A West Marches game offers unique opportunities. Too many players? Messy scheduling? West Marches campaigns can solve both of these problems. At the same time, they can still create tense dice rolls and fantastic drama, too. West Marches games need a slightly different mindset, but the results can be really worthwhile.
Origins of West Marches Games
Ben Robbins is the tabletop game designer behind Lame Mage Productions. Back in 2007-08, he wrote a brilliant series of blog posts detailing an experiment. He called it a West Marches game. At the time, he was trying to solve three problems:
1) Players following plots mindlessly. Ben felt his players didn’t have a lot of agency; he was always the one controlling the narrative and sequence of events.
2) Difficult schedules derailing storylines. People usually lead busy lives with changing responsibilities. Players unable to attend a session, or who stop coming altogether, were really hurting narrative momentum. This was pausing storylines or destroying them completely.
3) Motivating the GM. Ben found he was avoiding preparing for games when he didn’t have a regular deadline.
His solution? The creation of a campaign style where players choose the adventure and narrative direction. The style allowed for a large number of players to play on rotation; no single character had to be there for the story to continue. Because there were no breaks due to scheduling problems, he found a rhythm from the regular deadline. It also helped create a style that needed very little prep, helping to avoid GM burnout—more on this later.
Over the years, GMs and other designers have added their own refinements and variations. However, the core ideas have remained much the same. The blog posts—found here, along with other gaming insights and advice, are well worth a look.
What Makes West Marches Games Unique?
A major difference is the number of player characters (PCs) involved. Most tabletop roleplaying games, Dungeons & Dragons among them, work best with around four PCs active at the same time. Usually, with one PC per player, that means three to five players at the table. Systems often struggle when six or more players are active. Ten players is very difficult. If there’s more than one character per player, this becomes nearly impossible.
Not so for a West Marches game.
Ben made this game for 10-14 players; Reddit has people reporting groups of 40 players, eight GMs, and one lore master. The latter sounds crazy to me, but it shows what is possible.
Large Numbers, Different Opportunities
These large numbers of people have some interesting results:
1) Games almost never get cancelled because players—or even GMs—can’t attend a session.
2) A group can have multiple GMs running in the same world without breaking momentum. It also lets GMs be players and vice versa more easily, too. Great for variety and avoiding burnout.
3) People have a much higher chance of finding gamers they connect with well.
On that last point, I have been part of a few gaming groups. However, one stays in my memory for being such an awkward mix of personalities and playing styles. One player wanted a personal power fantasy and the PCs to be a united team; another player only wanted to play secretive, lone wolf characters; the last player loved sub-optimal choices that made life more difficult for the group, but better for the drama. Sometimes a bad mix is just a bad mix. In other groups, each of these players could have had a great time. However, together they had a lot of frustration and arguments; I wasn’t good enough as a GM to satisfy all of them at the same time; they weren’t flexible enough to compromise or adapt for each other.
There are people who stay with a group because they feel bad TTRPG sessions are better than no TTRPG sessions. I believe this because I went through it myself. However, a Western Marches group offers a little hope here. Players can experience games with different types of players—GMs, too—without needing to find a completely new group. It’s entirely possible a Western Marches group splits as people find gamers they really connect with. However, the nature of a West Marches game means both groups should be able to continue without many problems.
Narrative Benefits
West Marches games offer unique narrative chances as well. Groups can trade information with each other or share loot. They can also co-ordinate to solve multiple problems happening at the same time. Because everyone is active in the same world simultaneously, their successes and failures can combine to affect complex regional threats.
For instance, imagine a region fighting an arcane plague. PC groups could find cure ingredients, rescue an expert doctor, and attack a cultist group spreading the plague simultaneously. Successes give rewards and drive the plague back. Failures increase the challenge rating of some areas and make new monsters. A more traditional campaign could do this, too, of course, but it might take months. Conversely, a West Marches group could be progressing to the next stage within a week or two.
The Wilderness Is Dark and Full of Terrors
Another major element is the heavy emphasis on exploration. Many West Marches groups use a hexcrawl map, but a point crawl is a good choice, too; in fact, it’s the one Ben strongly recommends for this style of campaign. Every location on the regional map should feel new. Even if the PCs return to an area, it should have noticeably evolved somehow to keep the experience fresh.
The region is its own character. The land changes according to the seasons, events, factions, and the party’s own work. Earthquakes, floods, volcanic eruptions, and apex predators feel less like plot hooks and more like part of a living world.
Player Agency
The last big selling point is the level of player agency. Sure, GMs should always be trying to give their players power whenever possible. However, any grand epic or high adventure is going to have the GM guiding events in a narrative direction. The West Marches format completely changes this setup. Players choose a short adventure for each session. They are deciding every time they sit down to play what their character will be doing. And they know next session will probably be something different.
This is a sandbox style game in its truest form.
Tips for Running West Marches Games
A West Marches game will see a big shift in traditional GM preparations. The first steps are far more work. They need to build an area all ready with locations to explore, inhabitants to interact with, and rewards to find. Ideally, factions, rumours, and interesting encounter ideas should all be ready, too. The entire map doesn’t need to be finished, but the more prepared, the better.
The players need a home base, but besides that town—or whatever it is—the world is unexplored and dangerous. For the first session, the GM needs three or four one-shot adventure-locations ready; these should be very close to the home base. This selection of adventure-locations becomes the group’s mission board.
