"Beyond the Northgate Passage" my "West Marches" style AD&D 2E Campaign.

 

The current Player map for the campaign of the area around "Fort Venture"

A couple of months ago my role playing games group started a new Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition campaign in the "West Marches" style I named "Beyond the Northgate Passage".  This is actually the 4th West Marches style game I have run for my group in the last few years.  We've found the format good for the type of group that we have as we are often unable to make regular sessions with the same party members.  

Our previous West Marches games have all used the current 5th Edition of the Dungeons and Dragons campaign published by Wizards of the Coast but we have instead decided to go a bit more old school and use Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd edition.  We found 5th edition characters were too powerful for exploration games.  It's just too easy to rest up between fights and characters have few reasons to return to town or engage in diplomacy for that matter.   

The setting map.

One thing I have learned about running "West Marches" style games is that they require a fair amount of upfront preparation.  You don't have to work out every details of the setting you are using but as the game relies heavily on player driven exploration rather than guiding the party down an adventure path the DM needs to know what is going on in the areas that they Player Characters are exploring.  

I went a little aggressive at this stage of planning and tried to lay out most of the locations of things like monster lairs, dungeons, ruins, tribal camps, and other points of interest which resulted in a lot of information to work from.  I have started detailing those areas near the starting town first but just having the names and a little information about what kinds of things exist on the frontier has made it easier to get this campaign up and running.  

I've found it is good to have a lot of low level encounters and points of interest near the starting town in a West Marches game but it is also good to have some high level content.  This is important not only to provide some more interesting play for characters who have returned to town on business but also to add a sense of danger at all levels of play.  There needs to be some mystery for low level areas that will make players interested in coming back to explore areas after they have leveled up a bit. 

In a West Marches campaign it's best not to view the Player Characters as "Heroes" though they can engage in heroic acts.  In a previous campaign most of the player characters were involved in thwarting a demonic incursion which left many of them in positions of power and influence.  This is not however the typical goal for this kind of campaign.  Exploring new territory and gaining individual riches and power are the more typical motivators.  

Explorers investigate a crypt some dwarven miners accidently opened while excavating.  Though they gained some treasure they decided not to proceed further into the crypt due to the inexperience.  

    

In this campaign the Kingdom of Knottinglund has defeated the hobgoblin "Razor Rock Legion" who held "Razor Rock Keep" which guarded the Northern Wildlands.  Rumors of ancient riches and abundant land and natural resources have drawn dozens of treasure hunters and explorers to the region the player characters among them.  

The "Wildlands" are an extremely dangerous regions filled with aggressive tribes of humanoids and barbarians and broken civilizations of xenophobic elves and dwarves.  The land itself is dangerous and difficult to traverse but full of opportunity for those bold enough to seize it.  

A fine and often forgotten miniature battle rules set fully usable in an AD&D 2E campaign.

Another aspect of the "Wildlands" is that most of the factions are hostile and in order to truly take advantage of the opportunities presented them Player Characters won't be able to rely on personal heroics alone to save the day.  They will have to take command of armies as the kingdom expands settlements in the region.  I plan to employ TSRs brilliant "Battlesystem" miniature rules for the 2nd Edition into the campaign.  Player characters will have to recruit followers and hire mercenaries to help deal with large scale military threats.

At this point even the most experienced characters in the campaign are just reaching 2nd and 3rd levels but they are already getting invested in building up the region.  Due to an early windfall three of them have started building establishments of their own further into the region after being granted lands and permission by the local lord to do so.  No doubt they will have to defend their new holdings and build roads and bridges to increase the size of their little hamlet.  

Archers and Soldiers from "Tres De Aurum Legio" mercenary company who have recently establish a garrison at the former Hobgoblin stronghold of "Razor Rock Keep".

   

Although we are several sessions in we are still very much in the process of grinding through lower level content.  The goal for the moment for most of their player characters is to gain wealth and influence in the region before exploring the more interesting areas but that is to be expected.  The lower power 2E rules really play well into this as they limit the speed at which PCs  gain power and provide more reason for them to be more strategic in their actions.   

I don't plan to detail every single "adventure" in this campaign but I hope to keep frequent updates about the campaign progress over all.  I will be including some reports of the more interesting sessions as well as significant battles that take place in the campaign.