Tackling a Sandbox Campaign in a New Setting! 

Love it! I’m starting my own sandbox campaign soon and I’m definitely using your skill check for truths about the world. Something like Ironsworn’s oracle system might help spur inspiration when you or your players get stuck. I’ve found it super helpful, and it’s free!

Linear adventures are not railroading. Railroading has nothing to do with the material prepared. Railroading is making the players frequently solve challenges only one way (your way). Nothing else is railroading. Players often complain that anything that takes away player agency is railroading. It's not, it's called making rulings and prepping. Sandbox games can feel pointless with no end goal. Make sure you have enough direction and world impact that the players feel like the things they are doing actually matter rather than pointless wandering.

Can I join?

It's fantasy Australia! Check out Dael Kingsmill's recent video about utilizing Australia as an inspiration for a campaign setting.

7 players is insane to me, especially in 5e. The game is already so slow. I would never run more than 5 in most games. Good luck friend!

I think it is a neat way to get the players to mislead their own characters so it isn't a DM v player conflict.

I have a question are you going to be streaming or uploading this campaign?

Can I come over and play?

really inspiring ideas being presented here, has me thinking about how i could implement it in my own sandbox game!

I love the social encounter concept.

7 players is easy. Easier than 3, that's for sure. 8-12 is the sweet spot for a group in my experience. The game can get very hard when there is less than 6.

Have a look at Microscope for building a campaign setting. I know this is an older video but it is similar to your method but maybe more involved.

Eberron is one of my favorite fantasy worlds. I just love it!!

In my sandbox campaigns I write several quests out and give them to my players to choose. I may or may not make them walk it via established roads or via backroads. There are discovered plundered dungeons but mostly unknown off the roads. Very few cities throughout the continental however the continent has been mapped from the sea. It works great for my groups.

Not a big fan of the tell me then roll idea for a permanent thing, but I do like it from time to time.

So many great ideas! Thanks!

Best of luck on this methodology. Did you already do this session Zero? Are you starting these characters at level 1? Are you going to do an Intermission (basically a re-session-zero) at level 4 so you can do some steering? @4:00 OoooH- So Cartographer's Tools get a use? Excellent! @6:00 Setting Rouletts. Good luck. I fear someone would be as incongruous as possible. You know that Cyberpunk, person is going to show up! @8:30 No mechanical restrictions on what you can play? So Echo Knights? Twilight and Peace Domains? Chronurgy Wizards? @10:00 So if a player doesn't show up they are put in a closet and then rejoin out of noware? This is the only one I really want an answer to.

Please do periodic updates on this! I have watched this video several times already. This is one will be on my replay list. I just found your channel. This video prompted my sub. Time to look through your back catalog.

Well... the Exploration pillar is not just the 'travel to point A to point B', exploration also includes investigating a room, evading traps, traveling inside a dungeon. Whenever the party is not straight fighting or interacting with NPCs but they are interacting with environment, thats the exploration pillar, is actually the more used one of the 3 Also, i did a sandbox of fallout+dnd5e (westmarches style, beign part of a company/vault) and the map was Australia, i mean, they already have the 'everything tries to kill you' theme, so... 😅😅😅😅 now is a little less dangerous, but with nuclear radiation

I ran a Sandbix game and it was the best game ever!!! They were in a hunter's village and each day, they could form groups with or without NPCs and go hunt. While Hunting, there was Random Encounters and some encounters were a Den. They could cross a Troll, a Horse, a Bird, 2 Dwarves, etc. And when it was a creature, there was 10% chance it was in their lair...There, they would then roll oin the Treasure Horde Table from the DM's guide! And when I rolled enough Random Encounters, like two or three times Ogres or Kobold...Rumors would come up about a Kobold's Cave or an Ogre Camp. So I had to build this... It brought a slow paced game but all players said it was the best game they played!!! The objectives of the game would appear randomly, so if I'd play again in this setting (Casaïasos it was called) I would built a new adventure, but in the same area! Nearby the town, there was a swamp, a forest, caves, ruins and a plain. I had Huge Random Encounter tables (100 entries each places) I'm really proud of this game.

I absolutely love that idea of integrating group worldbuilding with a risk-n-reward dynamic, sounds lovely

I have been working on a west marches game for a long time. I have had a few groups start and end abruptly. I really had a hard time with 5e, I was homebrewing so much. Exploration leads to loot and a gold, but loot and gold are not 5e's strong suites. I'm retooling the setting and encounters for p2e. I'm not knocking 5e it is good with world ending hero centric themes, just not exploration and loot. Good luck, I will come back and check in see how it is going. Hope you do do session recaps

I personally don't like sandbox style gaming, it feels to flat for me. The same is true for linear or plot driven campaigns too though. I prefer more character driven games, in which the character drive their story. Anyway, I enjoy the channel, so I will keep watching since for me nothing will change, it had been campaign styles either way that are not to my preferences.

The more you detailed this "unexplored new land" the more I was reminded of the Planeshift Ixalan pdf. If I were setting up a jungle exploration sandbox the primary sources I'd steal from are Ixalan, tomb of annihilation, Ravnica, Theros, and ghosts of Saltmarsh. There's a port town (Port Nyanzaru renamed and with factions other than snake cult spies) that's going through a boom because the mainlanders just realized this island chain/subcontinent (Chult/Ixalan amalgamation) exists. The party has a boathouse base and a river boat. (Ghosts of Saltmarsh mixed with a little of the base building mechanics from Acquisitions Incorporated.) With the river boat the party can take jobs from various factions and churches (Ravnica/Theros) to explore the islands, coasts, and rivers that circle and cut through the larger stretches of jungle. Each Ravnica and Theros inspired faction wants everything the new lands have to offer for different reasons and is willing to offer the party all manner of bribes to get whatever the other factions hire them to retrieve. Parts of the sandbox can easily be populated with the random tables for magic Islands in Theros, regular Islands in Saltmarsh, and just about everything listed in Planeshift Ixalan. Whether you use the renown/piety rules and rewards in Ravnica and Theros is up to you. Getting enough points with any faction could offer different rewards for the party. The Izzet, Keranos, and Thassa analogs could increase the speed of the boat every 5 to 10 points. The Simic, Selesnya, Karametra, and Nylea groups could hand out charms or boons that make the jungle open up walking paths for the party. Others could have supply shops in the port town and offer discounts for jobs completed. Others could provide healing/revival, rumors and information gathered by other groups, or even updated maps.

Eric as always you have great ideas. I believe I am going to usurp them for my own! Mew-mu wah ha ha (wringing my hands).

I love sandboxes. I want to do a session zero with a game of The Quiet Year to build the basics of the map that the party can then explore and flesh out more.