One of my favorite takeaways from Sine Nomine’s An Echo, Resounding is that PCs will reasonably give you the side eye if they start running into big, dangerous, local threats they never heard of before being able to take them on.
The book then goes into how to lay the groundwork for the PCs reaching those levels. Make sure the PCs know of major threats in the region long before they are capable of dealing with them.
This doesn’t need to be done in detail or depth. It can be enough to know that people are worried about orcs to the west, sea raiders from the south, and there are rumors that the Big Dragon wi’ Teef ‘ike ‘is might be coming back soon. Each of these can exist in the background, with or without occasional reminders of their existence, before the PCs are in a position to need or be able to deal with them… but they aren’t a surprise.
This doesn’t mean the PCs know everything they need to about them. As with the classic G-D-Q series of modules, there can be things hidden behind what ‘everyone knows’.
- The orcs are under the sway of a giant with warlord aspiration.
- The sea raiders are fleeing a threat in their homeland.
- The dragon.. well, the dragon might be just being a dragon.
There can still be dangers in the region that are not considered threats, unless bothered. A powerful wizard, happy to left to his own devices, might not be a threat at all. Ditto the powerful undead creature quietly existing in the barrows. Locals probably know to not disturb either of them, if not necessarily why — “never visit the barrow downs, and stay out of sight of the Obsidian Tower” — but otherwise do not consider them direct threats. Just.. places and things to be wary of and avoid.
I’m going to expand on this a little. Major entities should be known to the GM at least, and clues (or at least rumors) available to PCs, well before those entities are encountered. I expect to have a mix of ‘positive’, ‘negative’, and ‘conflicted’. The locals know about the orcs and sea raiders, obviously, because they are a potential threat. At the same time, while they might never have seen the king or the order of holy champions, they likely have aet least heard of them. Then there are the known (or believed) hazards that are avoided, or known (or believed) uncanny ones who can be successfully approached and dealt with… maybe.
So far, this talks about active entities, but there are other things to think of. I see value in identifying legendary places and prizes people might seek out. Sure, nobody knows where the fountain of youth is or the way to El Dorado, but there are rumors and people trying to find them. Just as I could expect some side eye for having never mentioned the horde that attacks every couple generations, I can expect some side eye for having never mentioned this source of immortality that’s believed to be around here somewhere.
Closing Comments
Player agency depends on being able to make informed decisions. Verisimilitude, in stories and tabletop RPGs, depends on finding things that make sense given what was seen before. The clues don’t need to give away the conclusion (though it can be very satisfying when the reader/players figure it out before it’s proven), but even surprise conclusions shouldn’t come out of nowhere.
For similar reason, major events and figures (and prizes) in the sandbox are more satisfying if there was reason to expect or believe in them ahead of time. There can still be surprises! It might not be known who the Great Threat is, but it should be recognized there’s someone there, even if they’re well behind the scenes.
The hall of infamy also gives a lot of fodder for other entities. Just as every challenge has a response, if there is a threat you can expect someone to be working against it, and if there is a prize you can expect someone trying to win it. The hall of infamy is a valuable tool for enriching a sandbox campaign and lead to many lines for the PCs to follow.