Good day all,

I feel it would be a great idea if we get a West Marches style campaign going on this PbP forums!
With collaboration and agreement on rules, I think we could establish something quite fun and easy to get into.

I cam across the idea from Matt Colville's video HERE, which also links to the original idea of Ben Robbins HERE!

II have come across some rules people have used previously on the internet, and I feel they could be a good base to start with - would love to hear your interest and/or feedback!
Modified rules from HERE

Scheduling Games

• An individual player will be limited to only one adventure.
• Party size will range from 2-5.
• Once a group of players has been formed those specific players can not form that same group again for an adventure. (Subject to change as needed/per request. The focus is making sure that everyone has a chance to play - This is a scheduling consideration to prevent “cliques” from forming as it forces players to create new groups rather than forming the same group each adventure.)

Character Creation

• All new characters begin at Level 1
• If a character reaches certain levels and then dies or retires the player will be allowed to make a new character starting at a level higher than level 1 (how is TBC)
• Ability Scores are determined by the 27 point Point-Buy system
• Any Background, Race, or Class/Subclass from a 5th Edition rulebook is usable (TBC)
• The 5th Edition rulebooks are: Player’s Handbook, Monster Manual, Dungeon Master’s Guide, Elemental Evil Player’s Companion, Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide, and Volo’s Guide to Monsters
• Other unofficial sources I.E. Unearthed Arcana and Homebrew will not be usable
• Players are allowed to make multiple Characters
• A player is allowed to have up to 3 characters at any given time
• A player must decide which character they will play at the beginning of each adventure, obvs

Gameplay

• The starting town will be a “safe zone” where characters are safe from danger
• Each new session begins back in the starting town, where players will decide where to further the adventure (decide which adventure you want to do with which GM before the game).
• The adventure ends once the group returns to town or the characters perish
• Characters may participate in downtime activities when they are not out adventuring. The rules for downtime activities are outlined in the document “Rules for Downtime”.
• If you wish to purchase/sell items or speak to an NPC: contact the GM and do so outside of the adventure (most probs a PM channel set up)
• Players must negotiate with each other while dividing treasure amongst themselves and are not allowed to “call dibs” on specific items

Information and Social Interaction

• Sharing information is important in this style of game because not every player is present during each session. Players must rely on one another to learn about the world.
• Characters may “Boast” about their adventurous exploits from the previous session to gain Inspiration Tokens*
• Boasting may take the form of a written narrative describing the events of the previous session, composing a poem/song, creating a map of an area or dungeon, crafting artwork, etc.
• Any Player who submits some form of post-session reflection AKA “Boast” to the group will receive an Inspiration Token
• There is no limit to the number of Inspiration Tokens you may posses 
• You can share any information with any player in between sessions, the more the better
• You can collect Inspiration Tokens to either use in game as Inspiration, for a certain amount of gold (2d4 x 10 x Character Level), or to buy magic items. The cost of each type of magic item is listed in the “Buying Magic Items” table below:

Magic Item Level - Inspiration Token Cost
Common Magic Items - 1 Token
Uncommon Magic Items - 5 Tokens
Rare Magic Items - 12 Tokens

I am going to do more research, especially when it comes to exploration, but do share what your interest, thoughts and ideas.

Thank you!

 I'm very interested. I'm watching the videos you posted right now, but think it sounds like a lot of fun. The main thing I like is that if someone goes inactive, which is very common in the PbP format, it's always easy to find a replacement. 

Having multiple characters is a fun idea too. 

Count me in!

I am totally Interested! Watching the videos too.

I am new to all of this but would definitely be interested in playing. Seems like a great idea. 

I like the sound of this and want in.

You're saying to do this on these forums - how are you going to set up/manage all the different adventures?  Would Discord be better suited?

 I'd think just a different thread for each adventure would work fine.

Sounds interesting, I'd like to give it a try.

Just going to watch the videos, but count me in, always interested in trying something a bit different.

