Sandboxing

Through most of my gaming history I've been into world building. I like doing it. Sadly, the majority of my gaming style was more about telling stories than making worlds. The game was a story (and so was the setting). There is nothing inherently wrong with that from a self-serving, having fun point of view. The only issue from a gaming perspective is that it is self-serving.

GMing should be fun, and world-building should be too, but at the end of the day the GM is there to facilitate the game for the players. Or, if you prefer, the GM has one kind of fun and the players have another. The GM may enjoy writing histories and stories about his setting and players may even enjoy reading them at some point (unlikely as that is). But, when the game starts most players are ready for their characters to do something. This does not include reading or listening to the thousand-year history of...whatever. 

My job: panels 1-6. Players Job: 7 & 8. 

Over the last year or so I've adopted a more 'old-school' point of view. I'm not sure I'm part of the 'old-school revolution' other bloggers talk about, but I respect the movement. I have exactly zero interest in crafting a 1-20 adventure path for my players that more or less railroads them into a plot. 

I'd much rather spend my non-gaming free time building a sandbox world for them to rip to damn shreds.  I want my players to feel free to pursue what is best in life. (Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women). I want the world to exist not to provide the players a story they play out (like a video game) but rather a place for them to rock out and be awesome. I want the effect to be from the players not towards them. 

To that end I plan to begin working on a sandboxing project. I've been reading up on this sort of approach and I feel I have a good enough grasp of how to do it to get to work. I'm not sure when (or even if) my players will get a chance to rip it to shreds, but I hope they do. Just like building a block fort, the best part is knocking it down and watching it fall.