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 sessions in the same persistent world
- Drop-in/drop-out gameplay: Players can join available sessions 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 sessions
- Flexible character participation: Players can bring different characters to different sessions
- Community-driven: Players organize into parties for specific adventures
How West Marches Campaigns Work Online
Created by Ben Robbins, the West Marches style has become increasingly popular in online gaming communities. These campaigns are perfect for Discord servers and online communities because they accommodate varying schedules and time zones while maintaining a shared world experience.
Most West Marches campaigns are run entirely online, using platforms like Discord for communication and scheduling, combined with virtual tabletops like Roll20 or Foundry VTT. The "marches" represent dangerous frontier territories beyond a civilized starting point - think of it like an adventurers' guild where heroes gather before heading out 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, sessions, experience, and loot
- Character management: Tracking dozens of characters across multiple GMs and sessions
- 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