I am currently polishing the GM guide for the next version of Icar and one of the things I'm describing is how to run a sandbox game. I have some very tight ideas about how I do it but when I try and write those down, they seem a little, well, fluffy. I hate fluffy advice. I only want to offer advice that is practical and can be acted upon.
I have come up with a series of GM tools that are very real things I use to plan, control and re-evaluate all the different threads of plot and NPCs. Describing how to apply these tools to actual play is quite a challenge.
Do you run sandbox games? How would you teach someone else how to run sandboxes? What tools would you provide?
Let's get some practical tips out there.