How to Run a West Marches Sandbox

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In this supplemental video I show you how I ran my randomized West Marches-style “Forbidden Lands” campaign!
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[@danj1101]

I have to assume the final boss of a 30-year West Marches game is the slow gentrification of the frontier :p

[@direden]

Hahaha 😆

[@richardextall2002]

LOL 😂 Excellent

[@simontemplar3359]

OMG that is bloody hilarious! Day made!

[@Licjr]

Once they get a Whole Foods it’s all over

[@DMInverse]

Adventurer: a boss is the ultimate challenge that must be defeated. Karl Marx: interesting, please tell me more

[@GaBbY-gs3uo]

i doubt Trevor will see this but i love your videos me and my dad loved to watch your channel. my dad passed away not long ago but I'm still here

[@MeMyselfandDieRPG]

So sorry to hear that. I’m glad you’re still here 🙂

[@mrmiffmiff]

It is worth noting that the West Marches concept is *extremely* similar to the Open Table play of the Lake Geneva and Twin Cities crowds back in the day. This kind of thing is essentially the foundation of the hobby. It was the West Coast crowd (and later TSR itself, especially come Dragonlance) that led to D&D being run in a significantly different way. All styles have their place imo.

[@boredomaster]

We run 1 IRL day = 1 game day in our game. Higher level PCs can get henchmen and followers who in turn become low level PCs. 6 person table with each player having about 2-4 PCs each. Their higher level PCs often pass on quests and jobs to their lower level PCs. 1:1 time allows the DM time to move factions and characters over the map. Players text or email character actions and receive news and results from me. 90% of downtime activities occurs between sessions. As a fun aside: PCs can use plane shift to go to another participating DM's campaign.

[@greystorm9974]

Oh, I had a simple rule for travelling back, in my West Marches with Forbidden Lands.... 1 silver per day, if you traveled back off screen. My players took a lot of responsibility on getting the adventure done. Other times they had a great haul and took the easy way out, which worked as a money sink

[@barge489]

My very first campaign was actually 3 campaigns (when I started running DnD, I texted everyone in my phone thinking I would get maybe 2 or 3 players... I got 13). I being an idiot newbie DM, tried to run all 3 separately for a while... It didn't take me long to figure out that west marches was a much better solution for my situation. So I got all of the parties to a singular point, where they acquired a pirate ship. I called it "west sails" and I sort of ran it like star trek, in that I tried to always start and end each session on the ship. The players elected a captain and a first mate who became the shotcaller/master of schedules and the captain delegated other roles related to party inventory management and communications. In particular, I lucked out when they decided the needed a crewmember to be the "Chronicler" who was in charge of logging the crews adventures for everyone in their discord. It made it easy to see what they knew/remembered/cared about and I never would have thought about it. It worked gloriously. The players really bought into the gimmick of being a pirate crew and it solved the built in conceit of the campaign by explaining where the other players were. The absent players had to stay with the ship of course. I was able to drip feed the crew the map by giving them incomplete pieces of the world map they would acquire from different places and it allowed me to generate landmarks and hooks as I needed them and made the discovery pillar of the West Marches Campaign feel very natural. It makes sense that they would get treasure maps or hear rumors of ruins in a tavern and such. It sort of accidentally managed to create an over arching narrative of them tracking down the footsteps of the BBEG. The ability to easily generate content was a life saver during the early days of the pandemic when basically my entire party had nothing but time and I was running 3-4 sessions a week.

[@metallsnubben]

What did you use to generate stuff?

[@EricVulgaris]

I ran like a 70 session west marches forbidden lands campaign with over 30 active players. Friends say it was their favorite game! I have a lot of thoughts on organizing one and keeping it going as a single GM. My biggest advice to a dm new to west marches is that your system will not survive contact with the campaign. Show up with a plan and procedure, but you must be prepared to design, tweak, and iterate on it! Or you'll burn yourself out or wishing you did something one way but feel it's too late to change. I solved that by creating "adventuring blocks" which work like scrum sprints for you project managers out there. Don't ignore time and don't do 1:1 real/game time. I found pegging something like 5-7 sessions of irl time to a season of in game time worked best. Came out to be about 2 weeks irl = 1 season in. At the end of each block I'd release the next scheduled block of games folks organize in, gather feedback, do faction turn stuff, take a break from the game, and iterate my processes (how to schedule sessions on discord, max adventures you can sign up for per block, mechanics and downtime rules etc) so each block was smoother than before.

