What is a West Marches Campaign?
A Shared World, Many Adventures
West Marches is a unique style of tabletop RPG campaign that brings together multiple players and Game Masters in a single shared world. Unlike traditional campaigns with fixed groups meeting weekly, West Marches campaigns feature:
- Multiple GMs
One or several Game Masters run different adventures in the same persistent world
- Drop-in/drop-out gameplay
Players can join available adventures based on their schedule
- Shared home base
All adventures start and end at the same hub (like an adventurers' league)
- Persistent world
Actions from one session affect the world for all future adventures
- Flexible character participation
Players can bring different characters on different adventures
- Community-driven
Players and GMs participate in creating the world
How West Marches Campaigns Work Online
Created by Ben Robbins, the West Marches style has become increasingly popular in online gaming communities. Originally coined to describe a sandbox playstyle, the term now broadly covers any community where players pick which adventures to join and which persistent characters to bring. These campaigns are perfect for Discord servers and online groups: they accommodate varying schedules and time zones while maintaining a shared world.
Most are run entirely online, using Discord for chat and scheduling alongside virtual tabletops like Roll20 or Foundry VTT. The “marches” represent dangerous frontier territories beyond a civilized starting point. Think of it as an adventurers’ guild where heroes gather before venturing into the unknown.
The Organizational Challenge
Running a West Marches campaign with multiple GMs and dozens of players creates complex organizational challenges. Most communities rely on a patchwork of tools that quickly become overwhelming:
- Discord chaos
Sessions announced in chat get buried, players miss opportunities
- Google Sheets overload
Multiple spreadsheets for characters, adventures, experience, and loot
- Character management
Tracking dozens of characters across multiple GMs and adventures
- Session coordination
Managing signups, player limits, and level requirements
- World consistency
Ensuring all GMs stay synchronized with world changes
- Reward distribution
Manually tracking and distributing experience points and loot
Perfect for Online Communities
West Marches campaigns thrive in online communities because they naturally accommodate players across different time zones and schedules. Whether you're running a small Discord server or managing a large gaming community, this format lets you offer consistent gameplay opportunities without requiring fixed groups or weekly commitments.