Taverna’s West Marches: The Frontier — Player Guide

Welcome to Quickstone, a rough-and-ready frontier town on the edge of Eberron’s wilds. Out there: ruins older than kingdoms, living storms, and roads where the banners of House Orien are the only promise of order. In here: a warm hearth, sharpened steel, and the Quest Board. Pick a lead, gather a party, push into the unknown, and bring back maps, tales, and treasure.

This guide is your one-stop reference for how our West Marches runs on Discord: what to expect, how to build characters, how expeditions work, how hex travel and danger are handled, how leveling and loot work, and what DMs and players do between sessions.

Do you need prior knowledge about Eberron to play in this world? Not at all!!

1) Core Principles (How This Game Works)

Safe Home Base.
Town is always safe. There’s no combat in Quickstone. Use it to trade, craft, hire help, share rumors, and regroup.

No Plotted Story.
There’s no main quest pushed by GMs. The world is open, dangerous, and sometimes unfair. You choose what to pursue. GMs post hooks on the Quest Board (often tied to factions); you decide what to chase.

One Session = One Expedition.
Every game starts in Quickstone and ends in Quickstone. The trip back is usually handled off-screen unless fictionally unsafe. Loot, discoveries, and advancement are finalized at session end when you’re back in town.

Real Danger.
Outside town the world is untamed. Not every threat is meant for your level. Judging when to press and when to retreat is part of play. The deeper you go, the harsher it gets.

Persistence.
The world remembers. Your actions change it permanently. Unrecovered loot remains where it fell (unless someone else finds it). Crafting progress and spent resources carry over between sessions.

Share What You Learn.
The DM updates the map with what you revealed, but players must post session notes. Leave rumors, warnings, and leads so future parties can build on your work. Hand your DM a short write-up for the Adventure Journals.

Death & Resurrection.
Death is permanent. Resurrection exists but is extraordinarily rare. High-level NPCs may have such magic, but components and items enabling it are quest-level objectives, not shop buys. Don’t plan around resurrection.

2) Setting & System

Setting: Eberron. Starting town: Quickstone.

Ruleset: D&D 2024 as primary. If an option exists in 2024, use it. If not, a compatible 2014 option may be allowed from Expanded Rules (below).
Expanded Rules Allowed: ERLW,Tasha’s, Xanathar’s, plus one additional official WotC supplement of your choice that exists in our D&D Beyond campaign.
No third-party/homebrew character options.
When a 2014 option is updated in 2024, you must use the new 2024 version.

3) Character Creation

Where: You build and maintain characters in D&D Beyond. Your Beyond sheet is the source of truth. Foundry imports are temporary and will be deleted after each session.

Join our D&D Beyond campaign: ~~ask an Organizer for the link to the D&D Beyond campaign~~, make the character PUBLIC!

Allowed Sources: Only official WotC content available in our DDB campaign.
Starting Level: 1 (for all new characters).
Multiple Characters: Allowed (helps parties form quickly).
Ability Scores: Point Buy or Standard Array only.
Multiclassing: Allowed from level 5+.
Backgrounds/Species: Custom backgrounds and older-book species allowed per PHB 2024 / DMG 2024. More details here.
Tasha’s Optional Class Features: Not allowed (those classes have 2024 versions).
Origin (Racial) Customization: Allowed from Tasha’s only if that species has no 2024 version.

Firearms are not allowed.

DDB Setup: When creating your West Marches character, match the checkbox options shown in the provided screenshots (see the pinned message in our #wm-guidelines channel).

Syncing:

• Before a session: import your Beyond sheet into Foundry.

• After a session: update Beyond, then re-sync to Foundry if the DM asks for a final snapshot.

4) Levelling: Expedition Milestones

You level by completing successful expeditions/events. The required count scales with your current level.

Hitting 13? If your veteran can still swing a sword—congrats. Consider retiring and rolling fresh.
Retirement Boon: You may pass one Uncommon magic item from the retired character as a Heirloom Item to your new character.

5) DM Participation & Rewards

Our DMs are players too and shouldn’t fall behind.

• Gold: For each session hosted, the DM receives an equal share of the GP that each player gets, without reducing the players’ take.
  Example: 5 players bring back 1,000 gp → each player gets 200 gp, DM also gets 200 gp.

• Milestones: 1 Expedition Milestone per game hosted (even if the party fails). If it proves too strong, we may adjust later.