[@Robert-gd6yf]

Could you explain more about the adve ture blocks? Like, a story arc?

[@egisshield]

I'm not sure I understand.

[@EricVulgaris]

@@egisshield you don't have to track every day. Instead what I'd do is every 5 sessions is 1 season (3 months in game). And just progress time that way. You could do every 2 sessions is 1 month in game or every 10 sessions is a year. The ratio is what matters. Made faction stuff and downtime stuff easily manageable

[@jacobdavidlet]

I have been running a West Marches game for several years now and I have found that: "Time played passes for all characters." Works best for my table. It is the easiest way for us to keep track of the passage of time. (So if Jack and John go to the mountains on a 3 day trip. The next time a group meets, even if it is Mary and Jane 3 days have passed on the calendar.)

[@markbruno72]

OMG perfect timing. I'm starting a hex crawl with Forbidden Lands and I need a bit more direction. Thank you for this!

[@valmorgul708]

This is in substance how I run our forbidden lands campaign for more than a year! The game run itself with tables, legends, exploration, survival and obviously consistency, it was a great success and everyone had a blast and tales to tell. Sandbox campaigns, if supportedby systems like FBL are exciting for the GM as well. I loved to discover with them what was behind the corner in each hex. Well explained as usual, Trevor!

[@ArkhansMadness]

This guy gives off major Robin Williams energy and I’m here for it!

[@carlwoods4564]

Only just found your channel. You are hilarious. All the best from Lancashire, England.

[@PossumMedic]

"You can not have a meaningful campaign if strict time records are not kept!" 🤣 Great tips thanks! 😃

[@SabinAndAsher]

Brilliant! I wanted to try west marches as a style of play, but I didn't understand how to guide players by having to randomly create the map. But having already a predetermined geography, things become much clearer and "simple".

[@booksbricksandboards783]

Really enjoy your insight into world building and practical application of that at the gaming table. Been playing since the 80’s and I still learn something from most of your videos.

[@carpelo]

Fantastic! You could also use Delve from ironsworn to populate and describe what your characters may find in the next hex

[@thomaslesperance6256]

Super well done, sir! Definitely helped me on a few things as I design my own campaign!

[@joshgiroux1758]

This video couldn't have come at a better time! I'm starting a West Marches game in a couple of weeks!

[@Chad-xh8zs]

How did it go?

[@joshgiroux1758]

Hey! It's been going great. I run a weekly game with about 10 players right now in rotation. All my players came from 5e and love the OSR playstyle. @@Chad-xh8zs

[@bobr4024]

I posted a few times with the URL to the Wilderness Hexcrawl. I guess you have to approve it before it shows up here. Great work Trevor. Lots of fun and very interesting. And useful

[@valinorsdawn]

If you refer to the FbL Hexcrawl Sequence that Trevor built and uses as a reference, yep! I’d also be interested to use as a fab framework to adopt and adapt. Thank you, Both!

[@mikepearse5196]

The beauty of the human mind and this type of collaborative story telling is that it will become real. 22 years ago I started work on. Neverwinter Nights Persistent World that was based on a friends 6 year homebrew. That world evolved and grew into something beyond what anyone thought possible. To see it still growing when I can remeber the first live room is amazing. I am going to go reminisce about creating MUDs now.

[@HidingSleeper]

Which persistent world was it?

[@EpicSolo]

Such a great video Trevor. I am currently running a West Marches sandbox and apparently great minds do think alike! I am definitely inspired to borrow a few ideas I had not considered such as the "return to keep and update the map on the table." A great communal way to integrate every player's experience and contribution to the campaign in a meaningful and tangible way. "Retroactively create consistency," what a concise means to describe a great many tasks the game master needs to perform to make the campaign setting extra and special.

[@bizzy5439]

AWESOME tutorial! Rolling to return is brilliantly simple and helpful for me. Also I didn't know anybody else who used that Ruins & Relics pdf haha Thank you, Trevor. Very cool.

[@mathewsnyder97]

Fantastic overview. I want to use the same Forbidden Lands map!

