How do you render a set of checkboxes without using drupal_get_form()?
...I just need a few &lt;input type="checkbox"&gt; elements.


Just render it as plain html, and if you absolutely want a render array, then create your own theme function for it.

$variables['content']['checkboxes'] = array(
    '#markup' =&gt; '&lt;div class="display"&gt; Please select every sport that you play.&lt;br&gt; Soccer: &lt;input type="checkbox" name="sports" value="soccer"&gt;&lt;br&gt; Football: &lt;input type="checkbox" name="sports" value="football"&gt;&lt;br&gt; Baseball: &lt;input type="checkbox" name="sports" value="baseball"&gt;&lt;br&gt; Basketball: &lt;input type="checkbox" name="sports" value="basketball"&gt;&lt;br&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;'
);