West Marches

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we discuss the concept of the West Marches, a style of play for large groups of players and on-demand GMs (mostly intended for D&D and its derivatives). West Marches was developed by Ben Robbins (Microscope, Kingdom) and offers a pretty unique framework for RPGs that puts a lot of the onus of play on players rather than GMs, and weaponizes the dread Fear of Missing Out. Stu’s starting up a West Marches game for Patrons, so it’s been on his mind!

* * *

There are tons of resources for and musings about West Marches games, but the place to start, if you’re interesting, is Robbins’ own blogs on the subject.

Note: while Stu has personally decided that the “Marches” part of the name refers to military walking, and refers to it as such in the episode, a march in this context is actually a kind of borderland. In medieval Europe, these were used as neutral zones between regions, often for military purposes. A whole lot of names and words derive from the concept (including marquis and Denmark), to the extent that once you’re aware of it, you see a lot of Europe differently.

* * *

Hang out with us on the Vintage RPG Discord!

If you dig what we do, join us on the Vintage RPG Patreon for more roleplaying fun and surprises! Patrons keep us going!

Like, Rate, Subscribe and Review the Vintage RPG Podcast!