[@abuzuhm]

Great video. Also, three cheers to manufacturers like Free League who facilitate this sort of gaming.

[@IIiBERTT]

Hot damn. I love forbidden lands. It was really foundational to the way that I GM. Mechanics are what actually drive the roleplay in my group. So, instead of having an idea of what you want your character to be, randomly rolling stats and subjectiving yourself to the dice and that being the basis for what you roleplay is so much fun. Especially if your group is as funny as mine. Edit/ps: If your group is cool with you randomly rolling stuff, it essentially eliminates GM prep (you still need to keep track of stuff, like Trevor says, it helps the world make sense). Might be hard for some GMs to convince there group that rolling random stuff in front of them is perfectly fine 🤷‍♂️.

[@_grumpytoad]

This was awesome, Trevor! Thank you for sharing. I've heard of "West Marches" style campaigns for years and read about them, but have never run or played one myself. I HAVE, however, made several homebrew campaigns that were designed with the idea of the West Marches style: I called them "rotating cast" campaigns. One I based in Balder's Gate in the Faerun world where the PCs played the city's "superheros" (in my game, they were referred to as Gate Keepers). Then I went on a long kick of trying to make videogames into tabletops, also with the idea of rotating players. I tried Dark Souls (which in the videogame has a perfect, in-game logic to why characters might be appearing and disappearing with the time dilation of the world of Lordran). And then I took two swings at building a Planescape campaign that would use Sigil as the central "hub world" and each session saw the PCs getting sent to a random dungeon somewhere in the multiverse at the whim of the Lady of Pain. Currently, however, I am running a more traditional campaign with a single cast of PCs. But I have ideas in the works for another "rotating cast" campaign for the future that would be a mix of the Labyrinth film and the Darkest Dungeon videogame which would see a campaign world that existed entirely within an endless dungeon! And this video has given me a lot of ideas for things I could use to make it work! So thanks again!

[@adrianwebster6923]

Great video, I second the request for a solo version. However, I am curious how you track and manage all of the randomly generated content and connections so you can keep that world consistency.

[@MeMyselfandDieRPG]

Each hex is numbered, so I keep a separate document with notes pertaining to each one. All the pertinent information, typically in point form, is listed there. If there are monster stats or NPC stats, I list them there as well.

[@thehermitthetower1126]

@@MeMyselfandDieRPG of course you solo'd a west march, lol

[@MeMyselfandDieRPG]

I didn't. I ran it for my group of players.

[@thehermitthetower1126]

@@MeMyselfandDieRPG ahw, im gearing up for one in my own group but i also just landed a dream job that requires travel, so, this may be hard to do, lol

[@JasonMartinRF]

I've always meant to look into what this was all about. Thanks for a great primer into West Marches!

[@victormoreno9785]

Love your GM advice. Definitely helps with planning and using the resources I have. Thanks Trevor

[@blackoathentertainment5617]

This is my favorite style of gameplay, it's so much fun both for the PCs and the GM. Fantastic video, as usual.

[@TatumVayavananda]

I really hope the next campaign is back in the Ironsworn or Starforged system! I loved your campaign when you played them!

[@whaarp]

Absolutely fantastic video, with great reminders of the important elements of a consistent world being explored. Just bought Forbidden Lands and I think we're about to have a blast!!

[@heathentongue]

Great job! we love the West Marches style! Islands are great for this!

[@Lee_Adamson_OCF]

This is my prefered way to DM. I used to prepare stuff, but they always went off the rails anyway (and good on them for that, no complaint), so I was always just winging it anyway lol. It's very interesting how the players will read some cohesive idea out of a bunch of random stuff, and then you can change their own idea enough to keep it interesting and feed it back to them. :D The d20 supplement published by White Wolf/Swords & Sorcery called "Wilderlands of High Fantasy" replicates *some* of the tables in that old JG supplement you're using. I *think* that one is still available.

[@KromKrausser]

Thanks You Runehammer i SEE allnyour icrpg videos

[@shaunb8294]

Now we need to see a Sage's Library on Forbidden Lands...

