Shivering Isles is a campaign world I am working on that has been overrun by a darkness and the towns left are working to fight off the undead that come out of the darkness
Set in a 1800s steampunk mixed with magic setting where vampires werewolves and humans are fighting for control over this darkened world
I am looking to make this a discord server with a westmarch style and I am looking for DM to help make the server and player who want to play on it... Let me know if you're interested or wanna know more about the world
The West Marches: A Style of D&D Campaign for large groups
Hello, my Fellows.
Recently, I discovered a style of campaign that has been specifically designed for large amounts of players, called the “West Marches” style. It is very much a player driven style of campaign. It is the players’ job to collect the party, schedule the time, and figure out where they would like to go for each session. Not every player plays in every session, which is what allows large amounts of players to all be in the same campaign. This style of campaign would be great as a group activity, due to how it is formatted. Below I have quoted a large section of a post I was reading about this style of campaign that goes into greater detail than I have here:
“West Marches was a game I ran for a little over two years. It was designed to be pretty much the diametric opposite of the normal weekly game:
1) There was no regular time: every session was scheduled by the players on the fly.
2) There was no regular party: each game had different players drawn from a pool of around 10-14 people.
3) There was no regular plot: The players decided where to go and what to do. It was a sandbox game in the sense that’s now used to describe video games like Grand Theft Auto, minus the missions. There was no mysterious old man sending them on quests. No overarching plot, just an overarching environment.
My motivation in setting things up this way was to overcome player apathy and mindless “plot following” by putting the players in charge of both scheduling and what they did in-game.
A secondary goal was to make the schedule adapt to the complex lives of adults. Ad hoc scheduling and a flexible roster meant (ideally) people got to play when they could but didn’t hold up the game for everyone else if they couldn’t. If you can play once a week, that’s fine. If you can only play once a month, that’s fine too.
…
The West Marches charter is that games only happen when the players decide to do something — the players initiate all adventures and it’s their job to schedule games and organize an adventuring party once they decide where to go.
Players send emails to the list saying when they want to play and what they want to do. A normal scheduling email would be something like “I’d like to play Tuesday. I want to go back and look for that ruined monastery we heard out about past the Golden Hills. I know Mike wants to play, but we could use one or two more. Who’s interested?” Interested players chime in and negotiation ensues. Players may suggest alternate dates, different places to explore (“I’ve been to the monastery and it’s too dangerous. Let’s track down the witch in Pike Hollow instead!”), whatever — it’s a chaotic process, and the details sort themselves out accordingly. In theory this mirrors what’s going on in the tavern in the game world: adventurers are talking about their plans, finding comrades to join them, sharing info, etc.
The only hard scheduling rules are:
1) The GM has to be available that day (obviously) so this system only works if the GM is pretty flexible.
2) The players have to tell the GM where they plan on going well in advance, so he (meaning me) has at least a chance to prepare anything that’s missing. As the campaign goes on this becomes less and less of a problem, because so many areas are so fleshed out the PCs can go just about anywhere on the map and hit adventure. The GM can also veto a plan that sounds completely boring and not worth a game session.
All other decisions are up to the players — they fight it out among themselves, sometimes literally.”
So what I need to know is this a D&D 5e type game or Whitewolf (Vampires/Werewolf/Mages), or Cyperpunk?
If not D&D 5e, then I'll probably move on. But the concept West Marches style is very interesting to me. Seems that we could actually have multiple DMs working different parts of the world (Or even different planes of existence or multiple dimensions like Earth Alpha, Earth 13, Earth Secondus, etc) controlled by different DM's so we don't have to worry too much about each others games being messed with.
Shivering Isles is a campaign world I am working on that has been overrun by a darkness and the towns left are working to fight off the undead that come out of the darkness
Set in a 1800s steampunk mixed with magic setting where vampires werewolves and humans are fighting for control over this darkened world
I am looking to make this a discord server with a westmarch style and I am looking for DM to help make the server and player who want to play on it... Let me know if you're interested or wanna know more about the world
Added You!
