Pacing and Random Encounters in the Sandbox

Source: Pacing and Random Encounters in the Sandbox

Author: @Shannon R (The Novel Game Master)

Notes

🌱 Pacing in sandboxes
🌱 Random encounters might be at odds with maintaining pace
🌱 Fun can come from embracing randomness in sandboxes
🌱 Allow players to opt-in or out of random encounters
🌱 Interesting random encounters encourage players to engage with them
🌱 Random encounters are (part of) the cost players pay for exploration
🌱 Skipping random encounters means exploration was free
🌱 Telegraph the nature of random encounters to let players decide how to engage with them
🌱 Ensure that random encounters are interesting and relevant
🌱 Random encounters that are relevant are more interesting
🌱 Sequence encounters to create cause and effect
🪴 Random encounters don't need to be rolled