[@MeMyselfandDieRPG]

It’s coming… :)

[@thomasranney8913]

Thanks, Trevor. Needed a kick in the butt for my next campaign

[@Number01]

Could you make a video and go through your night day encounters rules and calendar journal? There was some notes below your hexcrawl procedure that was just out of frame for rests and night encounters. Perhaps this could be a very cool how to video playlist series for the "MM&D Style" West Marches campaign.

[@derek_davidson]

I love this style of running the game

[@etnaicholas]

The map idea at the home base is real good. I like the concept of my character's actions feeding back into the action of other players, and it gives low level characters a way to interact with higher level characters. Surviving the sight of a dragon, and getting back to base in one piece to write "Here there be dragons" for the higher level characters to investigate, is a very organic way to run a sandbox.

[@Bargletheinfamous]

Great topic. 👍 I will be watching this when I get off work!

[@Bargletheinfamous]

This was a great video. I feel like this is a great way to have active players in the game who are invested and interested instead of trying to force the interest. I am hoping to get back to running games next month and will try and run a West Marches in Mystara using BX rules.

[@zero_ngo]

Now i NEED to see your West Marches campaign :D

[@b.k.8515]

Fantastic video

[@AminWT]

Your stuff rocks! 😄

[@BigVillyStyle]

Fantastic stuff

[@joshgiroux1758]

Really good idea to use the Perilous Wilds. That thing just comes in handy all the time. I'm going to be using Basic Fantasy RPG for my West Marches game so im curious as to how it's going to run and develop. For me the biggest thing is not bogging the game down when rolling for new hexes and possibly random dungeon layouts. It's going to be a fun learning experience. My plan is to start a blog to write down all the triumphs and hurdles that will happen.

[@crapphone7744]

The perilous wilds may just be the best supplement ever. You can run a whole campaign out of it even if you don't do dungeon world.

[@joshgiroux1758]

@@crapphone7744 I couldn't agree more. The "Plumb The Depths" chapter is brilliant and I find myself reading the book just for fun.

[@joshgiroux1758]

@@NefariousKoel great ideas thank you. I know Dysonlogos has a bunch of maps one can use.

[@johnathanrhoades7751]

Perilous Wilds is one of the best resources ever. I use that, Tome of adventure Design, Universal NPC Emulator, and Worlds Without Number for basically all my adventure design.

[@antigrav6004]

I've got everything put out for forbidden lands but have not had the pleasure of running it yet. Even better is I already bought perilous wilds from your previous video on it.

[@AshersAesera]

Thank you for the video! ^^

[@liamtaylor4955]

I'd have stage fright doing all that rolling from tables and generation at the table. Not sure if it would work but maybe a little preparation, say populating a half dozen hexes in advance, generic enough to fit various terrains the players might point to on game night...

[@MeMyselfandDieRPG]

That is a common practice, yeah.

[@peterevans6661]

Good ideas, thanks

[@mistergoats4380]

Fantastic video. Thank ye

[@Usammityduzntafraidofanythin]

13:30 - A gonzo world, aka the World of Warcraft method of world building.

[@anthonysmith2645]

i'd love to give this system a try, thinks forthe great vid

[@LeeAlanBerg]

In the middle of writing up / prepping a 5e Ravenloft Westmarches game - this is immensely helpful! taking notes!

[@Dr_Dorian]

Great video btw.

[@ruolbu]

the perfect video for me right now by the perfect creator =)

[@Xenon451]

Sounds to me it is very suited to Twilight 2000😊

[@ThiagoPetruccelli]

I've been reading and watching videos about hexcrawls, but I don't feel that I got it yet. Maybe you could make a solo hexcrawl play video? I would love to watch it

[@MeMyselfandDieRPG]

Great suggestion, and on my list :)

[@norwolf01]

Good reference I came across is Izirion's Enchiridion of the West Marches.

[@mavfan21]

Just a note: you might want to update your Savage Worlds links to the newer edition of the Fantasy Companion and Adventure Edition. New players can easily get confused by the names. I say this from experience, I started playing Savage Worlds thanks to season 1 and I love it! I bought Savage Pathfinder and it is GREAT.

[@yinyangthang]

If Robin Williams and Richard Dreyfuss had a love child...

[@Scutifer_Mike]

1:1 time makes time tracking so much easier.

[@PickleRick65]

Way to take it back to 1974- 1980...

