Question: How to run a large west march style campaign?

[Salgood]

Hey dudes ive been dming for about 3 or 4 years now and have gotten alot better at dming those years. Now however ive learned about a west march style campaign and i love the idea of it and have been making a new homebrew map/continent for a part of my dnd world where the campaign can take place, ive also found about 15 players and 2 dms to be apart of the campaign. My goal is to find about 40 players and 6 or 7 dms. Im very hands on usually with world building but i plan on just assigning each dm a kingdom in the continent and letting them make the history and have them figure out alliances with each others kingdoms and enemies between them. Ill be one of the dms assigned to a kingdom aswell but ill be overseeing the campaign for the most part aswell. Anyways now that ive got all that out of the way, id just like to ask if theres any advice that would be helpful for managing this campaign, getting players, and world building with multiple other people. If theres any questions you guys wanna know to help clarify anything just ask and ill awnser as soon as i see it :)

[kingcheesepants]

I've been a part of several westmarches type groups. Most of them fizzled out within a few months and one is still going strong 3 years in. The main thing that let the latter group succeed where the others failed is strong collaboration between the DMs. They work together to decide the basics of how to structure team building, missions and level advancement. They work together to do things like decide which items to allow and disallow and at what levels and for what type of missions it's appropriate to hand out such items, they decided together on which races, spells, and subclasses would not be allowed, and worked together to figure out how to handle permanent spells and spells/abilities with the potential for unbalancing the world. And then of course they each run lots of independent missions that don't effect the world at large but will work together on event missions where some big thing is happening that impacts everyone. By work together on events, I mean that they plan the events together and decide what sort of things they'll be doing and what the potential outcomes are, then running their individual games according to the guidelines that they agreed upon beforehand.

In regards to the game you're planning right now, each DM is running their own kingdom and you're loosely overseeing everyone. How do you envision that happening exactly and how would the players go about assembling a team and going on an adventure? Is each player going to be selecting a kingdom with the DM whose schedule most closely aligns with their own? Or do the characters just jump from one kingdom to the other between sessions?

[Salgood]

In regards to the game you're planning right now, each DM is running their own kingdom and you're loosely overseeing everyone. How do you envision that happening exactly and how would the players go about assembling a team and going on an adventure? Is each player going to be selecting a kingdom with the DM whose schedule most closely aligns with their own? Or do the characters just jump from one kingdom to the other between sessions?

Ive been thinking on both those options and on one hands would like for everyone to be able to make a character fir each kingdom and be able to hop in a game whenever there looking for one with each of the dms. However as of recent ive realized that depending on the dms i get this may limit there style of play as many dms (myself included) like running player driven stories which is hard to do when you have a new assortnment of players each session. As of right now im thinking im going to discuss with the final assortment of dms i get to figure out what they would like to do in these terms but, if you have any advice that would help this process thatd be greatly aappreciated.

[Skrum]

I am part of a West Marches game currently (though considerably smaller than the one you're describing/aiming for). Not to say the way we did it was the only way that can work, but here's some of the qualities that I think have really contributed to ours being a long term successful group (coming up on three years!)

1) Be as narrow with lore as possible - and that includes players with their backstories. With multiple DM's and lots of players, and the likelihood that each player has more than one character, the world can get filled in quick. For the sake of both leaving space for future creative projects and maintaining a sense of mystery in the world, don't let anyone make sweeping generalizations or define things too much.
Examples

Deities do not appear on screen, talk, or are shown to be actual entities in any way. Keep them in the realm of mystery and superstition. Leave plenty of space for someone to make up a small town that has very odd and particular beliefs about X deity without it contradicting lore some PC cleric made up in their backstory. If it helps, frame everything in terms of This character knows this is true, not The world knows this is true. PCs can make crazy characters that think their deity speaks directly to them via their helmet, but the world should treat them as such
Don't say "hags reproduce by stealing the eldest daughter of an eldest daughter and performing profane rituals by the light of the blood moon," say "Bathebats the Rotting Queen is stealing eldest daughters and will make them her progeny by the light of the next blood moon." The former decides things for all hags in the world. The latter is just about Bathebats.
Don't let someone write a backstory like "Like all dwarves, Thorgard Thunderpants grew up in the dwarven kingdom of Stonezest in the Greenrock Mountains." It must be narrowed to affect that character only, like his clan is from that area. If someone else likes the lore than maybe they make their own character that's from the same clan


2) Have a "gimmick" for the characters to work together. In our game, the central premise is the Hall of Heroes, a kind of mercenary organization that was put together so basically anyone can ask for help with anything, set up a reward, and exceptional or daring (or foolish) individuals can take that job and make money. The vast majority of our games start in a Hall of Heroes location (there's a few now), we RP an intro so the characters can meet up, and then they "find" the posting for the game on the notice board. The game ends with the players returning to the Hall or other safe location. While some of our very established characters have branched out and became more involved in other political organizations, it is very important for the premise of the game that all characters, regardless of backstory, end up in in our central country and are members of the Hall.

3) Have very clear and established guidelines for acceptable and unacceptable topics. Some things, like violence against animals, sexual violence, and slavery, are hard no's at the table. Depicting them can lead to immediate expulsion. Other things, like sexually explicit scenes or torture, are handled in a "fade to black" way. It's happening, but not described. Obviously your table will have to draw the lines where you're all comfortable, but my recommendation is keep things PG-13. Especially if you plan on putting together that large of a group.

[kingcheesepants]

I think everything Skrum said is good advice. And especially in relation to your asking for help in thinking through how to assemble teams for the game I would second his point about having a way for everyone to work together.

The nature of westmarches games is that people play when they can, they'll be with different groups and different DMs from session to session. Have something like an adventurers guild with locations in all the major cities and a teleportation circle in each one. That will allow a player to go across the world from one city to the next without making a bunch of characters or a continuity headache all the time.

Also I would suggest that rather than each DM running games in one nation or the other, have your founding DMs be the loremasters for that area. Ask them for an outline of what their area is like and a handful of NPCs found there and then let anyone who wants to run games using that info. This will allow you to add (or subtract when inevitably one of your DMs gets a new job or has a kid or something) DMs easily without making big changes to the world.