Hello there!

Currently I am running both a Only War and Deathwatch campaign and it might just be that I am still very much new to GMing and role playing games like these, but they seem quite linear.

The players are told to go and complete their mission, then return to base once done. I really dont see much opportunity for character development or role playing in general (not that my players are minding at this point). But, I am not too concerned with fixing this.

Anyway, I looking to create a campaign where my players have freedom to do whatever and have some character interaction along the way. Black Crusade seems perfect for this.

I was wondering if this would be the best system for this and if so, what tips would you be able to give a GM who is both new to RPGs and Black Crusade?

Any help is most appreciated.

There are two keys to a sandbox. First, have a very vague goal. Like, "find this dude" or "conquer the world," without giving any specific steps as to how to do so. Then the players are forced to come up with the intervening steps on their own. The second is to give the world enough building blocks to make it so that the players aren't left totally adrift. If the players' job is "find this dude," make sure you keep track of where the dude is going and what he's doing, so that he'll leave a trail. If the players' job is "conquer the world," make sure you keep track of the military resources of the world, including things like trade routes and food supplies that fuel armies without being part of them directly.

I will certainly keep those points in mind. Thank you.

Hallo "Vorhut"

[@English speaking people: please forgive me for switching to my native language for a line]
Ich habe so den Verdacht wir beide sprechen die gleiche Sprache. Liege ich richtig oder führt mich dein Nickname einfach in die Irre? Grüsse aus Bielefeld

Back2Topic: I had the experience that a 40K sandbox can fail miserably. The background is non-intuitive to people not being a 40k-fan and thereby hampers decision making by being confused about the options. Thereby, it is important to give the characters a good feel for their "sandbox". This can be done by some "milk run" adventures (that stick to the mission-style you mentioned in your post) and/or by providing a number of handout´s up front. The later is not THAT good unless your players like to read and you like to put up A LOT OF WORK to actually write down a lot about the sandbox in an entertaining yet informing fashion.

I would not advise BlackCrusade for such an undertaking, so. Unless you want to stick to imperial space, for the "vortex" is hard to wrap ones had around. My suggestion would be "RT", mainly because people have an easier entry when it comes to bein a privateer and and gaining profit.

EDIT: "RT" means "RogueTrader".

Talking about sandboxes, it is important to define the scope (and thereby: the borders) of said box. It is a difference if you want to have the characters travel over all of the vortex, a set number of Systems/worlds, "just" one world or just a certain Region within one world.

The wide you set the Frame, the "bigger" the stage will be the character are playing on and in turn and that will affect the things the characters do..and Need skils for! BC seem to assume the characters start out small and end up running the big Show. If you Play it like that, you start out with a smaller Frame (a number of worlds) and grow bigger.

Of course, you can start out with the "big Frame"...but that might leave your characters puzzled in regard to what to do. So many Options and one would Need to LOOK for this Options to know about them half of the time..

If you Limit them somehow for the start of the game (by cutting back the optons of traveling, simply making them unavailable unless they achieved a higher Standing) and thereby the "available options'" the Players can get familiar with the game.

If you Players like being "the big shots in the game", how about having them starting out as aspiring warlords (warlord & retinue) in an area containing rivaling City states? They might start out as actually doing deeds for one world or another or by taking Location for themselves by means of there own design. If they have secured power, they can move on.

Another Topic here mentioned a game about the Players being the heretics left in the wake of a grant crusade that has seen an imperial hive world falling to chaos... and now going south as the main Forces leaves the mess behind, not caring about waiting for what they left behind after the mass slaughter.

1) If you want agency, don't use black crusade. The alignment and advancement system is about as restrictive as the moral code of a Rondra priest. You're German, you'll get the reference . If not, suffice to say, it's too restrictive, and forces you into stereotypes. It also puts NPCs and PCs on two different scales, leaving fluff describing NPCs doing things PCs will never, ever be able to as per rules. This is bad. It will make your players feel bad. So, my best advice is: Don't use black crusade. Which leads me to point two:

2) What we did was use WHFRP second edition and port it to warhammer 40k. It has sufficient supplements and advancements to turn it into a classless system, and its way of handling chaos is closer to canon. It's pretty much the same combat mechanics as well, so you can just use Only War's weapons and gear and psyker stuff (replacing mages) and you're all set.

In regards to the actual Sandbox, especially if you're not used to running **** freeform:

-Start small. Make a space station or something where your players are and need to procure the means to get away from somehow. Or, maybe they want to take over? Well, either way, a space station or similar closed environment lets you keep things in a measurable scope for the time being.