[@pricerowland]

Oh my gosh, it's me, I'm interested in running an open world West Marches style sandbox and don't know where to start!

[@bensdecoypoondummy1189]

The only part im curious about is - if you do all the generating randomly as the players enter the hex or discover something, how are you able to do so without stopping every 5 minutes to flip through pages and pdfs :) i feel like id take so long to generate on the fly

[@abstractbybrian]

Filing in the Blanks is brilliant for hexcrawling.

[@Mind_of_MATT]

Sandbox for solo & co-op play. Make that video when you get the chance.

[@aslotkin]

Loved the video! I’ve been wanting to try my hand at a more hexcrawl/West Marches campaign, so this definitely got my gears whirring. By the way, do my eyes deceive me or are you sporting an old-school AD&D Emirikol the Chaotic T-shirt?!?

[@MeMyselfandDieRPG]

Good eye ;)

[@BenjaminMarra]

Love this video. Boils down sandbox gaming-my preferred way to run games-into the key pillars I'd known about but hadn't seen spelled out so clearly. Super helpful. Would love to see a video about solo version of this approach, just to see if there were any concepts I was overlooking in my own solo campaigns. I love the Forbidden Lands Year Zero Engine core mechanics. I've been merging that with Risus and the classic WEG Star Wars system for my solo games and it's been working great.

[@themotleycrusades]

Great video, I am very curious about the content of the "Forbidden Lands hexcrawl sequence" document you were referencing during the video. That seems like a useful tool. :)

[@MeMyselfandDieRPG]

It’s here: www.memyselfanddie.com/resources

[@toddzircher6168]

Would love to hear your thoughts on a solo West Marches campaign since I'm starting one. 😀

[@Sanguivore]

Lemme know how that goes! :D I’d love to do the same~!

[@toddzircher6168]

@@SanguivoreIt's doing great, I love world building on the fly. Using Fabula Ultima along with Four Houses in Chaos and the Mystical Manga tarot deck.

[@Sanguivore]

@@toddzircher6168 Awesome! Thanks a ton for the feedback, and happy gaming, my friend! ^-^

[@duieb]

Sounds awesome! I just wonder what do you do with adventure prep? Say the players found a mine and want to explore, you need to have a dungeon ready. But since it's all random, you didn't know there's going to be a dungeon! How do you deal with it?

[@MRdaBakkle]

The only thing I've found is that if you are going to run this, I would just run with a small group anyway. Because clicks form and then you are just running three games for three people. Just run a sandbox game but with 4 people. If you want you could have each player make 3 characters that they want to play and then for each adventure they could choose who they want to play. You get less of a feel of different levels in a party, but I think that's fine.

[@MeMyselfandDieRPG]

Valid, but it really depends on the groups (s). I had a group of about 10 players spread across three cities, so we never really had the "clique" issue; people scheduled themselves to play (online) when they could, and that became the party of the moment. Alas, not everyone is so fortunate to have a large group! So a smaller sandbox game is more likely anyway for most groups, I would imagine.

[@MeMyselfandDieRPG]

Also, your "multiple characters per player" recommendation is a really cool idea. I've never done that, but now I want to ;)

[@MRdaBakkle]

@@MeMyselfandDieRPG I played in the first few sessions of a birthright game that had many players. But since we were managing domains it was intended that all players were in the session together.

[@NefariousKoel]

@@MeMyselfandDieRPG - Brings a variety that could be helpful to "alt-tastic" players who like to run different character classes/types. I've known it as "Troupe Play" ever since seeing it as the default style in Ars Magicka way back when.

[@AlabasterJazz]

I think another spin on the multiple characters per player idea, is to have a guildhouse where all the characters reside. Then in any given session any player can choose any available character. You might lose a bit of character consistency from session to session, but if the character is randomly rolled and has detailed motivations/goals/personality, and no one is particularly attached to a specific character, everyone can play different archetypes as the mood arises. But even if you don't go that far with it, having 1 or 2 backup characters per player can achieve very much the same result.

[@coreymayo8321]

This is great stuff! I'm inspired to pick back up my solo campaign of Forbidden Lands that's been dormant for 18 months. Especially now that I realize that I'd already partially been playing a West Marches-style campaign with 7 different characters (though one is already dead). I'd love to hear what alterations from the guidance in this video you recommend for doing it solo.

