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 ...

“Or: How to draw aggro on a GMing blog” One of the Holy Grails of gaming is the “sandbox game”, where there is no overarching meta-plot, or even individual plot arcs, but where the characters are put into a world that is both realistic and autonomous, and allowed to interact in that world however they see fit. To a True Believer of the Way of the Sandbox, everything else ...