The Last City 1 - A really open sand box

I've run this campaign two times and I'm currently running it a third time. My goal from the beginning was to make it as free of a sand box as possible and I'm happy with the results so far.

The premise of this setting is to make it a sandbox where the player's choices shape the story. Each time, it would evolve into a different story and experience. To that end I choose the following characteristics:

- The campaign starts in the last surviving city after a magical apocalypse.
- There are multiple factions some in opposition of each other.
- The PC's are new to the city so they don't know what to expect.

Freedom in character creation
The choice in making it post world destruction, without necessarily saying which world allows characters to pick where they came from—any world or campaign setting—as long as they still follow the character creation rules for the campaign. Since there was a magical apocalypse, having people transported from other realms is no problem, or justifying magical mutations, or other ways the characters can just be different or unique.

I would add that I have a small restriction for the tone of the campaign: No divine casters. Players may choose to play divine casters, but I prefer they don't. Still the general premises work without this restriction.

Freedom to choose
Of course, there has to be a framework for a campaign to work, or else it would be just pure improvisation, which I think is possible but not optimal.

So, freedom to choose what?

Well, any class or species in general as part of character creation. Although, I would advise players to have similar alignments to avoid creating conflict.

Freedom to choose allies and enemies.

The factions that rule the different districts have their motivations, needs, hates, and personalities. So, as a basic premise, there are some that are practically irreconcilable. That means that befriending one will necessarily make you an enemy of one or more other factions. For example, there is a faction known as the cannibal brutes, who are enemies of a faction of enchanters. If you befriend one, the other will most likely become your enemy. There are others with territorial disputes and so on. Other options, like fighting or befriending certain monsters, will also affect how other factions see you.

Freedom of movement
There is complete freedom of movement, but with a caveat. To justify "Difficulty Progression" the starting district, Agarpe, is protected by an aura created by a mysterious character. So, monsters closer to Agarpe are weaker than those farther away. Outside the city, there are only epic-level threats. However, characters can still go wherever they want.

Freedom for the GM to create and adapt
Due to the nature of the catastrophe, everything under the city is magically scrambled, so I can easily add dungeons or almost anything else and wherever you deem necessary.

I’ll dive deeper into the origins of the apocalypse in a future article.