[@Rich_H_1972]

Ah, Verisimilitude. Definitely my favourite word. Least favourite: Moist. Glad you didn't use that one. Great video as always, Trevor! Love your enthusiasm and some fantastic advice too. I think an option for some sandbox games would be to have 2 or 3 characters for each player, that way if Gary's Elf was off doing something with Tina's Druid and the next session Gary was available but Tina wasn't then he could use his fighter to go on an adventure with Sue and Steve's characters. Danger of that would be having lots of hanging/ongoing adventures so would, perhaps, limit the amount of such things to just one at any point in time.

[@AxidentalDM]

I never quite thought of doing a West Marches game, but I think I'm part of something similar. OMG have I joined a cult! 🤣 We have a Discord server that runs Vaesen exclusively with HQs in Sweden, England, Poland, and now New Orleans. We have GMs that posts times/dates with a brief synopsis of a scenario to be run. Whoever is available then plays. And as a server, every game affects the overall world.

[@N0m0r386]

Hi Trevor! Awesome video, bravo! One thing: Why did you choose Forbidden Lands, and what do you think about the game? I did understand that it's a d6 pool system with an OSR kinda style.

[@MeMyselfandDieRPG]

I love FL. Such a great system for this kind of survival/exploration game. I'll be doing a Sage's Library episode on it soon :)

[@Sanguivore]

@@MeMyselfandDieRPG Hey, Trevor! Any update on the Sage’s Library for Forbidden Lands? :0 I did some searching around and couldn’t find it.

[@PsychesGamingAddiction]

Any experience with doing a West Marches style game in Pathfinder2e perhaps? Since encounter building and the pf2 game design doesn't really do "random encounters" due to the creature level being tied to party level.

[@Daniel-Strain]

Absolutely, on my return, it will be one day back (DC 11) and I'll roll a 1 (attrib +2 for a 3) and take 7d6 (!!!!???) damage and die.

[@Smittumi]

How long did it take to roll the content while the players waited, and how hard was it to ad-lib the connections between NPCs? I *really* want to try this style, been waiting for a chance for years! Hopefully it'll be my next campaign.

[@MeMyselfandDieRPG]

Great question! I'm pretty quick on my feet (see: seasons 1, 2 & 3 of MM&D), so pacing wasn't much of a problem for me; I knew those tables really well, so there wasn't too much time wasted flipping through pages. That said, when creating on the fly, there'll always be moments of "GM Pause"; rolling up random monsters using the FL book probably took the longest. However, I would always just be transparent with my players, and tell them to talk amongst themselves for a minute or two while I rolled up the challenge. No problem there. As for connections with NPCs, that's why I kept detailed lists, and always consulted them before the sessions to refresh myself with who's who, and what they all want.

[@Smittumi]

@@MeMyselfandDieRPG thanks.

[@abstractbybrian]

I always thought you should start your PCs in a town/city. I like that you didn’t do this but how do they get their gear?

[@trioofone8911]

Hey, I didn't know Robin Williams was into DnD! 😉

[@MeMyselfandDieRPG]

Uh…. thanks….?

[@brads2041]

Wondering about using west marches as a solo platform. It sounds like it might work out well for casual solo gaming

[@MeMyselfandDieRPG]

I’ll be doing a series using d100 Dungeon (and Wilderness) that should demonstrate something similar.

[@samchafin4623]

A well run sandbox kinda game can be really cool (though I'm not a huge fan of the resource tracking mini-game), but I've found West Marches games suffer from having a core group which plays in most of the games way outpacing the rest of the player with the connections they have to the fiction of the world, so the less involved players get pushed more and more to the margins, and feel less connected to the other players as well as the world being made. It's unfortunate, but group dynamics and schedules being what they are, I don't see a good way to avoid it.

[@ChrisGeisel5000]

Do you generate hexes on the fly, as players enter them? If you do, what do you do about a map of say, the catacomb you rolled up?

[@DestroyYouAlot]

The delivery is just hard to take, here, sounds like you're doing an Arch impression.

[@GrungefolkBoy2010]

Would loved to have seen this session in progress, especially the part when they where searching for clues for the dwarven key, how did you determine what the clues where?

