Welcome to Western Marches of Mididatoco

Welcome to the Western Marches of Mididatoco

Hello team and welcome to our West Marches style game! If you recall, the goal of this game is to provide a flexible, open world and loosely structured game to serve as a back up game when scheduling conflicts prevent us from playing on our normal night. A secondary goal is to allow those people who want to play more or introduce others to the fun of D&D, to do that in a flexible yet engaging way.

Things to Be Aware Of

Given our goals for the campaign, there are a few realities that we want you to be aware of:

1. This game has several DM's, and to save time and prevent confusion, each DM is primarily responsible for certain elements of the worldbuilding process, in addition to running individual sessions. If you have questions about a certain aspect of the game, you should direct your question to the responsible DM
   • Dave - pantheon, gods/goddesses, cleric domains, etc.
   • Tom - Political affiliations and machinations, culture, and peoples.
   • Collin - Geography, maps, ecosystems, etc.
   • Mike and Dick - Mike and Dick will each be running sessions connected to a particular plot line, and I won't blow their cover just yet. You will know it when you see it.
2. In order to give you players BOTH a world with which you can build your characters AND a world to explore in a free-roaming West Marches way, this game will take place on the continent of the New World, also called Mididatoco. Your characters, however, are from the The Old World. Your characters have been hired, or shanghaied, onto the first ship of colonists heading for the New World tasked with establishing a colony there for the glory of the Rurikid Empire. Please use the Old World Map and locations to build your characters and the New World Map and Locations during your sessions.
3. This WorldAnvil material is meant to SUPPLEMENT the other resources we have in Roll20 and Google Drive. Where conflicts between the two exist, World Anvil will trump the commercial stuff, but PLEASE LET A DM know. With that being said, neither the Old World nor New World are fully conceived here in World Anvil because we wanted you players to have the opportunity to give input that aligns with your character backstories, goals, etc. So, if you have a story to tell with your characters, let the DMs know so we can use your ideas to continually add to the world.
4. A note on TIME: The year is 323 RE (Rurikidian Era). While we are playing our game, the passage of time will be at the DM's discretion, so as to suit the needs of the session narrative. When we are not playing the game, the passage of time will align with that in the real world. This method is really the only way we will be able to keep things straight with characters on different timelines and so on. For more information about how this might impact you, see the Downtime Activities and Passive Jobs
5. A note on EXPERIENCE POINTS: Unlike previous games, we will be using the old school EXP model where player characters earn experience points based on what they do. This will allow players who play the benefits that come with playing more, and allow for more nuanced encounters with differently levels character-parties. Character's can earn EXP by doing Jobs or Downtime Activities, and the estimated amount of EXP that is earnable will be advertised in the job posting. THE DM'S RESERVE THE RIGHT TO EDIT, AMEND, OR CHANGE THE FINAL EXPERIENCE AWARD BASED ON THE OUTCOME OF THE MISSION.

Since this whole WorldAnvil thing is new, Check out our How to Use WorldAnvil for an article about how we will be using this platform for our game.

We communicating on Discord, so come join us!

How Is This Even Going To Work?

Great question. There is a lot going on, and we've tried to build in enough flexibility without making it overly complicated. Once we get our character's created and are ready to start playing, take the following steps in whatever order feels right to get a game going:

1. Players Decide on a Day to Play. Whoever is free to play that week coordinates with other players to find a day for game night. While we can't have two games running at the same time (blame Roll20. Ugh, I know, right?), we are not limited to the number of games per week or who plays with who. Even if your character is off having another adventure or doing a downtime activity, make a new character and let's Roll!
2. Players Select a Job. Once you have decided who's in your party, review the Job Board to select a mission or job you'd like to do. The Job you select will determine who the DM will be and what your objectives are.
3. Play the Game Have a ball! Watch out for those New Rules and Game Mechanics that we hope will make things extra suspenseful and fun. While you are playing, be sure to take notes in WorldAnvil so you, the other players, and DMs can track your character's progress across disparate and irregular game sessions. Check out these articles for more information about how to use your WorldAnvil character sheet to keep track of things.
   • Guide to Character Interaction
   • Guide to Session Playing
4. Post-Game Debriefs The Post-Game may vary depending on the outcome of the session, but expect to do things like gain EXP, create lore documents for other players, assign your character to a Downtime Activity or Passive Job, etc.
5. Dream of Next Week's Game. Tell your co-workers about the epic achievments of your character and praise the hard work and ingenuity of the hardworking DM's who put this whole thing together so we can all continue pretending to be children for a few hours a week despite having adult responsibilities.