After the first session, prep time becomes tiny. All nearby locations are ready. The GM just needs to repopulate random tables, and update the mission board. That’s it. I’ve been ready to go for the next session in less than 20 minutes. This is the main reason I believe West Marches games are so good at preventing GM burnout. Once the campaign is moving, there is very little brain drain during prep.
The Mission Board
The board changes as PCs take missions or unchosen adventures time out. It works like a menu, the PCs always having three to five choices for where to go next. Explored locations can also repopulate if the PCs don’t return for a while. However, these locations’ dynamics should change, making it feel fresh and fun to revisit. For instance, one party clears out a dungeon of undead one week; they find a lot of ancient armour and weapons. Then, a month later, groups can find a brood of wyverns have made the empty caves their new home. These have a hoard of gems and shiny magical rings. A different challenge with different rewards.
Adventure-locations should have a very clear threat level. Players should always know how dangerous a location is so they can make an informed decision. Here, variety is essential. This not only ensures genuine choice for the players, but also gives natural alternatives if a location is actually too difficult.
Very high threat locations need a little extra thought. If the creatures inside are very high level, why don’t they break out and take control of the region? Solutions are not so difficult; for example, they are guardians, or the location has a magic seal they cannot bypass. However, this needs figuring out during prep so the world stays believable.
One Adventure, One Session
Adventure-locations should always—or as often as possible—be finished in one session. This is essential because it ties back to keeping campaign momentum. If the adventure finishes in one session, it doesn’t matter if a player can’t make the next one. PCs should get back to home base by the end of the game, or “off-screen” before the next session starts. This means player—or character—rotation feels natural as PCs rest while others venture out. The problem of restarting an adventure mid-dungeon with a PC missing, or a new one appearing, isn’t an issue.
This is why I think Critical Role’s season 4 is unlikely to be a true West Marches game. I’ll be very surprised if adventures finish within one session. However, this is a hobby built on home-brewing and evolution; being picky about technical terms doesn’t have any reward here. As long as their chosen format suits them, that’s all that really matters.
Ensuring an adventure finishes in one session can be difficult. Clear communication is really important. It can be very helpful for the GM to make the updated mission board available before the session. Then, attending players can choose what they’re doing before the game starts. This stops the GM from unnecessary prep, and lets the action begin immediately.
Having a number of pre-generated characters is often very useful, too. These can help if the group experiences a total party kill, and get new TTRPG players gaming quickly. For systems like Shadowdark or Pirate Borg, where character creation takes just a few minutes, it’s less of a problem. However, other systems take a lot longer, and waste valuable time.
A Quick Note on Travel
The group will often find it easier to think of travel in terms of time instead of distance. I’ve found telling players the next town is a day’s journey keeps things simple. Informing players a place is 18 miles—or 29 kilometres—away isn’t as helpful, and not because it removes metric-imperial conversions! If a journey has eight miles of dense forest, six miles of flat road, and four miles of bog… I know my players are waiting for someone to do the time conversion anyway. Avoiding distance calculations keeps the action moving.
This has an additional benefit if the group is resource tracking. Not many people calculate food or water according to distance. By using time as the base calculation for everything, it keeps things elegant without losing much detail.
The People at the Table in West Marches Games
I’ve seen running a group with lots of people handled many ways, but there’s usually a list of some kind. The GM decides the time(s) they can play. Then, the players sign up for a session they can attend. If they cannot make it, those on the waiting list can fill in. Players still on the waiting list then get priority next time.
Alternatively, there can be a core of regular players, and then people who cannot game consistently are in reserve. These can fill spaces or play when they can with little disruption. For a time, I had a friend who didn’t want to play TTRPGs every weekend; the option to drop in and out as he wanted worked well for everyone at the table. He could keep doing his other hobbies; my other friends and I got more time hanging out with him; the narrative never became awkward.
It can also work well to bring people new to the hobby into a game. Trying to commit a complete novice to a two year campaign is tough. A one-shot or two that easily extends is much easier; and again, it doesn’t disrupt the flow of the regular players.
Also, a West Marches game doesn’t just help involve lots of people; it can also work for players running lots of characters. I had one player who, for the longest time, would create new D&D characters on his lunch break. A normal campaign would only allow a couple of those to encounter danger. The West Marches style sandbox gave him the chance to explore a dozen. He could rotate as he liked when the party got back to town, again, without affecting campaign momentum.
One Issue Encountered
One mindset I had to encourage my players away from was a “clear the map” approach. Unless this is a final objective that would finish the campaign, the wilderness will always be dangerous; cleared dungeons will eventually repopulate with new dangers. Otherwise, this style of play breaks down. PCs can make areas safer, especially around the home base. Creating a few bastions may be an option, too. However, making the majority of the map safe—let alone all of it—isn’t usually a goal.
GMs can encourage PCs to move away from focusing on one direction. Dangerously high threat locations and time-sensitive missions with tempting loot spread around the map will help. Encouraging the party to explore in a variety of directions gives old locations a chance to repopulate; in turn, this repopulation should create fun, new adventure opportunities, further encouraging players to leave areas alone for a while.
West Marches Games Are Worth a Careful Thought
West Marches games are a different experience to mainstream campaigns. It isn’t a style that everyone will like, but options are always worth considering. If nothing else, they can make our understanding of why we like a different style of play clearer. However, for groups actually seeing things they like, there are plenty of good ideas to steal—just like Critical Role. Finally, there are groups this will be a great match for. In some cases, it might be the only way some people can game. And the more people playing TTRPGs, the better.
Give it some thought; go west!