[@MeMyselfandDieRPG]

I wish I could remember, that was many campaigns ago :(

[@GrungefolkBoy2010]

@@MeMyselfandDieRPG I'm doing a solo Maze rats campaign and the party need to find a book of warding, just looking for an interesting way of finding it lol But brought Perilous wilds though(through your link of course😜) so at least the journey is sorted now 😁

[@kaedegrv]

What are good systems to run a West Marches campaign? Was thinking about Pathfinder 2d edition but I'm starting to think this works better in less cruchy games because people might not be as used to the rules since they are not playing as often...

[@kurtiswiebe8192]

I'd love to run something like this, except I barely have two players on a good month since moving to Sweden. :/

[@onealflynn2414]

Now I’m thinking you should cover the Strider Mode for The One Ring 2e.

[@Lee_Adamson_OCF]

I've been looking for a reasonably priced copy of that JG supplement you're using for a good long while. :( It's too bad that Judge's Guild got banned from DTRPG after junior said certain things, lol. I mean, the old school JG material has historical significance regardless of the good or baddness of the current owner of the IP. Some of that stuff you just can't get anywhere, period, not even on the piracy sites. :(

[@MrPrimalAndrew]

Would you drop a link to the, “Wilderness Hexploration Table”? I’ve searched high & low, but I cannot find an official source at whom I could throw money! Thanks for your time, Trevor.

[@MeMyselfandDieRPG]

It’s in the links below :)

[@beard6295]

In regards to always being back at home base by the end of the session, have any GMs any issues with players trying to rush too fast in order to complete that encounter/dungeon at the expense of any exploration role-play? That's the only big thing to me that I'd have trouble with I think with my players

[@Zectari]

I've never played this type of gameplay, sounds fun. If they always start at a base, won't it take a lot of time (real time) to get to the dungeon that is aaaaaaaall the way over at the other side of the map every time they start a session?

[@johnathanrhoades7751]

Many systems (including Forbidden Lands) have a pretty easy travel procedure and with faster combat systems (again Forbidden Lands is much faster than say 5e) random encounters (that may or may not even occur) that result in combat (which many won’t) don’t take a ton of time. So even if they’re crossing the whole map, that can take between 10 and 30 minutes of game time depending on how much happens on the way. Then once they get to the place they want to explore, that’s where you can put most of your play time.

[@Dr_Dorian]

I think I found the files that has the ruins and relics tables.. not sure if I’m allowed to drop the link though. XD

[@andrewl9191]

West Marches is still really nebulous to me. I think I just need to watch people playing it. My group can sometime have people missing but the normal group for the most part, but I have a group of teens that can be somewhat inconsistent. Are you basically just making something up? That seems very similar to normal, but just not preparing in advance? Looks like we're finally getting closer to how to determine what is coming up. Does it feel more fun to be able to make up a map as you go, drawing it even if crudely, instead of already having a map? Seems like a lot of supplements are being used. I will also say, yes, please rip of author content in D&D, but that also means you need to read and experience a lot.

[@buchplays]

I wonder how rumors work in that framework. As everything is created on the fly, the players can't hear rumors about places no one have discovered yet.

[@MeMyselfandDieRPG]

Well, nothing ever stopped me from placing *some* pre existing adventure sites on the map. And also, that’s what the Connections principle is for: exploration of one hex can suggest to the GM the contents of another, more distant hex, which the players don’t hear about until they’re sitting in the tavern :)

[@timslack7568]

any chance we can get your hexcrawl sequence without your picture covering it? I ask because Ive been trying to create something similar for my own game and this looks to be perfect without my over complications Im running into, but cant read all of it.

[@MeMyselfandDieRPG]

www.memyselfanddie.com/resources

[@timslack7568]

@@MeMyselfandDieRPG fantastic, thanks! now Ill finally be able to kick off my game Ive spent 2 years over complicating and burning myself out on before I even played it

[@himurogentoku7117]

Ey, Mr. Devall you use roll20 too sir. Thank you so much for the great insight, sir. My friends and I have been discussing about trying either Forbidden Lands or Mutant Year Zero too.

[@HI-kb2cg]

I'm trying to do this for a single group can i do that it's working well i guess.