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The World of Georic 1989-Present

Thursday, April 16, 2020

The West Marches Campaigns is a Well-Worn Trail

Perhaps I'm stuck in my house in too long.  Perhaps my intake of Mountain Dew has been way too high (it's lower since pre-quarantine).  It's taking a while for my brain to function.

Listening to Episode #543 of Fear the Boot, I got excited with their discussion on the pros and cons of a West Marches Campaign.  A West Marches campaign is one where no matter what the results of the session, the campaign moves on to an ultimate conclusion, whether or not that conclusion is actually reached.  Characters move in and out of the story, GMs weave there own adventures with the cast provided to them, but the overall story arc is there.  Star Trek is a good example (different crew on away teams, but the five-year mission remains the same), and the original Battlestar Galactica fits the mold even better.  The Galatica's goal is to reach Earth, but there's internal intrigue, Cylon duplicity, outright warfare, and sometimes there's just a weird episode about a space dog.

I was excited because that was an extended theory I had with my college GMs back in the day.  We had our own corners of a shared world,  but in theory, one of use could run a game for two characters from Friday night and two from Saturday, and a special character guest star who was properly vetted.

Then I realized that this is just an expanded version on the old Troupe-Style game that originated largely with Ars Magica, but has had its tendrils in any large group since polyhedrals were first chucked.

While it's not identical, I wrote about it just over a year ago....  Am I ahead of my time, or are others just that far behind?

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