 Definitely down...haven't watched the videos but more d&d is never a bad thing

This is a great concept, I am interested in adventuring this way. I think it would work well for PbP

The video was very interesting, and I feel like I have adapted to DMing this way for my son (9), nieces (7,10) and nephew (14) as I have to keep the younger ones captivated and when they fell in control of the story and the art and the actions they stay much more involved. Like he stated they never feel like its them versus me. They are in control and everything they run into or try is due to their own decisions. 

This sounds promising.  Biggest issue might be recruiting DMs to run the adventures but count me interested.

 Watched the first video and I'm in.

I'm totally into this! Can't wait to see this developed. I would also potentially be interested in GMing for something like this occasionally.

Seems interesting. But have some questions (sorry if i rant i like thinking about these things):

1. If you have like 20 characters in game (assuming everyone only uses 1 character for simplicity): will you run multiple adventures at once? or will 25 of the people have to wait perhaps a week or 2 (depending on how long the adventure takes in PBP) or will you do multiple at once (and perhaps try to get sub-DM's like Rooksie). Ive seen some 'worlds' use a global DM and sub-DM's to run multiple groups which allows for a world. Because i think the major concern with this is that a lot of ppl will want to play with multiple characters and even if you run 3 adventures at once a huge amount of characters will have to wait their turn. Which leads me to point 2:
2. I would actually be interested to not only play as a player character but also as some NPC's of the starting town. Ive been experimenting with mini-games for the actual PC's and if it fits id like to discuss this with you on what the starting town looks like and make like tavern gamble games or perhaps some outside games (will work out some more games). But this could create a way for all the people waiting to play to stay busy.
3. Are you planning on making factions? Like every player could work/do quests for every faction but (like Ravnica) gain reputation for certain factions to progress in some way. The factions dont have to be against eachother but might be used to determine subgoals within adventures or allow for 2 groups to adventure towards one overal mission while having their own path towards it. This could allow for impact of the groups on the world (if one group succeeeds in their mission they could make it easier for another group etc or make it harder if they fail). 
4. The rules link isnt really working but contains the link (need to copy it manually). But it says for point buy that max buy is 15 (and min 8). Does this also apply since you didnt mention it in character creation?
5. Map: Not sure if you have an idea of the world map already but i have made a world map for another world that is no longer running. The main DM determined where what was on the map and i created it (map: https://imgshare.io/image/talaveroth.KtlAn). But that only works if you want an overal world where the adventures have some kind of impact on. But i feel this can be a big part of making the world come alive and allowing an easier way to track information that is shared specially with a large amount of players (since players can visually see where something happened).
6. How are you going to track all the player characters (there is a limit on how many you can have in 1 campaign). And it would need some way of auditing the players. Ive seen plenty of campaigns where players somehow got more gold, items, feats than they should have (adding inspiration points to that). Not always deliberate foul play but with a huge amount of players im sure that will occur (but maybe im just need to trust them more lol).

Anyway ill stop here. Im very interested to talk with you about this to work out these things (and ofcourse to play :)). I think it can be a great thing but does have some challenges to make it work for everyone. 

I would be interrested in joining as a player.

Thanks for the questions! You are right, it is going to provide a bit of a challenge to establish and adapt to PbP. But once we get it up and running, I would be great to get it a long-running game. Anyways, to answer the questions:

• If you have like 20 characters in game (assuming everyone only uses 1 character for simplicity): will you run multiple adventures at once? or will 25 of the people have to wait perhaps a week or 2 (depending on how long the adventure takes in PBP) or will you do multiple at once (and perhaps try to get sub-DM's like Rooksie). Ive seen some 'worlds' use a global DM and sub-DM's to run multiple groups which allows for a world. Because i think the major concern with this is that a lot of ppl will want to play with multiple characters and even if you run 3 adventures at once a huge amount of characters will have to wait their turn.

