I'd like to see opinions, suggestions and comments on this topic.

When creating adventures for you game group, do you pre-plot everything out, or do you give your players a wide open "sandbox" to go where they like?

I tend to do a little of both. Since no adventure survives player actions unmauled, I tend to outline events and encounters, but leave them general enough that they can be easily modified if the players decide to go left instead of right.

I pre-plan the adventure, but try to remain open to the players wanting to do stuff I haven't planned for. True sandbox playing is very hard in a game setting like Star Wars, since hyperdrive-equipped ships let the PCs go litterally anywhere in very little time.

Of course, if the players want to go someplace specific that isn't part of my ongoing campaign I can easily work that in if they give me a heads-up in advance.

I've done all Sand-box and I love it. I might plan out some jobs for them to have the options of taking, but even then it's only person, place, and thing; I never plan out something that HAS to happen. Sometimes they surprise me and don't even take a job that week. So far this has been my favorite way to DM

I've been working on some adventure ideas of constructing a usable sandbox. EotE really seems to lend itself well to Sandbox style, even if they semi-jokingly referred to the example adventure "The Hyperspace Railroad" in showing how something is plotted out. I've made a plug for his work before, but Mike Shea's "The Lazy DM" is an excellent resource for something like this, even if it is primarily meant for D&D 4e.

I set up the situation, know the personalities well (NPC & PC), have a few twists planned, and voila!

Too much planning may make the players feel constrained or spend too much of your time with no payout. I have always found that players will want to do SOMETHING that I just hadn't planned on. Some days they give mercy to the oddest people, while the next they blow up his home when he simply offers them dinner.

The important thing to remember if you go this route is to always have a few ideas in your gm file. This game will make it much easier to use their Obligations as hooks, but unless you have thought out lots of possible ways to utilize the hooks they may get bored.

I tend to do a balance of both. Many times, I'll come up with a couple of key events, figure out what the bad guys will be doing (if left unopposed) and then let the players go at it. "So here's this high security imperial prison. How you going to break in and get your contact out?" and so on.

I prefer to run sandbox, with ample pre-planning. By that I mean I develop story missions and such, often based on the PCs' background, then drop story hooks here and there, and the PCs can choose to pursue whatever they want. My PCs are less sandbox people, and if they don't have clear story hooks they just wander around, do nothing and get bored with the campaign.

I also come up with side quests that aren't tied to a location, and some events that are not tied to locations. Say I plan a bounty hunter encounter, I don't plan the encounter for the cantina in Mos Ila. I plan the bounty hunter encounter, and where ever they happen to be when I decide to trigger it, which usually when they are just hanging out being boring, that is where the bounty hunter encounter happens. Obviously if they are in a place that seems unlikely the bounty hunters would ever find them, then I wait until it makes narrative sense.

I plan a lot of these unconnected encounters because it makes the sandbox seem more realistic. Not all encounters are connected to the PCs either. Sometimes they are just in the wrong place at the wrong time, all encounters have a deeper story meaning, but not all of them involve the PCs directly, until they decide to get involved.

Like the bounty hunter example above, perhaps the PCs are in a cantina on Nar Shaddaa. I have the PCs roll perception, then tell the ones that succeed, "You notice some professional looking types around and they look antsy, one in particular keeps clenching the blaster he has at his side. Another is making hand motions that look almost to be signals..." Then the ones that noticed I let them do something in the surprise round. Then boom! The encounter starts, the bounty hunters open fire at a table not too far from the PCs. Ready go!

I make it obvious the bounty hunters aren't after them, and if they want they can just sneak out of the cantina. Though my PCs know me better than that, and know whenever I do anything there is a narrative reason behind it. The bounty hunter fight, depending on how it goes might lead the PCs to uncovering that the people they were firing on were intelligence agents who were tracking a prince from a core world, the bounty hunters were hired by the prince to "ghost a group of thugs." Other times I focus on the PCs and their backgrounds to introduce story elements and plots.

