Lessons Learned: Experiences in a Sandbox Game

[Ninja Dragon]

To be fair on you, I don't think it's entirely the DM's fault or the fault of not doing a session zero that the players don't care about each other. It's on the players to design characters who are motivated to be in the party. It should be written in the character sheet, be it a personal connection to the setting, or to the big bad, or having "adventurer" as a profession. Heck, I've played with a rogue who had been arrested and had to be in the party as part of his probation.

I have also been in a sandbox where every PC was a brooding loner who did not like revealing information about their quest to the others and was perfectly fine with being alone. That was pretty miserable, because the four of us just kept randomly entering buildings and talking to npcs while we waited for the DM to "coincidentally" make us want to go to the same dungeon.

Don't make a character whose goal is to be alone. Maybe it works for the character but at some point you need an excuse not to be alone.