SanTiMA is, if not the "Good guy" city-state, at least much more adventurer-friendly than Angel City. While there is obviously a city government (two, actually, San Diego and Tijuana are still technically independant, though closely allied) they have little influence on peoples' lives outside of basic law-and-order. Most goods and services are provided by competing companies, and there are many, many of these. Even the largest are tiny by today's standards (can't have multi-national coporations in a world where international transportation and communication is disrupted by magic and monsters), but they are big enough to be the real local power. The larger corps have their own small private armies that mostly guard their facilities (and, in some cases, provide security to those who pay for it) but cooperate under business deals and governmental oversight in times of war. Still, SanTiMA has less military power than Angel City, and would likely have been conquered by their northern neighbors were it not for the Dead Zone between them.
Another benefit that SanTiMA has going for it is that it is more open (or at least, more pragmatic) toward magic and non-humans. Basically, anything that works for a corp or for SanTiMA as a whole is allowed, and their magical and alchemical research is far in advance of the more intolerant Angel City. In fact, some of the biggest corps are magicorps. This is also useful for PCs. They won't be arrested or lynched just because they have pointy ears or cast spells.
Of course, SanTiMA is not a lawless anarchy--although guns and fireballs are legal, they can't be used openly in most places (in the nicer neighborhoods, even carrying a weapon is banned, unless locked in a transport container or the like). Still, adventurers are accepted well enough, so long as they confine their adventuring to the Dead Zone (or to the rougher parts of town, where the police and corp security don't go).
Culturally, SanTiMA is a blend of US and Mexico, as befits its origins. English and Spanish are both official languages, and most people speak both, though many favor one or the other. Tijuana remains the poorer end of the Axis, though there are rich neighborhoods there, and poor ones in San Diego. Most people live in very dense urban neighborhoods full of multi-story, multi-use buildings. There are even a couple of true arcologies, one just east of downtown San Diego, and one at the old US/Mexican border. In addition, there's a small military "mini-arcology," Fort Coronado, on the site of the old Navy base at the north end of Coronado Island. This houses SanTiMA's only true governmental military, and mostly defends the city-state from oceanborne dangers.
Some of the most adventurer-friendly (and consequentially roughest) areas are to the north of San Diego proper. The city-state's influence reaches up to about Solana Beach along the coast. North of this, the Dead Zone begins, though it doesn't get really bad until somewhere around northern Carlsbad, or Oceanside. The only people who go that far north are the Zoneraiders. These brave (or foolhardy) souls dare to go into the Zone itself, in search of whatever magical or extradimensional resources they happen to find. They are also the default PCs in this setting.
