Aaron Berger yes! You’ve totally nailed a thing I’ve been dealing with every session. Character-driven sandbox play is a beautiful unicorn but damn is it hard, as a practical matter, to keep it going. Can’t really prep in either style but you have to keep both in mind at all times. Augh.

I think they actually have been workshopping their goals and character stuff through play, and it’s emerging organically albeit slowly. And it’s not mechanically or procedurally explicit, right? There’s no way to fall back (maybe defensively?), and say “hey player, you said these were your flags and you said this was your crew’s flag, and that’s what I’m working toward.” Saying their goals and drives out loud kinda sorta bridges that gap, but it feels different than writing it out or doing it prescriptively. Are they still flags if they’re ex post facto?

It’s a totally different interplay and it kind of requires psychic powers. Which is most trad play in a nutshell.