There are many ways to run a West Marches campaign. If you don't know where to begin, start with these.
World and content
Frontier regionA wilderness beyond civilization, split into three to five subregions, each with its own theme, dangers and terrain.
Adventure sitesPlan about eight to twelve short dungeons of five rooms each, two or three medium sites, and perhaps one large dungeon that connects several areas. Keep track of locations, rumors and lore in the World Wiki.
Clue webEvery location should point to at least three others through rumors, letters or objects, so the players always have somewhere to go next.
FactionsThree groups with their own goals, which change as the game goes on.
Home baseOne safe town where players rest, trade and plan. Keep it simple, and don't write a storyline for it in advance.
Hex crawl (optional)Use three-mile hexes. The GM keeps the detailed map, and the players fill in a blank one as they explore. WestMarches.games has a hexcrawl map tool for this.
Scheduling and communication
Keep sessions on a shared calendar, and make sure everyone knows how signups work.
Keep an adventure log where players write a short summary of each session.
Give planning, rumors and out-of-game chat their own channels.
Decide on booking rules: who can schedule sessions, how much notice they need to give, and how big a group can be.
Session flow
Start in town, with the group saying what it wants to do.
Travel through the wilderness, with the players choosing the route and the risks.
Let the players explore each site and decide whether to push on or head back.
Finish back in town when you can.
After the session, the players post a log and update the map.
Progression and rewards
Use XP instead of milestones, so progress is visible and works the same at every table. WestMarches.games works out each character's level from their XP.
Give XP for defeating monsters, finding treasure and making important discoveries. After each session the GM hands out XP and rewards on the site, and levels update on their own.
Agree on loot and challenge levels, so every GM gives out rewards at about the same pace.
Reward more than items. Boons, titles or training give players other reasons to get involved.
Be clear about the risk and reward: the more dangerous the challenge, the better the treasure.
Managing several GMs
Share a GM guide covering encounter math, loot tables for each level, downtime rules and how resurrection works.
Keep a world ledger of dates, places visited, faction progress and open quests. WestMarches.games keeps the adventure history for you: what happened, when, and who was there.
When something changes, like a cleared site or a defeated faction, write it in the World Wiki straight away. The community settings keep the progression rules the same for every GM.
Travel, time and risk
Make distance and time matter. Simple travel and weather rules give the players' choices consequences.
Keep the danger real. Make threats visible, and always leave retreat open.
Let players have more than one character, so the game can go on when one dies or is far away.
Social dynamics
Watch out for player cliques, inactive members, unfair loot and trouble booking sessions. Some ways to handle them:
Take turns so everyone gets a chance to go first.
Host mixer sessions where groups are chosen at random.
Handle loot openly, by the same rules for everyone.
Give new GMs ready-to-run sites for their first one-shots.
Write down rules for conduct and safety and share them with everyone.
GM prep
Make a one-page summary for each site, including its purpose, map, clues, loot, and how it restocks.
Create rumor tables for each region to help build the clue web.
Keep track of faction progress on a calendar everyone can see.
Keep prep simple enough to reuse.
Player responsibilities
Suggest and help organize sessions.
Keep your character sheet up to date and somewhere any GM can open it.
Write short reports after each session and update the shared map.
Aim to end sessions back in town, so the story can carry on with the next group.
Using WestMarches.games
What the site does for a West Marches campaign:
Adventure scheduling and historyPost sessions with dates, player limits and level requirements. The site keeps the history of every adventure, with recaps and who played.
CharactersPlayers can have several characters, each with its own XP, level and a log of every reward.
World WikiBuild your world together with linked pages and categories. Pages can be GM-only, for guides and secrets.
Hexcrawl mapsBuild hex maps that players can explore and look things up on during play.
MarketplacePlayers buy items with their currency, and each purchase is added to the character's reward log.
Community settingsRoles, permissions, progression rules and custom character and adventure fields, set once so every GM works to the same rules.
You sign in with Discord, and your community is set up around your Discord server. Players talk on Discord and use WestMarches.games for scheduling and tracking. For the game itself, groups that play online often use Roll20 or Foundry VTT.
Quick start checklist
Frontier with 3 to 5 subregions
Three active factions
GM hex map and blank player map
8 to 12 small sites, 2 or 3 medium sites
Rumor and clue web
Simple town hub
Shared comms with booking rules
XP and loot standards
DM guide and shared ledger
Safety and culture rules
Start small and share information often. The campaign gets better once the players drive it themselves, picking where to go, following up on rumors and arguing about what to explore next.
Running it with Daggerheart
With Daggerheart, a few decisions are worth making early: how fast characters climb the level ladder, which tiers can join which expeditions, and whether to bring coins back for the marketplace. The guide to running a Daggerheart West Marches campaign suggests a level ladder and covers XP and gold.
Running it with Shadowdark
Shadowdark's deadly, treasure-driven dungeon crawling suits West Marches. The guide to running a Shadowdark West Marches campaign covers treasure as XP, gold and the marketplace.
Running it with Pathfinder 2e
Pathfinder 2e's tight, level-based math takes some adapting for an open table. The guide to running a Pathfinder 2e West Marches campaign covers converting its XP to the site's ladder, keeping parties within a level band, and gold.