. Players think of goals, thus giving a direction to the campaign while I just play the world. It's awesome.

This is the first time I have found your channel. Usually I give a new channel (particularly in D&DTube) a few videos before I subscribe but you got me with that OGL joke.

I really appreciate all you do... l am trying to get started in Dming again and all of your content has been the most helpful information l have found anywhere.

Gawdayyum this is brilliantly explained! May your Subscriber count continue to climb to inspiring heights.

Litterally just about to start my first sandbox and senpai Deficient Master makes a video on it OwO. Keep up the great work boss!

Battle brothers has a interesting idea of late game "calamities" sweeping the land, basically giving a timer to the sandbox experience, and ramping the difficulty as time progresses. undead army, orkish invasion, Plague. an overarching threat COULD help give structure to the campaign. Maybe a Quest for holy X?

This is literally what i was searching for and i felt so identified, this is peak dnd content, thx :)

Amazing content, as per usual. This has really given me that shot in the arm of confidence to do some building (I.E. stealing) to go make a sandbox game. One additional piece of advice I'll add is that constraining the players isn't making your game any less of a sandbox. Putting jobs on a board seems hokey, but it's a great way to plants flags on what content is ready to be explored. They still get to choose their route, how they approach the situation, and whether or not they want to have the first crack at looting the place before anyone else. Having the local militia post a request for scouting information on Dungeon A will get the players to location by putting a clear incentive right under their noses. Eventually with enough areas explored, the players will start developing their own goals and maybe even look to have other complete jobs for them. Just wait for the reaction when a player puts up a job on the board and two sessions later someone comes looking for gold pieces because they got it done -- now they have rivals!

11:48 dont think i didnt catch that small botw snippet ! 😂great video

Congrats on 20k my man🎉

I created a fortress cut into the cliffside of a snowy mountain, think high hrothgar from Skyrim, call it the glacial sepulcher, gave it three pseudolitches that usurped the ritual for lichdom from their master and spread the immortality amongst themselves, and made it like they were creating an undead army in there. I basically made the path up to the fortress, and the fortress itself. My players decided to scale the other face of the mountain and use feather falling to parachute trooper from The mountain peak above the fortress. So I made an entire new section of this mountain for them to charge through and have it encounter on and even a brand new NPC to give them foreboding information about the sepulcher below. So this was a section of my game that wasn't created by me but rather from the ingenuity of my players, I just rolled with it and even gave them some frozen bodies as a hint to the white dragon that's around.

Great channel. I like how you combine some old school sensibilities into 5e with practical tips. Namedropping the tools featured in the video (like Hex Kit) would propably be a good idea. Also another small constructive criticism/personal preference is that you could tone down the hectic editing. Overall, good stuff and one of the best new channels I've come across!

What a timely video! I’ve been preparing a follow up adventure after we finished the starting module. I think I’m prepping a sandbox with several hooks to different locations and situations may be connected or indirectly influenced. I basically steal what Matt Coville talked about in his video and Dragon of Icespire Peak.

Really glad I started dming as you have started this campaign.

I appreciate the Legends and Lattes reference.

My takeaway from this is I need to go buy a pile of uncooked noodles

Amazing video format and comedy, so underrated!

You have become my favorite, your style is good and you present it well. It also helps me to feel a sort of... not alone... feeling. You sound like you have burnt out and recovered at least six times!

Whose line is anyway? A man of class.

Oh shit. I may be doing something right! I lend from my favorite themes often, as I know the essence of those things so well that I can communicate it with ease, especially to others who appreciate the themes I am rehashing. I do some homebrew to each theme kind of like a mod patch on the original code and have had really good responses so far. Also your description of the caves of Qud feels like my homebrew map. I dont have time or mental energy to design entire geographic masterpieces so I just popped some points of interest here and there, seed their existence into the rumors, lore etc and let the party decide what they like to do. Random encounter and places of interest have popped up from rolls and from the results of player choices and we find the world to feel rich despite the small amount of permanent elements that actually exist in it. Great advice and some of the more nuanced tips here will be helpful to inprove my games. Thanks again for the top notch content!!

You make incredible content bro, only a matter of time before you explode in popularity!

This guy give off Starscream vibes at times.

Thank you for making this, I was planning on making a sandbox soon and this is useful! I can actually start planning and stop procrastinating😅

Excellent video and advice. Spot on!

