Shadowdark is a lean, deadly dungeon-crawler, which suits West Marches well. Characters take minutes to roll up, they die easily, and most of what you earn is the treasure you drag back to town. That holds whether you're running a few friends or a big online game with several GMs. For world prep, scheduling, and session flow, see the companion guide on running West Marches.
In Shadowdark, experience comes from the treasure you recover, not from a body count. Hoards are rated, and the whole party earns the XP once the loot is in hand. A normal hoard is worth 1 XP. To level up, you earn your current level times ten in XP and reset to zero, so it's 10 to leave level 1, 20 to leave level 2, on up to 90 to reach level 10.
WestMarches.games keeps one running XP total that never resets, so the ladder you enter is the cumulative version of those numbers. The rulebook column below is what the book asks for at each level; the total column is what you type under Community Settings → Experience Ladder.
| Level | Rulebook XP | Total XP (ladder) |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Start | 0 |
| Level 2 | 10 | 10 |
| Level 3 | 20 | 30 |
| Level 4 | 30 | 60 |
| Level 5 | 40 | 100 |
| Level 6 | 50 | 150 |
| Level 7 | 60 | 210 |
| Level 8 | 70 | 280 |
| Level 9 | 80 | 360 |
| Level 10 | 90 | 450 |
Hand out XP after each session and the levels take care of themselves.
Treasure isn't only XP. It's also the gold that funds the next delve, spent between sessions on gear and supplies. WestMarches.games tracks gold alongside XP, so you can hand both out at the end of an adventure, and the community marketplace is where it goes back out, logged in each character's Rewards Log.
Shadowdark is meant to be dangerous, and its real-time torch keeps the pressure on: a lit torch lasts about an hour of real play. Characters die. Let players keep more than one, since the platform allows several per player and a death won't bench anyone for long.