This week’s Advanced Gamemastery takes a first look (and then a much closer look!) at what it’s like to run a sandbox campaign. I use a D&D-esque campaign as the example, but the lessons can be applied to almost any RPG.
This is the third installment in the series. I’ve been very humbled by everyone’s excitement to see more of these videos! While I know it’s a cliche, it remains true that subscriptions, likes, and comments make a big difference in helping the channel grow! You can help bring these videos to a wider audience by training the algorithm!
If you’d like to keep helping the channel, though, can you do one more thing for me? Share the video! Whether that’s just texting it to someone you think would love it or posting it to social media, that would be huge!
I’d also love to chat about sandbox campaigns.
What have been your best/worst sandbox experiences?
What sandbox campaign have you always wanted to run/play?
The second Advanced Gamemastery video has been released! The Goblin Ampersand is a simple technique that you can use to supercharge the concept for any RPG scenario!
I talked about this a bit last week, but while our first video dived into the venerable concept of the Three Clue Rule, I wanted the second video in the series to present something completely new that hasn’t been seen on the Alexandrian before. In the long-term, the series will be a balance of these elements: Presenting the fundamentals of game mastering in new ways and to a new audience, but also diving into entirely new tips and tricks! And many videos will be a blend of both. Next week, for example, I’m hoping to combine a new introduction to sandbox campaigns with a few insights that will be very familiar to long-time readers of the Alexandrian!
Last week I also talked about how important it is for a new Youtube channel to have engagement with its videos: Subscriptions, likes, comments. I was overwhelmed by the outpouring of support! Thank you all so much for supporting me and the Alexandrian! And I’d really appreciate it if you’d do it again for our second video. Train the Youtube algorithm so that it knows how much you care about the Alexandrian and the algorithm will help introduce these ideas to an even wider audience!
The original Three Clue Rule essay was written in 2008. Revisiting the material today in this new format was interesting, allowing me a chance to incorporate some new thinking on the topic and also clarify some of my older ideas.
Going forward, the plan for the Youtube channel is to do more video essays while also beginning to explore unique content that’s only possible in a video format (including a project known as Short Shots™). The Alexandrian you know and love isn’t going anywhere, either: While videos will allow me to reach out to a new audience and do new things, there are still lots of big ideas and tools that are best suited for the essays we all know and love here on the site.
If all goes according to plan, I’ll have a new video for you next week about the Goblin Ampersand. If you want to know what that’s all about, make sure to subscribe!
… okay, I know it’s a cliche, but in all seriousness: Particularly for a brand new channel, it would make a HUGE difference if you take the time to like, comment, and subscribe. That engagement will help push the video out to a wider audience.
Klaas of the RPG Heroes Podcast interviewed me for a great discussion about meaningful choice in RPGs. You can also check it out on Youtube:
Klaas has told me that it’s already proven to be one of the most popular episodes of the podcast. Unfortunately, it was also the last as he’s moving onto new projects. But you can still check out all 24 episodes!
If you only follow me here on the website, you might not know that the Alexandrian has started streaming on Twitch! I’d been thinking about doing this for awhile, but what finally made me take the plunge was Virtual Gamehole Con back in November 2020. I had a number of seminars planned for the convention, and it turned out Twitch was the best way to deliver those.
If you haven’t had a chance to check out the stream yet, you might be interested in the Design An Adventure series, in which I literally design an adventure on stream. If you’ve ever been curious about how I use the structures and other procedures I talk about here in actual practice, this is what you’ve been looking for!
FENG SHUI
In this video we use the 5-Node Mystery template to design an adventure for Feng Shui.
D&D 5th EDITION
Here we start designing a node-based scenario for D&D which ends up being called “Noemi’s Dream.”
REMIXING AVERNUS
I’ve also been doing work on the Descent Into Avernusremix on Twitch. This is one example of these streams.
I’ll be streaming later today at 12:00pm CST. Stop on by!
