We have created a new Arcanor page. Arcanor is based on the West Marches. But what are the West Marches?
The concept of the West Marches campaign was first described by Ben Robbins. A tabletop role-playing (P&P) campaign in the style of the West Marches is composed of a loose group of players who participate in irregular gaming sessions in various constellations within the same game world. This world evolves between individual gaming sessions, so players are continuously confronted with the consequences of their decisions (and the decisions of others). If you want to know more but don’t want to read anymore: Matt Colville introduces you to the West Marches in a video.
A dynamic game
Experiencing an ever-evolving game world is one of my main reasons for keeping the role of GM. And Arcanor as a West Marches campaign is perfectly suited to create such a world together with the players.
They choose the specific goals of the gaming sessions, such as exploring the abandoned city of Oberholm or descending into the depths of the Cockatrice Caves.
The Game Master then prepares the dungeon and all the events and locations along the way. During the session, the players attempt to reach their goal. Throughout the session, they come into contact with new places, characters, and ideas for future gaming sessions.
This dynamic keeps me, as the GM, on my toes and forces me to adapt to the pace and preferences of the players. The story of the player characters takes the forefront as players do not follow a storyline woven by me.
A loose group of parents and other adults
The structure of a West Marches campaign offers, among other things, temporal flexibility. A campaign spanning several years with a fixed group often loses a portion of its comprehensive years due to gaming sessions being canceled, postponed, fizzling out, resumed, and canceled again, at least in my experience.
By transforming the fixed group into a flexible one, players in the pool can now simply sign up for a game (though the desired number of players per session is limited to 4-5 players!).
Extra points if the participants organize the date and location themselves, and there are multiple GMs who can divide the games among themselves. At this point: Thanks to the other KuL GMs for co-GMing! We would welcome more potential Game Masters for our Arcanor campaign with open arms.
Emergent Storytelling
When Lleylwin encountered not only near-death but also the curse of mummy rot in the depths of the Tomb of the Serpent Queen , and had to turn to the dubiously fanatical Sun Legion in search of a cure, I, as the GM, was also surprised by the twists that the stories in Arcanor can take. I hadn’t planned anything in that direction beforehand, and suddenly, another plot thread emerged, sending the PCs on a diplomatic mission with a High Priest.
Such in-game situations give rise to a more organic player experience, compared to when I repeatedly try to gently push the players back into my story framework.
And it enhances my improvisation skills.
So, I can recommend every GM to give a West Marches game like Arcanor a try. See you there!
