I'm at the end of GMing a 3 year long 5th Edition campaign than has gone to 20th level. It is coming together in what I hope will be a spectacular conclusion in the next 5 or 6 weeks. Having said that, I am absolutely done with running standard D&D for a while. I have been GMing this campaign for a group of friends who used to play together in high school back in the 80s, and we reconvened in Roll20 during the COVID era. It has been great, but most of the players tend to be war gamers and aren't particularly interested in roleplaying and immersion. I have no complaints or regrets - we have all had fun - but I want a different experience now that my commitment is coming to an end. I'm thinking about taking the plunge and running a West Marches style campaign. I don't know what system I will use, yet. Maybe DCC, a stripped down homebrew version of D&D, or something else I haven't considered. Whatever system is, PCs will never gain so much power that they are beyond fear of imminent death. The concepts so far: Grimdark fantasy. Death is a constant companion. West Marches concept: the players decide what to do and when. Players form their own groups from available players and schedule games during the GM's posted time slots 15+ players in the campaign (with 3-6 playing at any given time) First come, first serve for scheduling A game economy. Buy and trade with other players. Resurrect your dead PC with enough gold. Powerful magic items (if you can get them from the monsters who guard them) A detailed world to explore An interactive map updated by the players Interactive calendar for scheduling Rewards for player writeups, map additions, etc. This is a very high level idea. I'm in a sort of liminal state at the moment, and I'm trying to figure out what interests me the most. If I get a good response to this, it will help me decide. If not, I have a lot of other ideas in the works for the next project. I'm just looking at responses to this post for the time being. I'll provide more contact info as my plans become more solid. Cheers! Russ
