Would there be any problems running a player-driven, sandbox campaign in Edge of Empire? If I were just to have my players start off in, say, Mos Eisley, give them a bunch of adventure hooks and just let them go, would it go well?

Depends. It's rolling the dice because they could be really creative and triumph or go off the rails and crash

I think sandbox from day 1 is a bit over ambitious. Better to run on rails for 5 or so sessions while characters get a little better developed & fleshed out and you at least have a supporting cast introduced. From there you can let them start drifting to what interests them

If you think you can GM it, then yes, it certainly would work fine.

If you think you can GM it, then yes, it certainly would work fine.

I agree. I'm not running a campaign right not but, if I were, I'd take that kind of approach. Many of the articles on my blog are intended for just such a purpose, presenting location and characters along with possible plot hooks.

-Nate

The challenge with doing a sandbox with Star Wars is that travel is unrestricted, so you have to be ready for anything.

Usually sandboxes can be limited to a defined area, so you can fill it with interesting things. When you introduce hyperspace, then that limitation is gone. The players want to ignore your hooks and head to Coruscant, where you have nothing planned, then that's where they go.

What you may consider doing to counter this is to cheat a little and set up a few encounters that are not world specific. In addition to your main hooks that occur at specific places, also have 2–3 generic "city world" encounter hooks, 2–3 generic "wasteland world" hooks, 1 or 2 "Hutt" encounters. etc.

It's not how sandboxes are supposed to run, strictly speaking, but it allows your players to have the freedom to go anywhere they want while still keeping he game interesting.

I agree with the above. If you can GM it then do it. Keep in mind that some players like a little structure though.

Hyperspace is an obstacle but I'd suggest dropping them out at various locations to add plot hooks. Imperial checkpoints, unidentified objects, pirates, rebels, and natural solar events (storms, comets etc) could drop a player out of hyperspace at a plot hook location.

(WARNING: If you are one of my players, DON'T READ FURTHER you sneaky bastards and stay out of the GM section)

I am planning a EotE sandbox adventure to start soon, and I am preparing myself to more or less whing everything as they are doing whatever they want. However for the very first session I think I will go through the GM screen Adventure (the name eludes me right now) just to get a sense of how the characters do in various scenarios (so I can properly scale difficulty in all future sessions).

However it is worth noting that I played through Escap from Mos Shuuta and Long Arm of the Hutt with the same people to learn the rules, however now they have brand new characters.

Now, I said I would do things on the fly, but I have made a lot of preparations and I have several adventures I can pull on. So I was thinking I should just write down how I am preparing this, and maybe you can also get something out of this:

• Star Wars Lore: I have read, watched and played a lot of Star Wars in my days. About 60 EU books read, seen all the movies and and The Clone Wars, played the KotORs, SWTOR, SotE and the JA series. Obviously you cannot start this now, but I am luck in that I have been a huge SW nerd in my teens.
• Adventures: I have the core book, Beyond the Rim, GM screen and Black Sun all from FFG, as well as having read through all of the fan-made adventures in the Compiled Resources List on this forum. This has given me a WEALTH of good ideas, and some of these are easily adaptable to wherever they are. Say you are in a need of a story in a hurry, then do Rendezvous at Ord Mantell and just change Ord Mantell to Whatever and run with it (oversimplified example).
• Random Events: The website http://triumphdespair.wordpress.com has A LOT of awesome info. I especially recommend taking a look at the EotE Alphabet (designed for sandboxing) and the Rogue Events sections.
• NPCs and Statblocks: Often, you don't want to sit down and make all the stats for every character yourself, so you'd rather just pull out someone that someone else made. For this I highly recommend GSA (http://gsa.thegamernation.org), especially their Threat Analysis sections and Transmissions Beyond the Rim. Also Jegergrytes Cubicle has a lot of statlocks available http://jegergryte.wordpress.com.
• Environments: Never forget all the fantastic varied nature that exists in Star Wars, for this someone at the d20 radio (sorry I cannot find the forum link now, only the direct link to the file) made this awesome PDF of several various environmental set pieces https://www.dropbox.com/s/o2nspa0jmupqaro/EotE%20-%20Environmental%20Set%20Pieces.pdf. If your characters land on a planet you don't know much of (and they don't), throw in lightningstorms or something while you think of something else to throw in.
• Old Source Books: I finish off with one of my favorite resources, all the old WEG source books with all their stats, adventures and whatnot are readily available from this website: http://d6holocron.com. There you can find A LOT!

