Monsters and stuff, sandboxes, railroads.

I'm lining up a new game. It might be a one-off, it might be the start of a campaign, and that's all good.

Either way, play needs to be reasonably streamlined: I want to try to be done with this *chapter* in one night.

So I figure: five or six "interactions," with some kind of resolution.

The advantage of a pure dungeon crawl is that BOOM they're at the dungeon gate, and we've got maybe two traps, three or four encounters, and that can be pretty lively.

That said, that's pretty much pure rails, and while it's got a certain old-school-cool, it doesn't give a lot of choice.

I can start the party in a village and let them decide what to do. I have sufficient depth to my setting that I can probably manage it but there's the possibility that it'll devolve into a morass of overpreparation and not really get to adventure at all.

I'm starting the party out as level 1 newbies. (Some of the players ARE newbies, some are experienced gamers.)

I'm going to try to mix rails and sandbox to a certain extent.

(RAILS) scene 1, the village: the party are all young, and ripe to adventure. But whether they want to or not, they have to leave NOW, because the Emperor's representative - known as The Painted Man - is rumored to be en route. Every four years or so, the Emperor sends out the Painted Man and his soldiers to press all the young men and women into his service. (Some say the army. Some say the slave galleys and the arena. Everyone agrees that these amount to about the same thing.) So the party has to leave NOW, with no expectation of coming back. (They've seen the Painted Man in their youth, or heard of him: even the most powerful adults in their lives weren't able to stop him then, and they certainly can't now, not if the village is to live.)

So the party MUST leave, and quickly. They are given food and clothes for a journey of what, one week? two? Which they must carry. They can buy arms and armor within limits. (not the full shopping list, certainly. This will be streamlined to avoid a morass of shopping.) They have a day to buy things they think of that they need. Rope? Pitons and the like? get it now.

It's probably best to streamline this even further. Avoid shopping entirely, and have the party supplied by the village - A suitable melee weapon, some limited armor. food for a week and basic supplies. THEN allow them to see what else is available: can we have rope? Pitons? Some sort of missile weapon? Allow cheap things the party can use, within reason.  Try to fold this into Char Gen as much as possible.

(SANDBOX) Scene 2: WHERE DO WE GO? pick a direction guided by a simple local map.
1) basic  geography of region within a week's travel or so
2) areas that are bad choices because of the Painted Man and imperial power? these might be shorter routes but will involve high likelihood of capture.
3) areas that are good choices because of potential friendly villages
4) which routes look easy? Which routes look hard?
5) Which routes have INTERESTING FEATURES? Tower?

Good prep can make this quick, and relatively easy. Advice from the town elders can apply negatively: don't go here because the Painted Man will get you: your supplies will get you thus far before you need to forage or work. 

(RAILS that look like a sandbox) scene 3: THE CAMP IS ATTACKED counting on party to need to travel at least overnight to wherever they go; they will have an outdoor, night-time encounter. Night fight! This can happen NO MATTER WHERE THEY CHOOSE TO GO. So the encounter is on rails. The important thing is that it appear that it make a difference which way they chose to go... it should seem to be a result of where they camped, or simply that they are out in the wild and vulnerable.

(RAILS that look like a sandbox)scene 4 OVERLAND ENCOUNTER. The general terrain of the region is similar enough that whatever overland encounter occurs can happen anywhere. A secret roll should be applied to make it look like a random encounter, perhaps governed by the path taken... but it doesn't really need to be random. It needs to look like a result of where they went, but it can be applied whichever.

SANDBOX Scene 5: This is tricky, in that it has to be dramatic enough to be a good finale, but be a chosen destination. It should be planted as a choice on the map: a tower! A strange symbol that nobody can explain!

Given that there are already two encounters, three if you count the story setup, this should be no more than two or three elements at this stage. Some element of a puzzle, some traplike thing, and a boss fight.

The TOWER, for example: it's a good lead-out from an overland encounter (fleeing from a foe that can be defended against from the tower, for example.) The tower can resolve the overland fight.

Once there, the passage into the tower can either be deliberately trapped OR it can be dangerous enough (the rotting, broken ladder and steps leading inside) so that it acts like a trap.

Then there's the monster inside, who may or may not be alerted to the presence of the adventurers.

SO there should be prepared two other options tied to the map, with approximately the same level of challenge:  two or three problems to solve, resulting in a reward of some sort.

Perhaps a village encounter; perhaps something more starkly supernatural - but these should be tied to player choices back in scene 2.