gmfox19
July 11th, 2017, 15:13
Hey all. I'm looking for players to start a short term West Marches campaign. I'm coordinating the campaign through the Facebook group I've created for it. This sums up the approach. If you are serious about joining up, request membership to the page and check the posts. Thanks!
I’m going to run this game as faithfully as possible to the style as laid out in Ben Robbin’s original post on how he designed and ran this style of campaign. I’m looking forward to exploring the West Marches with all of you!
Here are the parameters for the game I am endeavoring to run. In this document, I will lay out: the VTT and voice chat software I will be using, frequency of sessions and scheduling, the minimum and maximum number of players in a session and the maximum number of players, optional rules, and character creation.
Part 1: VTT and Voice
I will run this game on Fantasy Grounds. I have an ultimate license,which means you only need the demo version of the program to play. You can download the demo here https://www.fantasygrounds.com/home/home.php or from Steam. I have all of the player modules to date which are also free to use in my game.
For voice, I will be using Discord. You can download the program here https://discordapp.com/
You can join my West Marches channel via this link https://discord.gg/Xt5QZwn
This will be a voice only game.
Part 2: Sessions
As laid out in the explanation of the West Marches, players will have to work out when the sessions will be and who will participate. For my part,I will need to know a week ahead of time the destination for the next session. Also, since I am in Japan, the time difference will need to be accounted for by the players between them and I. For these first few sessions, we will have a session every other week from the initial session.
At least for these first few sessions, I will limit them to two hours. If player interest and desire warrant it, session could go up to three or four hours.
My schedule for running games during the week will be generally limited to the latter part of the evening Japan Standard Time. Whereas weekend games could be scheduled for the afternoon through evening Japan Standard Time.
Part 3: Party Size and Maximum Number of Players
Minimum number of players for a session is 3. The maximum number of players is 5. The maximum number of players in the campaign is 15.
Part 4: Optional Rules
In order to underscore the dangers of the West Marches, I’ll be using the following optional rules from the DMG: Healer’s Kit Dependency. And for some flair, Plot points for the PCs, which can be earned via special encounters rolled on the random encounter tables.
Part 5: Character Creation
For character creation, we’ll be following the Player’s Handbook plus one other source, including UA. All options in the PHB are open. All races in Volo’s guide are open, but if you choose a race from Volo’s, that will be your PHB+1 source. For ability scores we’ll be using Standard Array (15,14,13,12,10,8) or 27 point Point Buy system from page 13 in the PHB. There are no restrictions on alignment, just remember murder-hobos reap what they sow ;)! All new PCs start at 1st level.
That should cover the basics. If I’ve missed anything or need to change something, let me know and I’ll update things here as we go along.
Welcome to the West Marches!
UPDATE:
I’ve been thinking about the leveling process for this game and the idea of just leveling in the field doesn’t sit well with me. As an experiment, I’m going to decree that to level in the field, PCs have to spend downtime days equal to the level they are moving up to. In addition to that, they will have to endure rolls on the random encounter tables for each DTD used this way. If you do your leveling once you get back to Wolfmond, there is no need to spend DTD.
Since this will make DTD somewhat of an important thing, you’ll earn 5 DTD for every two-hour session.
I’m going to run this game as faithfully as possible to the style as laid out in Ben Robbin’s original post on how he designed and ran this style of campaign. I’m looking forward to exploring the West Marches with all of you!
Here are the parameters for the game I am endeavoring to run. In this document, I will lay out: the VTT and voice chat software I will be using, frequency of sessions and scheduling, the minimum and maximum number of players in a session and the maximum number of players, optional rules, and character creation.
Part 1: VTT and Voice
I will run this game on Fantasy Grounds. I have an ultimate license,which means you only need the demo version of the program to play. You can download the demo here https://www.fantasygrounds.com/home/home.php or from Steam. I have all of the player modules to date which are also free to use in my game.
For voice, I will be using Discord. You can download the program here https://discordapp.com/
You can join my West Marches channel via this link https://discord.gg/Xt5QZwn
This will be a voice only game.
Part 2: Sessions
As laid out in the explanation of the West Marches, players will have to work out when the sessions will be and who will participate. For my part,I will need to know a week ahead of time the destination for the next session. Also, since I am in Japan, the time difference will need to be accounted for by the players between them and I. For these first few sessions, we will have a session every other week from the initial session.
At least for these first few sessions, I will limit them to two hours. If player interest and desire warrant it, session could go up to three or four hours.
My schedule for running games during the week will be generally limited to the latter part of the evening Japan Standard Time. Whereas weekend games could be scheduled for the afternoon through evening Japan Standard Time.
Part 3: Party Size and Maximum Number of Players
Minimum number of players for a session is 3. The maximum number of players is 5. The maximum number of players in the campaign is 15.
Part 4: Optional Rules
In order to underscore the dangers of the West Marches, I’ll be using the following optional rules from the DMG: Healer’s Kit Dependency. And for some flair, Plot points for the PCs, which can be earned via special encounters rolled on the random encounter tables.
Part 5: Character Creation
For character creation, we’ll be following the Player’s Handbook plus one other source, including UA. All options in the PHB are open. All races in Volo’s guide are open, but if you choose a race from Volo’s, that will be your PHB+1 source. For ability scores we’ll be using Standard Array (15,14,13,12,10,8) or 27 point Point Buy system from page 13 in the PHB. There are no restrictions on alignment, just remember murder-hobos reap what they sow ;)! All new PCs start at 1st level.
That should cover the basics. If I’ve missed anything or need to change something, let me know and I’ll update things here as we go along.
Welcome to the West Marches!
UPDATE:
I’ve been thinking about the leveling process for this game and the idea of just leveling in the field doesn’t sit well with me. As an experiment, I’m going to decree that to level in the field, PCs have to spend downtime days equal to the level they are moving up to. In addition to that, they will have to endure rolls on the random encounter tables for each DTD used this way. If you do your leveling once you get back to Wolfmond, there is no need to spend DTD.
Since this will make DTD somewhat of an important thing, you’ll earn 5 DTD for every two-hour session.