Can't think of anything more

So that's how I am preparing anyway, I haven't run anything yet but I am having a good feeling as to how things are progressing.

For my players, I'm attempting to use Beyond the Rim as a frame and greatly expand upon the three acts while adding my own forth act set on Rhen Var. These are fairly straight forward players who don't like to go extremely off the task at hand. With this in mind, I have the four acts under modification. Each act is its own sandbox environment with new characters and side quests for the players to find. This is taking a lot of prep but since thanksgiving break is coming up I have time to finish it all up and deliver what I've been calling it to my players as "season 2 material".

I strike to describe the setting for refference in greater depth along with many named characters. Everyone from bar locals to shop keepers. Establishing this in advance helps keep the "winging it" to a minimum and along with plenty of random events, like mentioned above for citys and wastelands and hutts, you can keep things going at all times.

I've had the most fun expanding the exploration in the second act of beyond the rim. The jungle will truely test them.

Our campaign started in the Minos Cluster. It was an accepted setting and boundary. The players have the gazetteer from Galaxy Guide Six and have made it to almost all of the planets. On each world, they discovered secrets beyond what information they had gained from Computers or their own Knowledge skills and we all learned the game.

Though we are still learning, coming events will open the sandbox to a galaxy-wide setting as they continue on the quest they began in the tiny little area of the Minos Cluster, even though there are several hooks they never followed and some they followed for a while but no longer care about.

The limitations starting out worked great. We will see what happens when the training wheels are off and the whole galaxy is their new stomping ground.

I've been giving this some thought ever since I ran my first Star Wars campaign back in Saga Edition. The ability for the players to literally go anywhere they want in the galaxy is a bit unnerving because they can literally go to some place you as a person have never even heard of, much less having to create it as a DM as you go.

It's not like in DnD where you could potentially have an entire world completely made up, whatever you say goes, and the players are none-the-wiser so long as the monster types behave the way they are supposed to. In Star Wars, there is specific canon that every player could potentially know. For instance, you spent a week studying up and preparing for an adventure on the planet of Elom, understanding how the cultures work and what could and could not take place on the planet. But your players, come session, decide to go to Ryloth.... a place you have absolutely no information on and can't simply just BS your way through without some serious red flags being thrown up by your players who chose to go there, specifically because they have a certain knowledge about it that interests them. What to do?

My idea is to give them emulated Free-Roam mechanics. "You can go anywhere you want... as long as it's one of these (3) choices." One of the choices will be heavy in the main plot. The other two are side-quests that the group may or may not have already obtained reasons to go to. Essentially, as a GM, you should prepare at least 3 choices for your players to take for any given session.

It's hard work, actually, to be a GM. You have to design and build a real game. And I think it is especially difficult in EotE because so much of the GM's work is exposed during session - you aren't really encouraged to fluff the dice rolls behind a blank sheet. Not to mention, the dice mechanics can easily make the session go off-script all their own.

As far as I know, even if they know a planet exists that doesn't necessarilly mean they know how to get there (They need the hyperroute, right? Though a lot of astrogation data is readily available to anybody, if I recall right). Furthermore, just because their characters know a planet exists, doesn't mean that their character does. If someone says they want to go to Mykyr, well, why? Why would their character even have knowledge of that planet's existence? Why would he have a reason to go there? Also, if it isn't G-Canon, it isn't necessarilly true in my game. Certainly I will have to be flexible, but it isn't exactly like the players will just be able to name a planet and go there at will.

Sandbox by itself with no boundaries is daunting and frankly exhausting for everyone. Sandbox with some internal boundaries is what I prefer for a sandbox-y game.

