I prefer huge sandboxes, generally. In my Dark Albion campaign, the PCs have been all over Albion and much of The Continent.

Quote from: RPGPundit;928727I prefer huge sandboxes, generally. In my Dark Albion campaign, the PCs have been all over Albion and much of The Continent.

The versions of Faerun and Planescape I run both have railroads. Not plot railroads, the kind with trains. In Sigil, you can take the Concordant Express on a tour of the border towns of the Outlands, and there are connections to other places including Gothic Earth. Also, starting a Realms game at Waterdeep Station pretty much establishes that all those books the players read won't help them.

Quote from: RPGPundit;927851How large do you like your sandboxes to be?  Tiny, like a few miles around? A region? A kingdom? A whole world?  What are your reasons for preferring the size you like?

It really depends. I think the geo-graphical size of the sandbox is less interesting than the relative number of places the PCs can interact with. If my sandbox contains a big empty desert, it's big, but not that dense, if that makes sense.

That said, I've run a couple of sandbox games recently and I'm running one now.

It's a space game, so it's... big.

It's set in the Vela Constellation, around a set of a dozen or so stars that are ~100 LY from earth, connected by ER-Bridge gates. The map of "known space" in Near Vela looks like this:



I don't have full descriptions for all of those, of course -- but I have notes and (at least partial) planet lists for all of them and information that (at a minimum covers what someone living in that world would know, in case the PCs ask).

The action is currently taking place contested area (amber) in the middle, so I have more detailed system maps for those stars.



The PCs are in the AXUM system (orange star in the center), and started on the planet Ursomia. So I have a map with encounters for Ursomia.



Of course, they're in the capital city -- I have notes (but not maps) for the other cities, but given where they're starting and their nature (adventurer-archaeologists), I need maps for the city itself and surrounding territories.

Capital City Gielle


Nearby Gielle


While that would be fine if the characters were wandering around in the outlands, looking for adventure, they're a bit more methodical than that. Most of their interaction comes with people they meet in bars, so I have a couple of "sandbox" maps of -- literally -- bars that they can meet Patrons, enemies, etc. in. The notes around the periphery are from their enhanced reality implants.

Ursomia's Wayfarer's Guild (in a decommissioned space craft called the Higher Criticism)


The Wayfarer's Guild bar on the planet they just arrived at, along with a city & train map


That said, even some of the "dungeons" are essentially sandboxes. They're currently in a cave system literally miles across. There are all kinds of things in there (most not-related to their reasons for being there). It's a sandbox, within a sandbox, within a sandbox.

"The Spiral"


Geographically, these are all fairly sizeable. I do my best to make them reasonably well populated so that as the characters move around in the game world, they don't feel like everything's a paper-thin facade with nothing behind it, except where the adventure is.

Cheers,
-E.

The sandbox setting I'm currently writing is I think going to be about 400 x 400 miles, but it includes a big lake (inland sea) in the middle, cities around it, and is about 100 miles to the map edge from the lake. Heaps of varied terrain spread about. Points of light. The lake does make travel between some cities quick. Once you get out into the wilderness however, or the outer cities, all bets are off.

Quote from: -E.;928892insano maps

I wish I had your map-making enthusiasm and skill.

I'm working up a 15x17 hex map. I'm not sure how many locations I'll have at each hex or exactly what scale it will be.... that's already enough for over 100 locations. I feel like the way the different areas interact with each other is more important to what I want to do than the size the map is referring to. If I call each hex 6 miles across or 125 miles across... that doesn't seem as important to me until I decide if I want the time scale to be more like a day or more like a week. It's a toss up... a week "world turn" feels right to me... but a 6 mile map lets you see the horizon. Hmm...

Quote from: RPGPundit;927851How large do you like your sandboxes to be?  Tiny, like a few miles around? A region? A kingdom? A whole world?  What are your reasons for preferring the size you like?

Mine is multi-planet and pan-dimensional.  There is my core starting world, the one started in '79, then a slew of other worlds.  This started in I want to say '81 in fleshing out Q1, but maybe later.  I've about two dozen other-worlds that are my go to "you go through a portal" worlds.  I'll use my expanded Traveler inspired tables if I need random worlds and critters.  Lastly, I've sketches out of elemental planes, and the Heavens and the Hells (thank you Dante).  Most of my elemental plane stuff was inspired by the cover of the AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide, had to create some maps so we could go to the City of Brass

Why do I like this size?  Well, players can literally go anywhere could even leave the "world" and adventure awaits with not much of a pause.

Quote from: The Butcher;929106I wish I had your map-making enthusiasm and skill.

Thanks, man! That makes my day.

I love making functional maps (the players move their "where we are" icons around on the map to keep track of stuff) that are also attractive and a pleasure to look at. I get a real sense of satisfaction out of that.

Cheers,
-E.

Quote from: -E.;929303Thanks, man! That makes my day.

I love making functional maps (the players move their "where we are" icons around on the map to keep track of stuff) that are also attractive and a pleasure to look at. I get a real sense of satisfaction out of that.

Cheers,
-E.

Yes, those maps are absolutely amazing.

I love the maps -E. posted.

For my SF campaigns, something like 50Ly across is all I need.

Or maybe a single asteroid full of abandoned tunnels....

300 light years or so?

Seriously, I'm pretty cool with sticking players in the Third Imperium and letting them go... anywhere. That's just Traveller of course, and sadly my players don't seem to be down with it, they want to go back to Haven... again.

SO my USUAL sandbox (as detailed mostly on this very forum) is an entire world, plus at least part of the Lands of the Dead. And yes, they have tested that 'Anywhere' in every game we've ever played there.   Of course, they never go to placed I'd love to have them explore... no, they want to run pepper caravans down the River Erd and found libraries in the name of Wei Shakti, or delve into the massive, but supremely empty, Sea of Grass en route to... well... I did get some exciting mud orcs out of that one, not to mention a few cows the size of covered wagons.

Quote from: RPGPundit;927851How large do you like your sandboxes to be?  Tiny, like a few miles around? A region? A kingdom? A whole world?  What are your reasons for preferring the size you like?

About this size:



When you've got this level of oversight, planning, deliberation and laughs, it's a perfect balance.

(Yeah, new players don't realise how serious my guys and girls are about their NWOD games... until they end up the same way!)



Examples of the quick maps I draw up that we use in sessions when the big monitor is being used -- usually, it's because the players need a visual aid. I'm not a visual-minded person (auditory, if you're curious) but these seem to work quite well. We're currently using a revamped, gridded version of this for our current gameplay state of territory capture (Hunters vs Supernatural).



These maps by the way are older ones used for our Hunter: The Vigil Chronicle. Two of my players said using these maps are like using the maps from the classic fallout games when they're up on-screen and they're telling me where to move the game pieces. That and the ambient travel music probably helps that, hah hah.