Of Epilogues
Lessons from West March II: Crag
10/20/2026
October marks the end of an experiment I’d given a shot to: A multi-game-master game with a persistent world and a shared wiki.
Original, I know. But who doesn’t aspire to pull off a successful West March mega-game?
The game was picked up from a GM that pulled some basic elements together into a two-shot and had to disappear for a bit. And Icarus’ ghost took my hand and whispered that I could.
So naturally, I proceeded to recruit everyone that’d been interested in DnD ever and invited them to come play. I ran the world in DnD5e with a central hub town, Crag and hoped to build a fully fledged wiki around the adventures, locations, and characters.
Problem 1: Who holds the pen?
I started the wiki and so I had to populate it with quests and the basic info around the town and NPCs. And I asked players for their PC information, and then for session recaps to upload when I had a minute. This worked for a few weeks, until it didn’t. Prep and recovery times shrunk under the weight of other responsibilities and a struggled to find a way to allow players to upload themselves, without having access to the entire mass of hidden information and plans stored on the wiki. One never materialized and the wiki survives with massive gaps, a monument to my shame. I hope to someday clean it up and add epilogues so it’s at least conclusive for players and people they tell about it. VVD was the tool of choice and the wiki lives HERE.
Problem 2: Table Bloat
Because we have no budget, my GMs were of course volunteering. And sometimes, volunteers get tired or burnt out or busy. Sometimes that notice comes late, and sometimes a player decides to bring a friend without any notice (a culture problem I’m solving for my next table). There were multiple paths there, but all the same, I ended up solo GMing for tables of 8-10 players on multiple occasions. During those sessions, whatever plans I had usually dematerialized so I could retool encounters to give players some things to do/explore/survive. Session quality dipped heavily then, and I had a few players bow out or taper off due to it (though one went to start her own table, so that’s a win!).
Problem 2.5: (No) Onboarding
I believe in session Zero. I believe in collectively setting expectations around tone, content, and scope/scale early so we’re all on the same page with characters and behavior we bring to the table. This happened with my initial 4-5 players and for the few that showed up early so I could onboard them and build characters with them. Most players, though, built a character in a 10-min crash course off to the side or showed up with something and jumped straight into the quest of the day with no real groundlaying. I recognize this as a disservice to Roleplaying babies but it could not be helped due to my also managing the game store’s Boardgame Night during gametime (incredibly wild decision in hindsight).The new campaign’s sessions will be pre-planned and RSVP only, with two or three reserve players in case folks can’t make game night.
Problem 3: System
If you’ve been following, you know how I feel about Dungeons and Dragons proper. I’m not a fan, in simple terms. I inherited the game and elected to keep the system since players spent an evening building their characters. I know my way around 5e, sitting on several thousand hours of professional table time running it. But I believe that passion and love for the vehicle you’re driving shows in the ride fo passengers, and I recognized this too late. I attempted a soft pivot to an EZD6 hack, rebuilding 5e characters into the system and frakenstiening both system’s magic systems so folks wouldn’t lose their spell lists. Sessions were different. Definitely ran smoother, especially the big ones. But player confusion around sheets and the like was evident and shared with me, and part of me wishes I’d made the firm call to pivot earlier. I ended up reverting the attempt and just powered through to the end with 5e.
The next game will be run with CHASING ADVENTURE from session zero so we’ll be good there.
Problem 4: Player-Drive
This really is the magic bullet that I have only been able to implement in Mythic Bastionland games: allowing players to completely steer things. The model I chose ended up having GMs build out quest models that players could select from. I think a stronger initial map and more clearly defined world powers/factions and locations/hexes could have been helpful there. It might be time for me to convert my master TTRPG gameworld map into a proper system-agnostic hex-map.
Win 1: The Wiki
Holy shit, a campaign wiki is AMAZING! As fractured as what we ended up with might be, it’s still such a cool investment. Players enjoyed it and were able to pull things up midgame for stats or details, and I learned that a player was just reading the lore for fun and noticed some details lining up with post-game epilogue stuff that we worked out (my heart). VVD allowed for amazing Gamemaster collaboration, and we planned quests, collaborated on items, characters, and lore right in the entry’s hidden notes. 10/10, I want to have one for every game I can, moving forward. I definitely intend to build one out for each of my pre-made adventures and include it in my primer for pro games.
Win 2: Dragons
I didn’t actually get to use a whole bunch of the lore and plans we ended up making for the campaign due to things tapering off the way they did, but I have some fun ideas in the pocket to use in the future.
Win 3: Downtime
The first 10-30 minutes of our sessions involved what our characters got up to the previous week (because time is always passing in the game-world). We’d roll dice pools to accomplish specific tasks (Research the Wyvern Egg you found, Help the goblin prisoners detox, Attempt to make friends with the local wolf-pack) that were not particularly dangerous and not in the realm of a Quest proper. Players also rolled for how much money that made the previous week doing their various tasks and some of them got really creative and were able to dig deep into their characters’ thoughts and mannerisms during this process. Absolutely making room for more Ma moving forward.
Win 4: Fun!
I enjoyed the hell out of this campaign, even the 11-man mega-sessions. Playing TTRPGs in person again was a game-changer and there's no substitute.
Lessons Learned
If you didn’t RSVP, you’re probably not playing with me that night. I got my reps in with pacing and on-the-fly encounter design with the player table that could sometimes balloon mid-session. Fun as it was, I won’t allow it again.
Downtime can be fun! I picked up the Dice Pool subsystem from Grimwilds and will likely carry it forward in all campaigns. Long rests aren’t quite as long as a week, but things like getting your weapon -especially- sharp or armor repairs or encouraging an ally fit smoothly in an 8 hour window
Let players write directly on the wiki. Navigation and inputting takes spoons too, just let them own sections and cleanup.
Stronger starting map (and Wiki) if you want players to dig in.
Haven West March ended up hosting around 19 total players over the course of maybe 25 sessions? Not a terrible run. I feel much closer to the goal now and think I may be able to pull it off at the game store in the coming years.
Next up: Lost Mine of Phandelver in Chasing Adventure. I’ll probably try again with a West March around Q2 next year.
And as always, Book Me if you want a curated private game or paint and sip session! Mention this post for a 25% discount.