I have discovered your channel and seen all your videos in one day, I crave more content

Hey man I have been watching for the past 7 or so videos and I just want to say that you are doing a great job. These have been helpful and hilarious at the same time and can't wait for what you do next. Keep up the good work! Also I was wondering you have been talking a lot about these Shrodingers Scenarios and do you have a public version of them that other people can use in there own games?

I really needed this today! thanks.

From this 13 minute video I have deduced all there is to know about you and have unequivocally concluded that your fun is bad. Have a nice day.

I actually cooked up a starting location earlier today for another video on this topic: Village, 12 + 2d6 houses, a stable next to a pub, a temple, a general store, a simple blacksmith, and some fields. No sewers, no jail, no town watchmen nor walls and gates. Just a farming village where simple folk live. There isn't a full tavern, nor an inn with rooms, but we can find a place for you to bed down for the night. News? Been almost a fortnight since a trader came through with any, but… Strange folk have been seen that way, the town that way has a small garrison where … rumors exist, and off that way there's a thing locals know rumors about, but you'd have to be desperate or foolish to go there yourself. What do I know about those places? Nothing. Yet. Players haven't been there. And for session one, I plan to bring something here to them… Probably not related to those other places, but I guess we'll find out.

I always get excited to see a new Deficient Master video, but I genuinely yelped when I saw Labyrinth: The Adventure Game mentioned. I literally just purchased the book a few weeks back with the intention of running a Jim Henson's Labyrinth-themed campaign and adapting the content for my 5e players, and after just one session they are having a blast so far! Definitely a great place to pull stuff from for your Schrodinger's Scenarios, take it from this internet stranger! 😎👍

I greatly enjoyed Vaults of Vaarn by Leo Hunt, lots of tools/techniques for quickly prepping a region for your sandbox. The setting is also largely inspired by Caves of Qud!

I sadly don't have the ability to donate but I will always leave some positive interaction to try and please the almighty though fickle algorithm. Your content is a blast and highly appreciated, and I am particularly a fan of the fact that to date all of your advice is effectively system neutral allowing anyone in the ttrpg community to learn from what you've chosen to compile and share. Your advice comes from genuine experience and personal philosophy on running the game, and you frequently fairly credit other inspirations that have helped you and allow those who watch to continue their own journeys without being bound solely to content you provide which is a welcome thing to see. I hope for there to be many more and I hope my own prospects improve enough that I may have the chance to help aid the journey you're helping everyone through.

Me gustan mucho tus vídeos y te informo que muchas de tus ideas y consejos se están implementando en mesas de juego en Europa y Mexico. Saludos, eres grandioso

Another hit!!! Was just planning a sandbox!!

Oh wow, I've been obsessed with Caves of Qud this last week or so!

I was thinking One Page right before you said it!

I dig your style dude. Your advice is solid too. Would love to see you take an in-depth dive into your Shrodinger Scenarios: what you look for to steal, how you generate your own some examples. You touch on it here, and I can easily extrapolate what I need, but I would enjoy seeing you take us deeper into that aspect of your game. Even a system for collecting, creating or organizing them would be awesome.

Nice. Marine Corps Hymn during the invasion. Almost fell out of my chair jumping up to stand at attention. Sounds like we attended the same GMs School. I recycle everything. Great video! Thanks!

So I like your idea, I took the beginners' set and the essential's set and some cheese made it really really small and put them in a blender with GLITTER!!

Wyrd and Wild, and the Monster Overhaul are MUST HAVES, cant recommend enough

I jokingly said the first thing to do when making a map is throw an unreasonably large sword into the ground. And then the Shrike bit started.

It was too short we want more!!! Once again great advice and I agree that we need to steal more things from video games, watching the GDC post-mortems helps a lot on such topics.

The amount of nerd bling in these videos is always so captivating. I see that D30 Companion hexcrawl worksheet

Great advice. What’s the software you use in 10:12 ?? Looks like a great tool

From this day forth, I will argue with anyone who will listen that Chult was, in fact, designed by dropping a large handful of uncooked penne on a whiteboard and tracing around it.

Some good advice here for sure, thanks for sharing :)

Thanks for the QuarterShots cameo! I love Black Wyrm too.

Thanks for the video!

I just wanted to say: a very old campaign I was a character in had some interesting herbs that were discovered in a druidic circle outside of town. The characters felt very passionate about how these herbs tasted and made them feel. As it turns out, the herbs quickly became a secret ingredient in the most popular bread in town. Which was about to become a franchise, about the time a rival (larger) bakery shop owner and his crew showed up. I wish that one had kept going... Also, if any kids out there are reading this, don't do drugs.