Though I make sure that the PCs know that they are not the center of the setting's universe. Things happen around them. Life goes on, as they say. If they miss an opportunity for a story element, I don't wait around hoping to reintroduce it. Though I let the PCs see, or feel it. An example would be like; if a strange lady in a space port tries to hire the PCs to get her off planet, and they refuse for whatever reason. Later they may be watching a news feed, and a report will come on about how the imperials caught a rogue jedi at the space port they were just at. Which is fun for me because I can see the look on their face when they realize opportunities they miss. But on the reverse sometimes they are glad they missed quests and encounters like that. Because if I change the report to saying, A ship leaving the space port was destroyed by the Empire today, it was harboring known jedi fugitive 'blah blah blah'. Then show a picture of her on the feed, it being the same lady that tried to get a ride from the PCs. The PCs probably would be like oh man glad we didn't give her a ride.

That's just a small example of how I run sandbox games without being too railroady. Sure it can feel from a GM point of view that you are railroading when you create encounters that the PCs probably will run into regardless what they do. As long as it makes narrative sense when you introduce those encounters, and make sure that the encounter resolution is up to the PCs. Then the PCs won't feel railroaded at all, they'll feel like they have all the freedom in the galaxy.

I tend to have a few prepared scenarios that I can use if the players go in the appropriate direction. These are generally tied to one or more Obligations and I pull them in if the Obligation is triggered. Otherwise, pretty much sandbox.

I started off with the Beginner box and we're just about to finish that series of stories up. From there, I'm going to go with a sandbox campaign despite knowing it will be difficult. Luckily, I have been able to find a number of great books and websites to help me come up to speed with all the stuff I didn't know about in the EU. Sure, that's a lifetime achievement to complete so I'll never get there, but I should be able to at least keep one step ahead of my players.

I have specific plot points planned that I want them to either witness or participate in. Much of the time how they get their is up to them and sometimes is very outside of the box.

The trick is learning to roll with unplanned situations while still subtly guiding them in the direction you want.

It also depends on your players. If your players are the type who really hate following a perceived pre-made path, that can be fine. Until it really interferes with the story you have planned (if you have one planned at all). At that point I'd probably start introducing consequences for purposefully ignoring hooks.

"Ok, you guys decided not to go and save the princess. While you are waiting your several days of hyperspace travel with nothing to do, on the holonet a news anchor breaks in with this new message: 'Princess Leia has just been rescued from the Empire by some hired adventurers! These adventurers were paid extremely well for their deed. One of them was quoted saying, 'It was more wealth than I could possibly imagine. And I can imagine a lot.'""

"Ok, you guys decided not to go and save the princess. While you are waiting your several days of hyperspace travel with nothing to do, on the holonet a news anchor breaks in with this new message: 'Princess Leia has just been rescued from the Empire by some hired adventurers! These adventurers were paid extremely well for their deed. One of them was quoted saying, 'It was more wealth than I could possibly imagine. And I can imagine a lot.'""

I like this example. Adding on to the example: progressing the story negatively as well helps too. If they saw a news feed on the holonet where the anchor says, "After a costly chase, with more than 1200 loyal people dead, and over 10 million credits in damages. The fugitive rebel faction leader 'Princess Leia Organa' was caught and executed today for crimes against the Empire." (I assume most holonet news is brought to the galaxy by the Empire, filled with propaganda.) Now if the party has any sort of rebel allegiances then druk just got real. I always enjoy seeing my player's faces when there are in game consequences for their actions or inactions.

Another really good way to hold plot in a sandbox is to let hooks happen where it makes best story sense or is most interesting, without being tied to a specific location in the galaxy. Unless the location is absolutely necessary. I mean if the start of a hook is something like "When you enter the Mos Eisley cantina you see a bounty hunter grab a woman, then starts dragging her off as she is kicking and screaming for help." The best types of hooks are the ones that you can take the proper nouns out off and they still work. Take out "Mos Eisley" and the hook still works now it can be any cantina.

'Princess Leia Organa' was caught and executed today for crimes against the Empire." (I assume most holonet news is brought to the galaxy by the Empire, filled with propaganda.)

Which is why she would have been killed by friendly fire...

I tend to come up with a few central characters, create motivations and relationships for them and react more to the PCs actions. For example: Bargos and Thekba the Hutt are rivals but not out and out enemies, the PCs currently work for Thekba and have the opportunity to double-cross Thekba and steal some money or they can be loyal. If they double cross then Bargos comes into play as someone who could be a new patron on the basis of my enemy of my enemy is my friend but as he knows the PCs are disloyal he may double-cross them. Alternatively if the PCs stick with Thekba then Bargos' rivalry turns into outright competition and he hires someone to take out Thekba's shiny new 'toys'.

