The desire to create a fantasy sandbox has long been a big driver in my hobby. In creating Fellmyr, I re-discovered the joy that arises from such efforts but also felt the slap-dash manner in which I got going has been limiting in the longer term. The problem is not generating enough at the start to sustain a game.
This weekend I received my copy of Rob Conley’s “How To Make a Fantasy Sandbox“, a distillation of his blog series of the same name. This was the fruit of a recent Kickstarter that I backed precisely because I have been looking for a method to create a more realistic fantasy.
The book was initially daunting… confronted with a global air circulation diagram and a discussion of ocean currents set me into some resistance (flashbacks to teaching Geography to Year 7 included). But once you read the notes, it makes sense as a gameable guide to good-enough design.
I seem to have a problem conceiving the scale of a whole world and bringing that down to a playable scale. In Rob’s defence, he points you towards a sub-continental approach with a 200 by 150 mile core starting area for play. It’s another incidence of the “top-down bottom-up” design methodology.
I think my own confidence (and lack thereof) is a barrier: when I found the allegedly “straightforward” diagram of a network of drainage basins in Pennsylvania absolutely unintelligible then I doubted my abilities. Making sure my rivers all have appropriate shapes is something that I feel shouldn’t be hard.
Which begs the question, “Is this all worth it?” For a simulationist like me, yeah, I think so. Conley’s approach is a balance between realism and playability that appeals. Educating myself a little more and pushing through those confidence barriers around basic geography are not insurmountable challenges.
Time to dig in a give it a serious go.
Game on!
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I’m interested to hear what you have found limiting about how you have developed Fellmyr. In my own experience, I started with little more than 50 mile by 50 Mile area, which sustained play for 15-20 sessions. While that was going on, I then began to expand it to sit within a 300 mile by 200 mile region. I didn’t fill in many details to start with. Just a few key settlements which I had previously referenced, plus some geographical features. Then I just add to it as the game develops.
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In short, I didn’t have enough prepped locations to offer the kind of sandbox choices I envision. I find I am not good at adding things between sessions either – it’s one thing to come up with a quick location name and place it but another to make enough time to prep it with a location map or whatnot. I think Rob’s approach of more thoroughly prepping a dozen or so sites might give me more long-term play options. The difference between your solo and the three groups I have playing Fellmyr is three times as many distinct play areas to provide for, plus I am working at their pace rather than my own solo pace.
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I appreciate the shout-out and the review. As for the diagrams of geography. It is tough to figure out the right balance between detail and utility. The main point I was going for is not to be exact but to get a good enough sense of the possibilities for your own setting to be “in the ballpark,” so to speak. I picked the drainage system map of Lake Erie because other regions are far more convoluted.
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Thank you reading my post, although it’s less a review than a commentary on my own experiences with such tools. I am sure the difficulties are more to do with my personal skills and competencies than with any deficiency in the text or diagrams. I think, in actual fact, the Lake Erie diagram is clearer in the .PDF (where there seems to be more contrast) than in the printed book .
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I have tried many time to make a fantasy sandbox… once I almost pulled it.
My problem is that I always try to fill every environment… than I always change things and I am never satisfied. Ah and also I always find myself torn between making things upfront and generate content on the fly to get surprised…
I think Robert did a great job with his blog and this book, also I really like is sandbox example.
I think I need more training in focusing myself and then retry to make my sandbox.
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