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Gnome Stew won the silver ENnie Award for Best Blog in 2011 and 2010 -- thank you for your support! Online since 2008, we've published 1,109 articles packed with GMing tips and advice, as well as two books for GMs. Our top 30 articles make a great starting point for new readers.

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Nov 12, 2008 by 33

Nonlinear (Sandbox) games

Janna at Dungeonmastering recently wrote up an interesting article about running non-linear games. They're a neat and slightly under-explored concept, so I thought I'd bring in other people's discussions and see what we can figure out. They are commonly discussed using a variety of names... sandbox play is another common example. Core Concept In one sentence: In a sandbox game, you wander around and do what you want instead of ...

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