Quote Originally Posted by Cluedrew View Post
The sword pieces would probably be in the notes of the sandbox, along with a neutral fraction and maybe possible allies within the orc army as well. Sandboxes have more options usually.

Also what sort of "non-linear" adventure are you going for. More than one type of game is "non-linear", even if we exclude sandboxes. For me the obvious third would be player-driven, but that doesn't seem to be what it is.
Obviously, yeah. I didn't want to write out all the sandbox/campaign notes, because that would take WAY TOO MUCH effort for this thread.

And I guess my distinction would be as follows:

A bad linear adventure renders the players irrelevant. The outcomes are pre-ordained, and what they do has basically no impact.

A good linear adventure has a set path, with plenty of stops along the way that are pre-ordained, but what the players do and how well they do it still matters.

A non-linear adventure has a set goal and a tighter focus than a sandbox campaign, but lots of freedom in achieving that goal.

A sandbox game is complete freedom.