The Gaming Den

erik wrote:For my ersatz dichotomy of sandbox/module, I mean you're typically doing only one of those at a time. Players can and do change gears, but when they're interested in one, the other kind of takes a back seat until interests change again.

I'm usually doing both as a PC, personally.

Using my wand of disintegration to make a straight line through the dungeon walls to where I want to go, while seducing the closet troll, and having a small army of hirelings and donkeys carry off the loot. Refurbish the dungeon into a shopping mall/community center/concert hall until the BBEG on the lower floors gets fed up and sends an undead army to make us stop playing the music so loud.

If you are interacting with challenges then I’d call that doing a module. Now you describe solving challenges with flair. But that’s fine. I think of sandbox as when you are explicitly not dealing with encounters or challenges. It may benefit you to train a bunch of lumberjacks with martial axe fighting techniques but it probably is not solving any challenges at that moment.

Does that sound like a reasonable take?

A sandbox has challenges everywhere, but you have lots of options of how to deal with them and most importantly WHETHER to deal with them. A sandbox adventure will 'develop' based on the actions (or inactions) of the PCs, but there is no predetermined central plot.

If you're exploring the Shoals of Destiny, it's probably a sandbox. If you're visiting the Shoals of Destiny to find the Coral Tower which was the last known location of the Trident of Command in order to assemble the three artifacts of Tendarr of the Deep to prevent an army of giant clam-people from overrunning the land, you're probably in a module.