Like a lot of other posters have mentioned, I like sandbox due to the fact that players have more control over what happens to their characters. I also really like world building, so developing a really robust campaign setting full of NPCs with their own motives, etc. is a labor of love for me. I've also found that if you have NPCs following their own agendas without doing the whole "hire the PCs" schtick, the players will be naturally inquisitive and embroil themselves in the plots and machinations.

Ofc. I have to give props to my group who are capable of handling the freedom of sandbox.

I try to pre-plan as much as possible. My imagination isn't that great and making stuff up on the fly tends to be boring when I do it. I try to give my players clear options and goals so that they stay on track.

I usually have a few things like shops and bars made up before hand because the players will often want to go to places like that.

If I haven't already, I'll put in a plug for Sly Flourish's "The Lazy DM" which is primarily meant for D&D 4e. He gives some really good tips of how to handle preparation for games. His main focus is to simply plan for the next session by anticipating what the players will do, rather than fleshing out the fine details of the world they are in. Fortunately with the Star Wars Universe, Wookiepedia can fill in some gaps on the fly and allow for a more sandbox type adventure.

That having been said, I'm trying my hand at writing something, and there is an overwhelming temptation to fill in all kinds of detail...

I tend towards the sandbox approach, but I make sure the sandbox is well seeded with interesting toys.

I create NPCs, side plots, and encounters some of which happen if the PCs go to a particular place, some happen at a particular time, and some are left open ended.

"A bounty hunter mistakes one of the PCs for his quarry" could happen any time and place. It also could easily switch to "A bounty hunter is hired to go after one of the PCs".

"An old man, a boy and two droids are looking for passage off planet, if it's a fast ship... "

"A holo recording in a used droid offers an adventure seed"

I tend to plan my adventures with a clear beginning to hook the players or otherwise get them involved quickly. I've run a few sandbox games where the first hour or so of game time was along the lines of "You're at XYZ spaceport; what do you want to do?" and the players sort of dinking around and hemming and hawing. None of that has the SW feel, so I've gravitated more toward adventure openings the drop them right in the middle of some sort of action or conflict.

It gets easier once the campaign grows some legs, of course.

I also come up with a lot of subplot hooks and potential side missions, and sneak those into sessions where it makes sense for them to fit and see which ones the heroes latch onto (or miss). The adventure grows organically from there.

Sometimes I just wing it too--I use a voice recorder during all my games, so I can keep track of what happened during a session. If something crazy got introduced during the session, I can build on it in the next session or otherwise refresh my memory on what we came up with on the fly so that the next session follows logically.

I do a lot of planning ahead, and then spend time coming up with all sorts of contingencies, because I know that no storyline survives contact with the players. Really, the best thing you can do is lay out a general idea of what the game world (or game universe) is, who the big players are, and how they'll interact with the PCs. After that, figure out what the NPCs' motivations are, what they're striving toward, and what's going on in the background, no matter what the players do. Then, it doesn't matter how far "off the rails" (and don't get me wrong, I don't like railroading) the players go, you'll have a sense that the world is moving around the PCs, and the players will get the sense that their characters exist within a living, changing world.

When it comes down to it, I like to start the game in the middle of some action, which might feel as though it's on rails. But where it goes from there is completely up to the players. In my current game, the players are starting aboard a passenger vessel headed for an Outer Rim planet, which is attacked by pirates just as it comes out of hyperspace. Do the players take up defense of the ship? Do they flee? Do they join the pirates? Well... that's up to them. But no matter what they do, the events going on down on the surface of Adarlon are going to continue just the same, the events going down on Hoth are the same, on Alderaan are the same. If the PCs get embroiled in those situations, their previous actions will color the responses of the NPC participants, but there's nothing forcing the PCs to do anything they don't want to do on their own.

Once the game, as another poster said, "grows some legs", doing this becomes much easier.

One challenge I've run into in the past with other games (notably D&D 4e) is in encounter preparation. That game had a lot of stat blocks for monsters, and it wasn't really easy to throw an encounter at the party on the fly, because the GM had to go digging for stat blocks they might not have prepared ahead of time.

I see the same issue for EotE, though somewhat lessened since the stat blocks aren't as detailed as those from 4e were. I know some folks have created stat blocks for EotE adversaries, and I'm developing my own for use in my adventures, but I'd love to see more. Anything that makes it easier for me and other GMs to put together encounters quickly.

