The more I think about this concept the more intrigued I get. And yet, more terrified.

The concept is simple to state: run a West Marches style campaign using multiple TTRPG systems simultaneously.

Well, maybe simple is a bit generous, but there it is in one sentence. However, the questions and implications of this are much more complex. The more involved description of what I want to do is to gather a group of player with varied TTRPG backgrounds (including none at all), and allow them to schedule games exploring an a sandbox world. The players self-organize into parties and go adventuring in this partially pre-made world. This is the basis of the West Marches concept. What I’m wondering, is if instead of choosing a single game system, like D&D 5e, or Cairn, or Old School Essentials, I let the players decide (within reason) the system to use for any given session.

I’m still forming the idea, and I have no idea if this is an experiment that I’m brave enough to attempt. Maybe it already has been shown to be a horrible idea. :)

Some of the open questions and ideas that I still haven’t organized:

• Allow players to create multiple characters in multiple systems
  • Have as many as desired in each system lest they die
• On any given night, players create parties in a given system and play that
• All used systems would need to support some notion of the type of world
  • Probably fantasy
• Probably need some cap on the number of systems. How many?
• Can the characters of different systems interact?
• Could a character move between compatible systems?
• How much would you modify a system to make it work?
• Are we just creating one multi-faceted system?
• How would you provide balance for systems that lean on that?
• Allows a chance to explore new systems in a familiar setting
• Attract players with wider backgrounds
• Multiple GMs
• Would you need multiple versions of key magic items?
• Multiple versions of the NPCs? Monsters?

At the end of it all, it feels like, if nothing else, it would potentially be a lot of work. But would it also be a lot of fun?