If the measure of a book is how well book-marked it gets, then this handy accessory easily cruises into my top 10 gaming supplements. With the exception of some setting-specific guides, it is rare that something makes it into my gaming grab-bag beyond the core books. Most things sitting within reach of my writing desk don't come to the gaming table with me. The D30 Sandbox Companion is not only one that made this cut, it also got me to buy a set of d30's to be properly able to use it.
Calling itself "a compilation of d30-based mechanics, charts, and tables to support and simplify the role of the DM" what have we got in here?
3 pages of 'how to use this book'
4 pages of templates - a wilderness mapping key, worksheets for hexes, settlements and NPCs
2 pages for the Adventure Generator
17 pages of Wilderness Locations and Locales
7 pages on Settlements
12 pages on NPC generation
An index.
The "how to use" section is clear and concise - you could probably have figured it out yourself but it is nice to get a layout of both what the specific conventions used in the book are and a quick guide/walkthrough of how to use the templates. Includes complete and clear guidance to use the Rhombic Triacontahedron (d30).
d30s, with d20 for scale
The Adventure generator has "use as many or few of these tables as deemed appropriate" across the top and 10 x d30 columns beneath for adventure triggers, goals, obstacles, locations, villain drivers, themes, NPCs and similar. A handful of rolls on all these should be plenty to get the creative juices rolling. Four rolls gets me 'Trigger: Ambush, Goal: investigate location, Obstacle: reveal conspiracy and Location: undercity." I can work with this; we have a hook to venture into the undercity where someone has disappeared and noone will say what happened to them. Needs one more for "Villain goal: avoid loss" - where someone has run away or stolen something and they killed an unpopular hunter. The locals sympathise with the killer and form a wall of silence. Done - 5 rolls.
The next section of wilderness locations and locales is almost more than I would ever use - there is huge detail potential in here so I only usually use a subset of this section - effectively the back-half of this section, the hex-filling piece - is what I would turn to if needed. Ruins, temples and cult generators or castle, stronghold and settlement generators - it does not take long to rapidly fill out locations with points of interest using this. I find the stronghold generator particularly useful for getting a grip on the local power-bases and what, if any, patrols and local footprint they are likely to have. All of this is calibrated to a certain old school style of play - slightly lower magic than the 5e Sword Coast - but easily adjusted to your system of choice since most of the stats are '5th level fighter' and no more.
This is a book of spark lists, rather than detail - roll some dice, get a handful of words across a handful of categories and make what you can from that.
The next section is settlement generation - here the 'flat d30' is going to make your neighbourhood a little strange as there is equal chance of a monarchy as there is of a pedantocracy. Apart from that the reactions, economic backgrounds, issues and nearby threats are gold. Again, not much time and you get a sketched out place to push in front of the player and a couple of hooks. Continuing to work the settlement section gets deep into the details, down to dicing up whether or not various vendors and shopfolk are present. This gets a little more time consuming but is handy as by the end of it you get a great feel for the flavour of the place. What kind of settlement has a brewer and the toolsmith and not a single other shopkeeper present? Sounds like a logging or mining camp - not a place anyone lives, somewhere they work and then leave. I would expect the local tavern to be a fairly rough-shod place too - which I can then name and describe with the handy Tavern generation tables. Name, features, reputation and food can be rolled up and the place is ready to go.
The NPC generation tables gives NPCs for 0e/1e/BX - so while the classes can be taken as a steer, you get 'magic-user' not sorceror, wizard or warlock - if you want to make those updates, that is in your hands. More handy are the inventory, occupation and temperament generators, physical traits, personas and behaviours - these are pretty universal. Similarly at the end there is a Sage generator which helps identify areas of expertise and a henchmen/hireling generator which is possibly more use in old-school play since hirelings are rarely seen at tables these days.
This book is strictly the follow on to the D30 DMs Companion but of the two, I turn to the Sandbox Companion far more often and you could justifiably pick this one up on its own merits. Really handy, does exactly what it says on the tin. I got mine off Lulu. If you want some more opinions see Gaming Ballistic, Frugal GM or Rolling Boxcars for more.
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