For those who loveDungeons and Dragons, a West Marches campaign may ring a bell as a term, though few people in the community have had the opportunity to play in one.
Related:Races Perfect To Play In An Aquatic Campaign
Coined in reference to the campaign of the same name developed by Ben Robbins, a West Marches campaign has a number of caveats that make it the perfect campaign style for groups who find “regular” campaigns, both pre-written andhomebrew, difficult to stick to and finish. These are the reasons you should give a West Marches game a chance.
5No Fixed Party
The regular dynamic of any tabletop roleplaying game is that of the group of players, the party, parading through a world run by the GM together; running through dungeons, adventures, and peril to reach a narratively determined goal.
In a West Marches game, there is no “fixed party”. Often involving more players than a traditional campaign, the West Marches game is a drop-in drop-out style ordeal that allows for players to attend some sessions but not others. This fact alone creates a dynamic and colourful world of overlapping characters who adventure together in varied groups, creating their own independent storylines and intertwining relationships as they explore the world created by the GM.
Additionally, with no fixed party players can (with the assent of their GM) try their hand at running multiple characters who fill different niches, bringing whichever is more useful to the current session’s requirements or whichever one they want to play at the time. Allowing players this wonderful benefit gives them the chance to try out new classes, backgrounds, and character styles without impacting on the overarching plot as it is designed to allow for multiple potential party structures.
The sentence “who’s around for a game of Friday?” becomes one that is a source of excitement for those who can attend, as opposed to a disappointment when a single player can’t make it.
4Flexible Schedule
A major draw for players and game masters alike when it comes to the West Marches campaign is its hard stance against scheduling regular games. Keeping to a strict schedule and regular game days with most campaigns can add a lot of pressure onto players and is sometimes just sadly unachievable with the hassles of the day-to-day world. This can mean that many players adventures end up being put on a long term, and often indefinite, hiatus.
With a West Marches game communicating regularly to check availability as opposed to hosting a regular time slot gives players the freedom to join when they are available and miss sessions when they aren’t with it impacting others. This simple perk makes it much more likely that West Marches games will progress and continue for long periods of time and keep their players coming back when they have the time to be there.
3Sandbox Exploration
Something that is common in West Marches games, encouraged by its impromptu session structure, is the idea of exploration as a core mechanic and narrative premise. Akin to video games like Grand Theft Auto and Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, a West Marches game trades an overarching plot structure for an environment to explore.
With this freedom, the GM doesn’t need to have a long and complex storyline and can instead leverage the freedom allowed by this sandbox structure to make connected one-shot sessions that can ultimately accumulate to the ultimate goal of uncovering things in the designated campaign space.
Related:Best Subclasses For Spellswords
This gives the GM, or GMs, the freedom to input things they want the players to encounter because they are interesting, or because they just really want to run a certain scenario, without worrying about the impact it has on the larger narrative. In this way, the story arcs are largely player led, and the GMs can structure sessions around the individual tastes of those involved in the session with a lot more freedom.
2Expand Your Party
A huge benefit of a West Marches style game is that, due to its nature as a more impromptu, drop-in drop-out style, it is far easier to allow for new players to join an already existing and running campaign.
With the aid of the exploration focus of the format, new players can come in and help explore the area, whether it be at the behest of the organisation that the original players were working with, or as an uncovered addition from the map in any number of ways; escaped prisoners, local tribesmen, rescued members of another exploration group, etc.
Not only does this allow for entirely new people to join the campaign, but it also allows for a narrative reason for existing players to change characters. As a basic tenant of tabletop roleplaying, it is normally considered poor taste to begin a campaign with one character and then change your character simply because you wanted a change. In a West Marches game, the more casual nature of the party’s adventures makes it so that it can welcome any new character allowing players the chance to chop and change, dropping their current characters at will to create fresh level ones, should they so desire.
A fun side effect of this openness for the GM is that it also allows them to create some truly diabolical traps and encounters, as if a character does somehow die, the player can bring in a completely new character next session without breaking the flow of the overarching narrative as it would in a regular campaign.
1True Community Gameplay
As the players are all approaching the game as a collective, seeking their individual goals in the grander exploration overarch, the West Marches style of game is great for creating a wider gaming community. Your local game store, hobby spot, or community centre, are all wonderful places to run or play in a West Marches game as they allow you to meet new people and potentially create some truly great friendships and memories.
With the game allowing itself to be scheduled at the convenience of whoever is available, a West Marches game will often allow for participants to party up and adventure with characters and players they had not previously interacted with. With a common goal, it can be a lot easier to get to know the other people around the table as, instead of making notes on the intricacies of the plot, you will find yourself making notes of the characters and adventures you share in each session.