Also I feel no need to warn or alert any player whether G-canon is even relevant to particular game. Sometimes it is, sometimes it's not. They can find out in play.

As I've said on previous threads., my players prefer to be led around. I don't even think they realize it, but the lean heavily on me to figure out where to go or what they need to do, even beyond the few hooks I've given them.

I tried to do a sand-box session at one point. It was boring and I don't have the mind for it. It's difficult for me to think abstractly.

With that being said, I found a good medium that works well with my limited amount of free-time available to me for prep work. I never close a session without knowing what the players are going to do next. This gives me a some focus on what to prepare for. Sure I mentally note a few contingencies in case they change their mind, but usually my sessions end with: "And stars turn to lines, then again to the mottled vision of hyperspace. Next stop... Nar shadaa. We'll find out what happens there next time"

As I've said, my players prefer a more structured style so they are happy with this method. They know they have the power to do things unexpected, and they know I'm not going to try and railroad them, but they seem to enjoy riding the story.

With that being said, I found a good medium that works well with my limited amount of free-time available to me for prep work.

Speaking of which, I normally would not have found the time to prepare everything that I wrote in my previous post as thoroughly as now. However for the last three months I have been working abroad, and since I don't know anyone here I basically have gotten A LOT of extra time to do this. Time is as always the biggest problem.

I'm running a sandbox, and let me tell you, I know about hyperlanes than I ever thought possible.

The onus of knowing the setting is the GM's, so running a sandbox requires some good knowledge of the setting. I picked up a bunch of used books off Amazon to help me round out my knowledge, and the Essential Atlas was a great purchase.

Now, once I was familiar with my setting (a lifelong challenge, really) I set out to put plots in motion. While I am running a sandbox, I have stolen the concept of Fronts from Dungeon World and I have a giant, galaxy-sized machine in motion so there is some semblance of a story, although the players only see one small part of it. If they don't take action for Plot X, then Plot X advances. Things continue to happen despite - or in spite of - what the heroes do.

It is indeed exhausting to prep for this style of game, but it's kind of a boon not being able to plan ahead more than say, 30 seconds into the net session. I just keep a ton of digital notes so I have everything at my fingertips. It seems that if I plan 10 different ways for my players to get off an exploding space station, they'll choose option 11 so all my previous prep is worthless. So, I roll with it an improv.

I'm running a sandbox, and let me tell you, I know about hyperlanes than I ever thought possible.

The onus of knowing the setting is the GM's, so running a sandbox requires some good knowledge of the setting. I picked up a bunch of used books off Amazon to help me round out my knowledge, and the Essential Atlas was a great purchase.

Now, once I was familiar with my setting (a lifelong challenge, really) I set out to put plots in motion. While I am running a sandbox, I have stolen the concept of Fronts from Dungeon World and I have a giant, galaxy-sized machine in motion so there is some semblance of a story, although the players only see one small part of it. If they don't take action for Plot X, then Plot X advances. Things continue to happen despite - or in spite of - what the heroes do.

It is indeed exhausting to prep for this style of game, but it's kind of a boon not being able to plan ahead more than say, 30 seconds into the net session. I just keep a ton of digital notes so I have everything at my fingertips. It seems that if I plan 10 different ways for my players to get off an exploding space station, they'll choose option 11 so all my previous prep is worthless. So, I roll with it an improv.

So true.

That said, players often need prodding and ideas. So be sure to have lots and lots of story hooks around to see what they nibble on.

That said, players often need prodding and ideas. So be sure to have lots and lots of story hooks around to see what they nibble on.

Definitely! I just keep an Evernote note of ideas that I can capture on the fly, and I've taken to using Scrivener to organize everything to be easily-accessed at the table. Sure, I have to make up a bunch of stuff, but it's good for the brain.

IMO a good game is a combination of prepared material, random encounters, and sandbox improv. I think there are some tables that can handle a 100% sandbox environment and more power to them but sometimes my players want the steering wheel and other times they just want me to throw stuff at them. Your mileage may vary.

