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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tav_Behemoth" data-source="post: 5047491" data-attributes="member: 18017">The <a href="http://redbox.wikidot.com/" target="_blank">New York Red Box</a> group currently runs two long-standing West Marches D&D games; Eric's uses the titular Red Box Basic from 1981, while mine is using the OD&D 1974 rules. We talk about lessons from these campaigns in the forums on that site, and also on the Mule Abides blog in my sig. Ditto the wise Raven Crowking on the huge importance of information, if only to know where to go for maximal fun and profit. My personal feeling is that West Marches games work best in systems where information-driven planning confers a direct benefit to survival (e.g. you know which Vancian spells to prepare). I've been frustrated with the feeling that a fight in 4E that the PCs are totally prepared for plays out almost identically to one that catches them by surprise, but YMMV.An advantage of using old-school D&D is that things like the tables in the AD&D DMG and <a href="http://kellri.blogspot.com/2008/07/cdd4-final-version-3.html" target="_blank">Kellri's free Old School Encounters Reference make this style of play tons easier. However, I'm gearing up to run a West Marches-style game using Rogue Trader; my feeling is that it'll be possible but more work without the framework that all those lovely random tables provide. I'll let y'all know how the experiment turns out once it's underway!</a></blockquote>