- Make some factions with defined goals. Faction A wants this, Faction B does this, and where they come into conflicts of interest is where maybe, someone has a job or two for your players.

- Ask your players what they want and what their goals are. See how they naturally fit with what you've made and make some tweaks here and there to accomodate them

- When your players decide to leave the starting place, it's as simple as adding another similar location to the sandbox. Basically, think of it like lego: Many small pieces make up the whole.

Now i feel embarrassed . I am actually Australian, but with a German heritage. It is something that I am curious about and I like the way words sound in German.

Thanks for the tips! I was thinking of using a space station, but beyond that, I had nothing. Though, i haven't been thinking about it all that much. Focusing more on Only War and Deathwatch at the moment.

2) What we did was use WHFRP second edition and port it to warhammer 40k. It has sufficient supplements and advancements to turn it into a classless system, and its way of handling chaos is closer to canon. It's pretty much the same combat mechanics as well, so you can just use Only War's weapons and gear and psyker stuff (replacing mages) and you're all set.

Alternatively, just don't use the Advancement rules from BC. Have everyone be Allied to every Chaos god forever no matter what they do.

Also, I strongly, strongly recommend against adding new areas as the players come to them. For a sandbox to work, actions in one location should have ripple effects in other locations. For that to be believable, you need to know in advance how different locations affect one another and thus how changing one will affects the others. While it is possible to improvise this, if you're asking for advice on how to run a sandbox at all you probably shouldn't be risking it.

Concerning boundaries to the playable area, you definitely need them, but you don't need an actual reason why the players can't leave the area. It's actually completely fine to just tell them that there is no game prepared outside the sector. If your players aren't disruptive jerks, they won't try to leave the boundaries of what you're ready to run unless they have a good reason.

So far I'm currently running a sandbox black crusade campaign and my players are actually finding it very enjoyable from what I can ascertain. It can be quite fun and a lot of enjoyment despite some of the concerns of the above.

I have thrown the players into a custom region of space which I created and have clearly defined the regions and the barriers. I've given them an objective which is to undermine the entire sector. How they do it is up to them and I have given them meager resources to achieve this, they need to work their way up and find a way to do this. I haven't given them any goals or missions to achieve and it has been entirely player driven. I have thrown hints and side plots available for them to follow if they chose to, some they went with which opened up new avenues of exploration and progression and others they haven't followed which have meant options have been missed. At no point though have I said "you must go this way" or "you need to do x", I've suggested it would be good to do it but if they want to go against me then I wont stop them.

They do have the ability though to go anywhere or do anything they want. They can march right up to the Governors Palace and try to kick the door down to kill him if they wanted to. They would be shot to hell for even trying but I wouldn't stop them. They can also take the ship they had and make a run for an exit however the setting I have keeps them confined (surrounded by astral phenomenon making warp travel difficult, limited to fixed routes or risk getting lost) but they could do it. Before I shook things up a bit they wanted to start a merchant empire to fund their efforts to undermine the region and make up a network of contacts...they may have then hit a small snag with a side mission and had a run in with a daemon which allowed me to bring much of it crashing down.

The critical thing about any sandbox game is to be prepared and always have an emergency backup plan but you sometimes need to have a quick mind to counter anything they throw at you. I have a cache of generic NPCs, planets or concepts which, should the players choose to pursue such a route, I can pluck an idea out of the hat and use it straight away changing some of the names at times. This has saved my arse many a time but I have also had them recently walk into a situation I had not anticipated. If that happens as a GM your focus should not be to panic but you may need to be **** good at working off the cuff. They got trapped onboard a space hulk which I hadn't prepped for but luckily they managed to get so focused investigating a plethora of alien tech and weapons that I was able to come up with random functions and investigation angles for each item that I was able to stall them long enough for me to come up with a way of advancing the plot. They found the numerous gadgets intriguing to boost their power and knowledge while at the same time dont feel like it's been a delay tactic. The best advice I can give you when running a sandbox game is to remember the immortal line:

"You can do that but there may be consequences."

This will probably stop a lot of your plans being derailed. If they want to go somewhere or do something you are not prepared for then utter those words. Many players think twice about such things and it can be used as your way of discouraging game breaking action but if they still go ahead with it then you can bring the hammer down.

So if you're good enough to think up ideas on the fly, go for a sandbox game.

Thank you! The amount of planning seems quite overwhelming. I will continue to brainstorm and will probably come back here for any help with ideas or what not.

Sandbox games are very much frontloaded in their planning. Once you've got the setting ready you will rarely have to plan things out between sessions, but the workload to get the campaign running at all is much greater.