Sandbox vs. Railroad spectrum as applied specifically to Transhuman Space

[vicky_molokh]

Greetings, all!

One of the existing classifications of roleplaying campaigns is their place on the sandbox-railroad spectrum.

The sandbox end of the spectrum describes campaigns with a diffuse or 'bush-like' structure of quests, goals and storylines; the party is generally free to explore the campaign setting to their heart's content and seek adventure wherever they go; there are no predefined overarching goals, and the individual adventures tend to be linked only by the fact that a single, persistent group of people undergoes them; PCs get a lot of freedom in choosing which adventures to pursue and which to stay away from; sandbox games make integrated, tightly-knit parties with interwoven motivations absolutely essential, because nothing else keeps the PCs together.

On the other hand, the railroad end of the spectrum describes campaigns with a strictly defined, perhaps even linear major storyline; there are strong narrative and causal connections between one adventure and the next; PCs tend to have little to no freedom in which adventures to go through and what parts of the setting to explore; there is more leeway in character concepts, as the circumstances commonly force PCs to cooperate even they'd rather bicker or go separate ways.

Now, this being a spectrum, not a dichotomy, most games fall somewhere along the line, while the ends are generally avoided (as they should be, as the fun of campaigns tends to break down at the ends).

However, here's what I'm wondering: is Transhuman Space predisposed towards campaigns set on the more-railroady half of the spectrum? There is a variety of reasons why I got this impression:
People asking 'Neat setting, but what do I do with it now?'. A certain non-portability of character niches across different adventure types (perhaps somewhat greater than in a more traditional ultra-tech setting). A significant non-portability of character legality - a character hopping between jurisdictions is very likely to get into trouble based on what it is and what it owns or befriends.
A significant difficulty in figuring trait usefulness during chargen in a sandbox: e.g. a Tennin feels great for the first 5 or so adventures in space, but will be absolutely miserable dirtside; the problem is, for a sandbox game, there is no way to predict whether the campaign will have an even split of two environments, or will be 90%+ dominated by one or the other.

The campaign I'm currently in was designated as more sandbox than railroad (but with an emphatic urge not to spend more than minimal time on Terra), however it is to early to tell how much of that sandboxiness will be actually practiced.

What are your opinions on the spectrum as applied to Transhuman Space?

Thanks in advance!