The core elements
A West Marches campaign usually has a few things in common, as discussed in an RPG Stack Exchange thread:
- Variable player groupsEach session draws its players from a larger pool, so there's no fixed group.
- Self-contained sessionsEach session is a complete adventure that stands on its own.
- Community-drivenPlayers and GMs build the world together.
Beyond the basics
A few common practices follow from those:
- Multiple GMsOften several GMs, each running their own adventures in the same ongoing world.
- Shared home baseEvery adventure starts and ends at the same hub, a bit like an adventurers' league.
- Persistent worldWhat happens in one session can change the world for future adventures.
- Flexible character participationPlayers can bring a different character to each adventure.
- ExplorationExploring the frontier is usually the main activity.
West Marches online
Ben Robbins came up with the West Marches style, and it has caught on in online play. The name first meant one particular kind of sandbox game. Now it covers any group where players choose which adventures to join and which character to bring, which is also called "open table" gaming. That suits Discord servers and other online groups, because people can play around their own schedules and time zones while sharing one world.
Most are run online, with Discord for chat and scheduling and a virtual tabletop like Roll20 or Foundry VTT for play. The "marches" are the dangerous frontier beyond a safe starting town. Players form groups in this home base before heading out, a bit like an adventurers' guild.
Keeping it organized
With several GMs and a lot of players, a West Marches campaign takes some organizing. Most groups use a mix of tools, and it gets messy fast:
- Discord chaosSessions announced in chat get buried, and players miss them.
- Google Sheets overloadCharacters, adventures, experience and loot are tracked across several spreadsheets.
- Character managementCharacters are hard to keep track of when they play with different GMs in different adventures.
- Session coordinationSomeone has to manage signups, player limits and level requirements.
- World consistencyEvery GM needs to know what has changed in the world.
- Reward distributionExperience and loot are often tracked and handed out by hand.
So we built a tool for it
WestMarches.games is a free tool for West Marches communities that run on Discord. It puts what is usually spread over spreadsheets and bots in one place:
- Adventure scheduling with signupsPost sessions, set player limits and level requirements, and let players sign up. The bot posts each adventure to Discord.
- Character trackingCharacters, XP, gold and rewards in one place, with no spreadsheets.
- World wikiA shared wiki for your world so every GM stays on the same page.
- Discord integrationSign in with Discord, use your server roles for permissions, and get posts for new adventures and recaps.
It works with D&D, Pathfinder, Daggerheart and any other TTRPG system, and there are no ads.