I was hoping to get multiple games going at once. If there were going to run by multiple DMs then a standard would have to be agreed on with rules with as much transparency as possible without ruining for PCs. In terms of waiting for games, I wouldn't want to measure anything in IRL time as little as possible mainly due to playing in different time zones. I was having an idea of how the group share information. I was also thinking of parting the map into different areas per DM, this way they get to play also. 🙂

• I would actually be interested to not only play as a player character but also as some NPC's of the starting town. Ive been experimenting with mini-games for the actual PC's and if it fits id like to discuss this with you on what the starting town looks like and make like tavern gamble games or perhaps some outside games (will work out some more games). But this could create a way for all the people waiting to play to stay busy.

I was thinking there would be downtime activities for the PCs still in town to earn a bit of money. If we can figure out some rules, maybe something along the lines of town expansion or setting up garrisons in places. However, all these ideas have to come after we've got a good foundation going, which I'm sure we'll get to, then we can include the idea of playing NPCs or guilds/factions and similar things.

• The rules link isnt really working but contains the link (need to copy it manually). But it says for point buy that max buy is 15 (and min 8). Does this also apply since you didnt mention it in character creation?

Yep, the DDB Point Buy system follows this rule.

• Map: Not sure if you have an idea of the world map already but i have made a world map for another world that is no longer running. The main DM determined where what was on the map and i created it (map: https://imgshare.io/image/talaveroth.KtlAn). But that only works if you want an overal world where the adventures have some kind of impact on. But i feel this can be a big part of making the world come alive and allowing an easier way to track information that is shared specially with a large amount of players (since players can visually see where something happened)

The map was going to just be randomly generated thanks to donjon HERE. I was going to leave more local maps has to be generated by the players based on what was disclosed to them. Or there was also the idea of making local maps and using a Fog of War system. Routes re-taken grants improved safety for future parties and such! 😃

• How are you going to track all the player characters (there is a limit on how many you can have in 1 campaign). And it would need some way of auditing the players. Ive seen plenty of campaigns where players somehow got more gold, items, feats than they should have (adding inspiration points to that). Not always deliberate foul play but with a huge amount of players im sure that will occur (but maybe im just need to trust them more lol).

I know the feeling! Trust is just has to used. I don't understand people who cheat, and sometimes it is genuinely a mistake. Transparency will have to be key: stating everything bought/sold. Inspiration Points would also be clearly stated and, therefore, logged. If someone appears to have more than they should all of a sudden, it can be looked at. Also, if someone feels to have under the amount they should, that can also be looked at! 🙂

I also found this:

So, we could have 2 campaigns if necessary.

There are lots of ideas I have, but I would love to hear others, even if it would include just help run a game smoother. Thanks! 😃

As far as keeping track of everyone goes, I have a couple ideas.

1. A master tracker thread. The first post of this would be the current players, team(s), include resource links (to the communal map, videos of the concept, etc.), rules, and perhaps eventually a list of links to active and completed adventures. The rest of the thread would be dedicated to character bios and Boasts for easy wrangling by the Global and sub-DMs (if applicable). Perhaps we put this in the Stories & Lore section of the forums to avoid cluttering the PbP one?

2. Regarding points, we could keep a sheet that can read by all but only edited by DMs. I find Google Drive's products, particularly the Spreadsheet function, to be very useful for this. This takes out the possibility of cheating or accusations of such. Not sure exactly how to format this yet. Maybe two pages where one is a record of current points and the second page tracks points that were spent ( and the reward given)?

I think splitting up the map for sub-GMs is a magnificent idea. I know Matt there suggested we already divide up the map into sub-sections for level tiers, so we can possibly break that up even further for sub-GMs. Maybe we could have a Discord or other similar things so we stay on the same page for things like shared NPCs. I know you can create private channels. This would also be an option for the type of OOC chatter that would need to happen to form teams and decide where the players want to go next.

I’m also interested

that sounds interesting. Like to see how it moves forward. Count me in as a player and possibly running a game here in there.