One challenge I've run into in the past with other games (notably D&D 4e) is in encounter preparation. That game had a lot of stat blocks for monsters, and it wasn't really easy to throw an encounter at the party on the fly, because the GM had to go digging for stat blocks they might not have prepared ahead of time.

I see the same issue for EotE, though somewhat lessened since the stat blocks aren't as detailed as those from 4e were. I know some folks have created stat blocks for EotE adversaries, and I'm developing my own for use in my adventures, but I'd love to see more. Anything that makes it easier for me and other GMs to put together encounters quickly.

One challenge I've run into in the past with other games (notably D&D 4e) is in encounter preparation. That game had a lot of stat blocks for monsters, and it wasn't really easy to throw an encounter at the party on the fly, because the GM had to go digging for stat blocks they might not have prepared ahead of time.

I see the same issue for EotE, though somewhat lessened since the stat blocks aren't as detailed as those from 4e were. I know some folks have created stat blocks for EotE adversaries, and I'm developing my own for use in my adventures, but I'd love to see more. Anything that makes it easier for me and other GMs to put together encounters quickly.

Have you considered pre-planning a number of generic encounters? Perhaps planning easy/medium/hard versions of common fights, like minion fights, and a couple different adversary fights. Realistically you could plan 4-6 encounters and be done with it. Then re-flavor them as necessary on the fly. A minion group of storm troopers and a minion group of space pirates looks awful similar. An ad hoc changing of the base weapon damage by one or two points and the defense/soak by one or two points, and you have what feels like a different fight, without having to prepare every single encounter. You can recycle them just as easily if you have different terrains as well. A minion fight in a starship corridor would feel very different from the same minion fight in an open hanger.

Then the only encounters you really need to plan from there are special fights. Like specific story encounters, especially with nemeses.

I pre-plan then hope it all goes off rails.

What does that mean?

I have everything planned as much as I can. But, I never force players onto rails. I think that is a horrible thing to do. So, I improvise as I go along and try to use the nuggets I pre-created why ever-adjusting the campaign. As a GM, the most fun for me is watching how the story changes due to the players' actions. Great fun.

Hi people!

In my game sessions I use to have a pair of "almost fixed points" (almost because I always open the door to players actions).

- "Fixed" Actions like: You have to visit X place and confront X person at the end because X reason.

- Studied Scenes like: A particular scene originated from players choices. I use to prepare them a bit with some references.

- Sandbox Time!: Everything else its just a cause/effect thing.

In the first to cases I use to prepare and train a bit for those scenes (preparing music, NPC's interpretation...) but at the end I use to improvise a bit there too XD

I use to this for my main game, a game that started at year 1.999 or above. I know very well the main character and main NPC's reactions and this gives me a lot of advantages to create awesone scenes that would love my player (I need to use a savegame file like in videogames to remember everything XD).

There is another thing that, before Edge we rolled d20's from WotC systems and even other dices too from other systems. When we play we are so inmersed in the game thanks to ambientations, interpretation, music that even the dice acompanies us with cinematic rolls XDD

The dice gets alive XD Uses to roll the best results to recreate the best scenes XD Love it!

I keep two ten sided dice next to me to aid in randomness... It works wonders for any sandbox game, but especially so for EotE. The first ten sided die will determine how lucky our adventurers are on any one specific instance. The next ten sided die determines how random you deviate from the norm, based on the difference between the two dice.

Let's say your players are looking for poison darts for gundark beasts, at a hunter store.

If you rolled a 9 and a 9, the players would not only find the poison darts, they'd find it specifically tailored against that beast.

If you rolled a 9 and a 1, the players wouldn't find darts. Instead, they'd find a Jawa guide that somehow got himself off of Tatooine and wound up here to hunt the gundarks. He is extremely skilled at it, and offers free advice on how to take them down.

The second die relies on the difference between the two numbers to make them either more mundane or extraordinary. If you rolled a 5 and a 5, the players would simply find poison darts for any type of beast, and it's not on sale. Regardless of what you roll, there's bound to be something for sale against beasts because the players are at least visiting a hunter store, so adjust accordingly.

The double ten sided random dice idea really helps the unimaginative GM to stay on his toes.