This is a shared, persistent campaign built around player choice and flexible scheduling. There is no fixed adventuring party and no requirement to attend every session. Instead, players organize individual expeditions with whoever is available, choose which rumours or threats to pursue, and decide where to explore next.
Each session is a self-contained expedition that normally begins and ends in Talagaad or another established safe haven. The world continues to change between sessions: discoveries, alliances, enemies, and consequences created by one group become part of the campaign everyone experiences. Your decisions help shape the shared history of the Great Forest.
Discord will serve as the campaign’s tavern, rumour board, and planning table. Players will use it to organize groups, schedule expeditions, share discoveries, maintain campaign information, and stay connected between games.
The campaign is Talagaad prosperous river town on the edge of the Great Forest. Talagaad provides a stable home base where characters can recover, pursue leads, acquire equipment, and hear rumours of opportunities farther afield.
Beyond the town lies the Great Forest: an immense, dangerous wilderness of forgotten roads, isolated settlements, ancient ruins, dark faiths, predatory creatures, and powers that do not welcome intrusion. The forest is not a backdrop waiting to be cleared. It is a living, changing environment that rewards preparation, caution, curiosity, and the willingness to retreat when necessary.
This campaign uses Warhammer: The Old World RPG, a modern d10 roll-under dice-pool game designed for fast rulings, dangerous exploration, tactical decision-making, social interaction, and player-led problem-solving. The game uses Characteristics and Skills to form straightforward dice pools, with zone-based combat that emphasizes positioning, teamwork, terrain, and meaningful choices. The rules support both old-school exploration and character-driven storytelling. A small amount of homebrew will be used to keep play flowing and make the game more enjoyable for everyone.
Each player may have up to three active player characters. This lets you explore different parts of the setting, join expeditions that fit your schedule, and keep playing if one character is unavailable. If a player character dies, that character’s slot becomes available for a replacement.
Looking for a deeper, character-driven story?
Alongside our West Marches expeditions, I'm also running Shadows of the Great Forest—a persistent campaign set in the same living world. Adventures unfold around Talagaad and the Great Forest, sharing the same locations, factions, rumours, and evolving events as the West Marches games—but with a dedicated cast of characters following a continuous narrative where every decision has lasting consequences.
Shadows of the Great Forest offers:
Because both campaigns exist in the same setting, their stories occasionally intersect. If scheduling and narrative continuity allow, characters from Shadows of the Great Forest may also join West Marches expeditions, bringing their experience into those standalone adventures. The only limitation is that there can be no timeline or story conflicts with the ongoing campaign.
Whether you prefer the freedom of drop-in expeditions or the investment of an unfolding campaign, you'll be exploring the same dangerous frontier—where every expedition helps shape the fate of Talagaad and the Great Forest.
