Shadowdark RPG could have been written for West Marches. Characters take a few minutes to make, they die easily, and they level up from the treasure they carry home, not from what they kill. Most of this page is about getting that treasure rule onto the site. For the campaign itself, like the map, the clues and the Discord server, see Running West Marches.
The GM rates each treasure the party brings back, and every character who was there gets its full XP. Nobody splits it.
To level up, a character needs their current level times ten, and the count starts over at zero. That's 10 XP to leave level 1, 20 to leave level 2, and 90 for the last step to level 10.
WestMarches.games keeps one running total that never resets, so the ladder adds those steps up. A community created with Shadowdark RPG as its game system starts with it already filled in under 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 |
After the session, Distribute Rewards on the adventure gives everyone who played the same XP and gold in one go, which is exactly how Shadowdark RPG counts treasure. Characters level up on their own when they pass a line on the ladder.
The hard part is the rating. One GM's fabulous hoard is another GM's normal one, and with several GMs that adds up fast. Write down what counts as normal, fabulous and legendary, with a few examples, on a GM-only World Wiki page.
Treasure is also gold, and gold pays for the torches and rations on the next trip. Every community starts with a Gold currency, and one is all you need. Players spend it in the marketplace between sessions, and each purchase is logged on the character.
Shadowdark RPG also has carousing, where characters blow their gold in town and get XP for it. You can build that into the marketplace. An item's Experience cost can be negative, and then buying it gives XP instead of taking it. So a night of carousing costs gold and pays out XP. The book also rolls for whatever else happens that night, like new friends or new enemies, and that part stays at the table.
A torch burns for one real-world hour, so the clock keeps running while the players argue about which door to open.
Characters die a lot. In Mike Shea's campaign, only one of the starting characters lasted 36 sessions, and most players were on their fifth or sixth. Let players keep more than one (Character Settings sets how many, 3 to begin with), and mark the dead as Deceased so their history stays.
The treasure and level rules come from The Arcane Library's free Shadowdark RPG Quickstart Set. The torch and the death count come from Michael E. Shea's Delving Into Shadowdark on Sly Flourish.