Building a sandbox adventure module for Pathfinder
As we've been preparing our first product at bySwarm, we've been thinking about how we could make an adventure module that is less linear and more like a sandbox. Most adventure modules have a story that is being told which the PCs can influence but which gives them little room to move off the plot line. A sandbox module gives the players a perception of freedom while still keeping them within a given range of possibilities. It is much closer to what a GM can do when asking the players what they want to accomplish.
The strategy I've laid out for us to make a sandbox module involves tracking the impact of the PCs' actions on various tracks. As a given track moves one way or another, different events are triggered. If the PCs decide to ally themselves with the bandit leader, they increase their influence in his organization and will be given opportunities to do things for him. If the PCs sit around for a month doing other things, then events will be triggered on the time track that happen no matter what. Depending on what set of actions the PCs take, the module will be different for them than another group of PCs.
There are still lots of opportunities to contribute writing and art for this innovative product, so be sure to visit the site at byswarm.com. You can view the growing outline for the module at http://byswarm.com/lq0.
New site features
While the Swarm is working on the first product, I've also been adding new features to the site based on feedback and ideas.
Encounters - http://byswarm.com/content/encounters - Encounters allow contributors to design encounters set in the Dark Golden Age. They can be as simple as encounters with monsters, but they can also be puzzle-oriented or solvable through role-playing. Just like everything else on the site, encounters can make it into a product and earn a contributor some money. This was an idea of one of our Gen Con attendees.
Short URLs - Since web page addresses can get to be very long, it can be useful to have a shortened version of them when sharing them via email, Twitter, or instant messaging. Every piece of setting content now has a short URL that will permanently be available to reach that piece of content. This is useful now for the above reasons, but this will be even more useful in our products as we can put a short URL on any content to give a GM a short cut to more information.
