Yes, probably the 100th person asking for help with a sandbox campaign.

Hi! I've been running games for a long time, but this will be one of the first times I'm planning a sandbox adventure.

I read a lot of advice before starting, and eventually found Woodfall by Lazy Litches Loot. It's a very cool setting about a swamp town and the wide variety of creatures that inhabit the surrounding swamps. I highly recommend checking it out.

We had our Session 0, created the characters, and I asked everyone to come up with a short backstory and a personal objective. I wanted to have at least one hook for each character that would make them invested in adventuring. Most of them came up with decent, fairly typical goals (finding a missing sister, trying to resurrect their best friend, finding their former teacher, etc.), and I've already come up with ideas for connecting their backstories to the setting.

My main issue is how to structure the beginning of the campaign so it's engaging for them.

The characters have just arrived in the main town, and we've already established that, for different reasons, they will be living there. What I'm unsure about is how to get them started.

Should I introduce a quest board at a tavern and let them choose between different quests, events, and locations from the setting? Or should I establish that they've formed a party to accomplish a specific task for an NPC or help the town, and then gradually introduce plot points through those unrelated quests that eventually lead them toward their personal goals?

Basically, I'm trying to figure out how to balance the freedom of a sandbox with giving the players enough direction to get started, while still making their personal stories feel like they naturally emerge from the world rather than being separate quests.

Thanks for any advice you can offer!