Sandbox D&D Campaigns – Dealing With The Misconceptions

Sandbox D&D Campaigns - Dealing With The Misconceptions

Recently, I posted a question on X/Twitter asking why sandbox worlds were so popular in the video game space, and quite frequently resisted or derided in the TTRPG space. 

A lot of the comments I received were saying that it was too hard to create a sandbox campaign, it would take years, it would require a GM to dedicate months and years to creating the world, and so on. 

But this is all incorrect. 

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Reaction Rolls in Dungeons & Dragons

Reaction Rolls

Reaction rolls are an old school mechanic in D&D that allows you to determine how an NPC or monster will react to the PCs. 

This mostly forgotten mechanic (at least in the modern game) was a core rule in earlier versions of the game (OSR). 

When the party came upon a random encounter with intelligent monsters, and the party decided to parley with them instead of attacking them, the GM would then roll a reaction check for the monsters. 

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The D6 Mechanic for D&D And Other TTRPGs

The D6 Mechanic

What’s going to happen?

Let the simple D6 Mechanic decide for you.

This simple mechanic will allow you to add in some randomness to your Dungeons and Dragons sessions.

Instead of making decisions all the time, let the die decide for you.

All you have to do is decide on the odds.

A simple mechanic like the D6 Mechanic can be used at the table within seconds. 

Let’s look at an example.

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8 Takeaways From D20 Modern To Use In Your Dungeons & Dragons Campaign

8 Takeaways From D20 Modern To Use In Your D&D Campaign

If you are not familiar with D20 Modern, it is a system that came out at the height of the D20 boom in the 2000s, which was powered by D&D 3rd edition. 

Cashing in on the D20 craze, Wizard of the Coast released the D20 Modern around the same time as they released the D20 Star Wars RPG

I never got into D20 Modern at the time, although I did have a copy which I skimmed through, but I managed to grab one off on eBay recently, and found some gems in there. 

Here are my 8 take-aways from D20 Modern to use in my Dungeons & Dragons campaign. 

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How To Surprisingly Turn D&D 5e Into An Old School OSR Game

D&D as old school OSR game

This is a bit of an on-going experiment, but I decided to strip Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition down to its core to see how close I could replicate the earlier editions of the game. 

Or, in other words, make it more like an old school D&D or OSR (Old School Renaissance) game. 

And surprisingly, it works pretty well. 

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Examples Of The Common Sense Test In Action

Examples Of The Common Sense Test In Action

I have been getting some feedback on my last article around making adjudications and using what I like to call the Common Sense test when making them.

Basically, the common sense test boils down to you asking yourself ‘does this make sense?’

And if it does, all good. But if it doesn’t then you are within your rights to change it. Or even disallow it.

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