# West Marches

- Term: Tabletop term
- Canonical: https://www.lanternhall.org/lexicon/west-marches/

> A campaign format with a large, rotating pool of players who schedule their own sessions and head out from a safe town into a dangerous, persistent wilderness. With no set plot, players choose what to explore and share discoveries with one another.

A campaign format with a large, rotating pool of players who schedule their own sessions and head out from a safe town into a dangerous, persistent wilderness. With no set plot, players choose what to explore and share discoveries with one another.

**Origin:** Created by designer Ben Robbins (later the author of Microscope, 2011) and described in his blog posts about the campaign in the late 2000s; its premise has been compared to The Keep on the Borderlands (1979).

## Quick answers

**What does "West Marches" mean?**
A campaign format with a large, rotating pool of players who schedule their own sessions and head out from a safe town into a dangerous, persistent wilderness. With no set plot, players choose what to explore and share discoveries with one another.

**Where does the term "West Marches" come from?**
Created by designer Ben Robbins (later the author of Microscope, 2011) and described in his blog posts about the campaign in the late 2000s; its premise has been compared to The Keep on the Borderlands (1979).

---
From The Lantern Hall (https://www.lanternhall.org/), a museum of fantasy literature and roleplaying games.