If you read my saga of Sir Walter Garley (links at the bottom, if you are interested), you'll have seen that it's the backstory to a Dungeons & Dragons Westmarches-style campaign.
I'm calling it "Westmarches style" for good reason, there are a few key differences to what is often perceived as the standard way to run these kinds of campaign.
Firstly, that I anticipate being the DM throughout (although I'm happy for this to change !) Many Westmarches campaigns are designed for anyone who wants to try their hand at dungeon-mastering to run sessions.
The second key difference is that most Westmarches campaigns are stand-alone settings that grow as characters level up and travel further afield in search of challenges. By contrast, this campaign is set into a long-standing pre-existing homebrew world. It is a way to open up a new province, but also gives characters the option to go into the wider world should they wish, as well as having events from the wider world impact on the storyline.
Finally, most Westmarches campaigns are centred on a static and stable base of operations. This one is focused on Garley's Rest, a brans new settlement which is designed to expand and change depending on both time elapsed and what facilities the characters want (and are prepared to pay for or create).
Map of Garley's Rest - created by me in Wonderdraft
Westmarches Draft Campaign Guidelines / Player Briefing
Characters
- We’ll be using D&D 5th Edition to generate characters.
- Attributes are generated using Standard Array (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8).
- Characters start at 1st Level. Similar to Adventurers League, you can use PHB plus one official source (Unearthed Arcana is not regarded as official). This should keep characters relatively playable, as well as not putting new players at any additional disadvantage.
- Each time a character reaches 2nd Level, you should create an additional one; in this way, you should end up with a “stable” of characters of various levels.
- Any increases in level take effect at the end of a session.
- The setting of Garley’s Rest is designed for characters up to about level 10. There is, however, a whole wider homebrew world out there. By the time a character reaches 8th-10th Level, you should consider whether you’d like them to either retire or move out into the wider world of Argull (and maybe even beyond). If they retire, an option is to set up a business or service in Garley’s Rest to help other characters (and maybe generate cash) – going out into the world later is still an option, and in the meantime you still get to roleplay “cameo” appearances.
Session Setup
- Games are “open table” – up to 6 players per session, first six get seats.
- Players shouldn’t feel compelled to attend every session, although reasonably regular attendance helps.
- At the start of a session, players organise party composition among themselves from among their stables of characters. All characters should be within a 3-level spectrum of each other, and ideally appropriate for the location you are choosing to adventure in.
- Players are expected to arrive ready to play. Pre-game admin or queries should be done beforehand, in order to maximise playing time.
Image by arifarca from Pixabay
Adventure Setup
- As a general rule of thumb, the further you go from Garley’s Rest, the more dangerous and higher CR the encounters will be. Additionally, the deeper or higher you go, the more dangerous it will get. The map shows concentric rings as a guideline for this.
- As an example, locations within a day’s travel of Garley’s Rest can be expected to be CR1-2, but the second level down of a dungeon in that area will be CR2-3, third level down will be CR3-4, etc.
- It is down to the players to select among themselves where they go and which areas they explore.
- If you choose to go to an area significantly above your level, bad things can (and probably will) happen and this will be entirely your own fault !
- If you go to a significantly easier area, it will either deliver lower rewards, be evacuated by any monsters present, or the monsters and challenges may be buffed to match your capabilities. DM’s choice, guided by narrative.
- Locations cleared by the players may be re-occupied by new groups of monsters, or may become part of the civilised area, guided by the narrative. What the players do will influence this, but it is up to you to go back and find out.
- At the end of each session of play, the party will automatically return to the safety of Garley’s Rest, pay the Adventurer’s Tax (10%) on their takings, and receive experience points.
- Players who think they will be present at the next session should give me an idea of where they think they might explore next time. This gives me the chance to do preparation in advance and saves me having to prepare the full detail of every single location in advance, although I appreciate that if the group has even a slightly different composition next time it could well change what you want to do. You have player agency !
Timekeeping
- The DM is responsible for keeping a record of the current in-game date, and when each character is adventuring.
- Some locations are several days’ travel away from Garley’s Rest. At the end of each session, calculate the date for those characters involved.
- All characters are bought up to that current date at the end of each session. For many of them, this will create downtime which can be used.
- Downtime activities should be carried out at the beginning of each session (or ideally before), but should take no more than a few minutes.
- If a player thinks their downtime activity will take more than a couple of minutes (or they want to do something secretive in downtime that other players wouldn’t know about), they should contact the DM with a view to organising this before the session. This might be done through an exchange of emails, an online one-to-one session, or whatever else works to avoid disrupting the flow of play for the main session.
Image by Danilo Rossetti from Pixabay
Expected Behaviour
- This is mostly common sense and mutual respect, but I’ll outline a couple of particular potential issues for clarity.
- In all cases, DM rulings at the table are final and any subsequent discussions should be carried out in downtime to avoid disrupting the flow of play. But the DM’s decision is still final.
- This is a game which may have themes of death, horror, mutilation, religion and other adult topics. You should expect to be exposed to this, and should be reasonably tolerant of it. However if at any time you feel someone has gone too far, you should ask for a time-out and raise the issue.
- Any sexual roleplay must only be between consenting adults, and we will adopt a “fade to black” approach to avoid any graphic descriptions. Assume NPC’s will not be consenting (no, not even to bards….).
- Although PVP is permitted, it is not encouraged. If you attempt PVP without a solid RP basis (or PVP where there is a suspicion of real world motivations bleeding through), expect it to fail and have negative consequences.
- Every player should have agency, and you shouldn’t act in any way which reduces or denies agency to a player. For example, if your character is in the same place as another player’s, you can advise them in an appropriate in-character manner if the situation allows, but you can’t just tell the DM what someone else’s character is doing.
- Division of loot is up to the party, but the DM reserves the right to intervene IC or OOC in cases of blatant unfairness.
Image by veverkolog from Pixabay
So what do you think ? I'd love to see feedback on this. What do you like ? What do you hate ? What is unnecessary, and what have I missed out ?
If you'd like to read the saga of Sir Walter Garley that's the precursor to this campaign, here are the links to the Hive posts;