That said, players often need prodding and ideas. So be sure to have lots and lots of story hooks around to see what they nibble on.

Definitely! I just keep an Evernote note of ideas that I can capture on the fly, and I've taken to using Scrivener to organize everything to be easily-accessed at the table. Sure, I have to make up a bunch of stuff, but it's good for the brain.

Heh what a coincidence, I too am using Scrivener to organize things. What I particularly like is how easy it is to add PDF files to the text files in Scrivener, especially combined with Preview on a Mac allowing me to pull out single pages from huge PDFs with a click of a button.

I'm running sandbox. It's working. I keep my atlas and wookieepedia handy.

It's pretty confined to the outer rim and in and near the Arkanis sector but they can go where they want. Just haven't chosen to yet.

They are smugglers keeping the cargo bay full, making some creds, and working off obligation. They've run into crime lords, thieves, oppressed colonists, Imperial inspections, a hot slicer, a space monkey, corporate security fighters, and one tough bounty hunter.

The pace is a bit slower and I lean on my players for interpretations of their rolls.

As you go you have to keep notes becasue NPCs and places as you described them should be options for players to return to.

If you know the source and have patient players, go for it. Know their obligations and motivations and that provides ideas for encounters to drop on them. It writes itself.

I'm going to try a sandbox game, but I'm definitely going to give my players some very clear hooks or adventures to latch onto. I'm planning on using content from WEG, the compiled resources post and Triumph & Despair's excellent Alphabet and Rogue Events.

I too am using Scrivener to organize everything, and finding it to be quite delightful. I have folders for Places (complete with maps, if needed), Groups/Factions, NPCs (which I can update in-game to create recurring characters), Story Hooks (this is where I'll store my ideas for how to incorporate players' obligations), PDFs of adventures (for when the players go down a specific rail or path), and encounters (Rogue Events, obligation-driven, etc.). I could do something very similar with Evernote or even just a bunch of bookmarks, but Scrivener's layout helps me keep everything organized and focused.

Additionally, our campaign is going to give Obsidian Portal a shot to keep things organized in between sessions (you can see our initial campaign setup here - it's still in its infancy).

My hope is that by gathering a bunch of resources and doing a lot of organization up-front, I'll have a wealth of options at the ready and without a lot of downtime or stress in-game.

Heh what a coincidence, I too am using Scrivener to organize things. What I particularly like is how easy it is to add PDF files to the text files in Scrivener, especially combined with Preview on a Mac allowing me to pull out single pages from huge PDFs with a click of a button.

I was strictly Evernote for a while but it wasn't as elegant as Scrivener for my needs. It still makes an EXCELLENT npc/enemy sheet.

Oh, and I wouldn't operate without Wookiepedia.

I think I might use the information in "Trouble Brewing" for the first session. Of course the PCs may or may not play the adventure as is and I'll try to think up a couple more adventure hooks as well.

I decided on my first campaign to run a sandbox. We've had 2 sessions now and first one went well while the second one not so much. I have some basic ideas what I want to happen and I don't know my players well enough to properly gauge they're reactions to situations. Session started with them being presented with a job and during negotiation of the price one of the players threatened him, he simply got up and left and then had their ship impounded and the Imperials were searching for the crew. Not only did they do the job I intended they got considerably less for their fee as the employer took the bribes out of their share to get the ship free. I added a Droid into the mix that gave them coordinates to their next destination.

Session 2 offered them so much they couldn't in their right mind refuse then I had them raid a old temple and one of the players just decided to run off ahead of everyone while the rest stayed back and wanted to carefully map everything out. Part of the problem was I generated the dungeon during the session and was more then a little unprepared in the sense that I'm not a star wars buff. I watched the movies and enjoyed the cartoons and games so I need to research a bit more or at least I feel I need to.

I was constantly going back and forth between the split party. Each side I think was getting ticked at the other. I need to figure out how to reel the one player in and they are the only one that has experience playing rpgs the rest are all newbies.