I would be interested as a player
Interested player and possible future DM here! Irish#5622
I am interested if still available!
Is this game still available?
I don't have a signature.
Would be interested in a D&D Beyond Steam Punk Game.
(I'm was big fan of the Sakura Wars back in 90's)
ShadesDude, I found your Reddit page for this game and it said you wanted to set up A west March type game on a discord server.
For everyone else reading this, I have information cut and pasted from https://knightssemantic.wordpress.com/2016/06/01/the-west-marches-a-style-of-dd-campaign-for-large-groups/ below
The West Marches: A Style of D&D Campaign for large groups
Hello, my Fellows.
Recently, I discovered a style of campaign that has been specifically designed for large amounts of players, called the “West Marches” style. It is very much a player driven style of campaign. It is the players’ job to collect the party, schedule the time, and figure out where they would like to go for each session. Not every player plays in every session, which is what allows large amounts of players to all be in the same campaign. This style of campaign would be great as a group activity, due to how it is formatted. Below I have quoted a large section of a post I was reading about this style of campaign that goes into greater detail than I have here:
“West Marches was a game I ran for a little over two years. It was designed to be pretty much the diametric opposite of the normal weekly game:
1) There was no regular time: every session was scheduled by the players on the fly.
2) There was no regular party: each game had different players drawn from a pool of around 10-14 people.
3) There was no regular plot: The players decided where to go and what to do. It was a sandbox game in the sense that’s now used to describe video games like Grand Theft Auto, minus the missions. There was no mysterious old man sending them on quests. No overarching plot, just an overarching environment.
My motivation in setting things up this way was to overcome player apathy and mindless “plot following” by putting the players in charge of both scheduling and what they did in-game.
A secondary goal was to make the schedule adapt to the complex lives of adults. Ad hoc scheduling and a flexible roster meant (ideally) people got to play when they could but didn’t hold up the game for everyone else if they couldn’t. If you can play once a week, that’s fine. If you can only play once a month, that’s fine too.
…
The West Marches charter is that games only happen when the players decide to do something — the players initiate all adventures and it’s their job to schedule games and organize an adventuring party once they decide where to go.
Players send emails to the list saying when they want to play and what they want to do. A normal scheduling email would be something like “I’d like to play Tuesday. I want to go back and look for that ruined monastery we heard out about past the Golden Hills. I know Mike wants to play, but we could use one or two more. Who’s interested?” Interested players chime in and negotiation ensues. Players may suggest alternate dates, different places to explore (“I’ve been to the monastery and it’s too dangerous. Let’s track down the witch in Pike Hollow instead!”), whatever — it’s a chaotic process, and the details sort themselves out accordingly. In theory this mirrors what’s going on in the tavern in the game world: adventurers are talking about their plans, finding comrades to join them, sharing info, etc.
The only hard scheduling rules are:
1) The GM has to be available that day (obviously) so this system only works if the GM is pretty flexible.
2) The players have to tell the GM where they plan on going well in advance, so he (meaning me) has at least a chance to prepare anything that’s missing. As the campaign goes on this becomes less and less of a problem, because so many areas are so fleshed out the PCs can go just about anywhere on the map and hit adventure. The GM can also veto a plan that sounds completely boring and not worth a game session.
All other decisions are up to the players — they fight it out among themselves, sometimes literally.”
===============================================================================================================
So what I need to know is this a D&D 5e type game or Whitewolf (Vampires/Werewolf/Mages), or Cyperpunk?
If not D&D 5e, then I'll probably move on. But the concept West Marches style is very interesting to me. Seems that we could actually have multiple DMs working different parts of the world (Or even different planes of existence or multiple dimensions like Earth Alpha, Earth 13, Earth Secondus, etc) controlled by different DM's so we don't have to worry too much about each others games being messed with.
Just Food for thought :)
Cats go Moo!
I'm interested, would you accept a homebrew race? Half-cloaker, to be precise.
My favourites creations :
Half-Cloaker, Cloaker Lord, Potion of the Cloaker
I am looking for advice to upgrade my campaign.
There are troglodytes in my living room and cloakers in my basement.