Continuing the Wonky Business B/X Sandbox game in the Shared World created by a fellow GM:

First of all the party returned home to the town of Wonky and Stonehaven Castle. They ignored rumors and went straight home, as their employer had asked of them. On the way two original characters met a third character (played by an experienced OD&D player) and an NPC discovered a roadblock guarded by kobolds. They evaded it to go around. In the forest they met 1 solitary kobold with a war-pig.

In the short struggle the war-pig was wounded and fled, the solitary kobold shanked the fighter before he got overwhelmed.

Death by kobold

The shocking first fatality. His player took over the newly joined NPC.

The party interrogated the kobold, learned that there was some sort of leader and that the kobold’s home warren was westerly from here. With that known they killed the kobold and went home to the castle. There the two new characters were hired by the baron; but for a very measly sum, according to hirelings’ wages. These was a disappointment for the players, as they expected a tidy sum as a fixed income or at least a big bonus, especially given that they had shown extra loyalty by ignoring every distraction/plot hook and went directly home after fulfilling the original contract.

The sad life of a merc

However, the baron is a gruff and cold guy (which was hinted in his detached behaviour, curt orders, and when his wife and sons moved out to live with her mother in Minaea). He has 180 men-at-arms, so he will not pay massive sums or magic items to someone for simply doing his job well.

Here was a disconnect with other games on this server because the players are used to meet so-called “quest-givers“, special NPCs who can only be interacted with in a certain way and who provide adventure hooks and payment. Whereas this game, attempting to introduce a Sandbox way of adventuring, relies on players becoming aware of situations and deciding to act or not to act on them. The baron is simply their day-job boss looking at them as if they were simple mercenaries.

Still, the new archer PC managed to negotiate a higher salary by pointing out his strong skills and extra woodsman’s knowledge.

Delving

The next session the crew got an espionage mission (hence the title: In His Grace’s Secret Service, a not-so-subtle wink toward 007). They were to take a look at what was going on in Eewton, a town that was increasingly hostile toward the Baron and had also recently renamed into Oakhaven, which the Baron considered to be a symbolic name to position Eewton as equal to his Stonehaven castle — a move that he disagreed with.

For Gold and Glory

This time the team decided to be more rebellious and self-reliant than during the first two sessions and actually went off the beaten path to delve in some hidden structure. Exploring a buried and forgotten chapel confronted them with several opponents (living and undead, animal and semi-intelligent) and hazards (mold), but also with treasure and magical loot. So session 3 ended much happier with classic XP for gold and interesting items won, which underscored the value of independent action outside of following NPC orders.

The players were also much happier than after the first two sessions, due to the gold they found due to going off the well-travelled road.

Insect Bites

The next session two of the players were missing, but one new player joined. His character, a thief called Delf, hired two retainers, a cleric and a fighter, and they joined the veteran PC and his NPC companions to travel eastwards together.

On the way they met refugees and the veteran PC sent his retainers with them for protection. The final four persons reached the camping site and witnessed an attack on travellers by giant robber flies. The party threw itself into the fray with exceptional bravery [except the thief, who dug into the strengths of being a thief by taking cover and shooting from hiding] and they won against the dumb animals.

Death; and survival

They paid a price — they lost the cleric retainer and two of the NPC travellers. The veteran PC barely escaped: he only survived due to a magical trinket he wore, a protective spell that he had collected in the Blemish refugee camp. It burned out after this one use, but negated a deadly hit; magic well spent.

After combat XP and some amount of gold awarded by the survivors, the party also learned details about Oakhaven from the NPC travellers: namely that it was now ruled by a despot who incarcerated his opponents and stirred up conflict with basically everyone: the kobold menace, goblins, the northern Hill Dwarves, the nomad tribes who traded at Eewton, and of course: our friend the baron.

Conclusion:

In every session I managed to drop in hints about the “other” things going on in this land, namely the events happening in the games of the GM who had invented the region. This connection to a world full of semi-unknown, disconnected events is some good backdrop that makes the world come to life: it is not just some texture behind the PCs, it is a complex region that moves and changes independtly of character actions.

Sandbox

And this was my main goal to present in this mini-campaign: a place where the decisions the party makes matter to them, and may filter back to the other game. Where jobs don’t come from “quest-givers”, but can be discovered and followed up with personal initiative. Rumors can be followed, with consequences, or can be ignored, which has its own consequences.

It was intended as proof of concept that an open table sandbox where different parties can leave their footprints is possible. That part did not work out completely, as the overarching situation remains, so far, the mission given by the baron, and it cannot truly develop without the party that was sent out with it.

However, new party members build a new shared party identity, even without the baron, and a Sandbox can still function, as I believe. It only requires that the party makes decisions.

The alternate view by my co-DM is that waiting for party decisions is boring and players who have to make decisions will get frustrated and leave, therefore we have to put them on rails and be a locomotive.

Who of us is right? The experiment goes on, but I must admit that when it comes to proving our concepts, so far he seems to be in the lead.

To be continued

Next time we shall see what Oakhaven / Eewton has to offer.
It is a settlement, so there is all sorts of town adventures in the cards, or, depending on player decisions, travel to the dwarfholds, to the hunt kobolds, or goblins, or get into nomad shenanigans.

The Blemish Shared World

The Wonky Business Sandbox Campaign