• Progression: DM PCs use the same leveling track as players.

• Recognition: Good stewards of the game can earn the Taverna DM role.

Non-GP rewards (jewels, art objects) should be converted to GP when tallying the DM share.

6) Loot & Magic Items

• We roll on DMG 2024 treasure/hoard tables (party-level appropriate).

• Common tools: the DMG tables or generators like 5etools/kobold.club (at DM’s discretion).

• Magic items are scarce.

  • Uncommon (and some Rare) items may be purchased in town.

  • Rare, Very Rare, Wondrous, and resurrection-adjacent effects are quest rewards, not shop stock.

6.1 Calculating Loot

We use the 5etools lootgen tool set for the DMG 2024 Adventure Rewards and Magic Item Rarity rules.

https://5e.tools/lootgen.html

For random encounters use the following setting (1 roll on Random Individual Treasure) - CR Appropiate

For Quest Rewards use the following setting (1 roll on Treasure Hoard tables - CR and APL appropiate)

ATTENTION: The completion fee and items looted during the expedition are considered and are part of the final Treasure Hoard roll.

6.2 Prospector Contract

Prospector Contract & Recovery Protocol

All Prospectors operating out of Quickstone are bound by the Prospector’s Contract and the laws of Quickstone. As such:

• Looting or claiming the possessions of deceased Prospectors is strictly prohibited.

• Any personal effects, equipment, journals, or valuables recovered from the body of a fallen Prospector must be returned to the Quickstone authorities.

• In accordance with the contract, the authorities will issue a bounty or compensation for all returned items belonging to deceased Prospectors.

By adventuring under Quickstone’s banner, you agree to these terms. Failure to comply constitutes a violation of Quickstone law and will result in the revocation of your prospecting license and career.

6.3 No Character-to-Character Transfers

Player characters are not permitted to give, trade, loan, or transfer gold, items, equipment, or other resources to other player characters under any circumstances. All items and currency gained by a character are that character’s personal property and may not be shared with or passed to another PC. Consumables can be shared during Expedition with the sole purpose of being consumed and not to be stored for later by a different character.

At the end of each adventure, each character keeps what they were personally awarded from the Group Loot that is divided by the GM.

Why This Rule Exists

West Marches assumes character progression based on what that character earns through exploration and adventure. Allowing players to pass gear or gold between characters undermines progression, difficulty tuning, and exploration incentives. Therefore, inter-character trading is restricted.

7) Resting During Adventures

• During an adventuring day (24 Hours) the players are allowed 2 Short Rests and 1 Long Rest

• Each Short Rest takes 1 Hour to complete. A Long Rest takes 8 Hours of uninterrupted rest

• Long Rest is only safe in Quickstone or in Explored (Coded) hexes that have been marked as Safe

• Resting in Unexplored hexes comes with a risk of having the rest interrupted by an encounter. The risk is 3 times the threat base increment of the area the players are in.

  • Resting in a Green area hex comes with 3 * 10% chance of being interrupted (30%)

  • Resting in a Yellow area hex comes with 3 * 15% chance of being interrupted (45%)

7.1 Downtime Points (DP)

Each expedition you participate in rewards you with 1 Downtime Point.

Each Point is an undefined period of time. However for the purpose of crafting, training, or other activities listed in the Player’s Handbook or Dungeon Master’s Guide or something else,
1 Downtime Point counts as 3 days of downtime. You may spend Downtime Points to:

• Complete a downtime activity that takes up to 3 days (cost: 1 DP)

• Make 3 days of progress on a longer-term activity

Examples (from 2024 PHB rules):

• Copying a spell (≤3 days) → 1 DP

• Brewing a potion of healing (1 day) → 1 DP

• Crafting a 1st-level spell scroll (1 day) → 1 DP

• Crafting a 3rd-level spell scroll (5 days) → 2 DP

Disclaimer: you still need to provide the monetary cost that such activities require, for the materials and other consumables.

Use them or lose them: DP must be used after each expedition, it's meant to simulate an activity that your character does in-between 2 expeditions. (Points gained by DMing are not lost)

8) The Hexcrawl

The region around Quickstone is divided into ~6-mile hexes with range bands (G, Y, O, R) [Green, Yellow, Orange, Red] radiating outward. The farther from civilization, the deadlier.

With Normal pacing, according to the PHB 2024 rules it takes around 2 hours to traverse a hex.

This means that with Normal pacing the most your party can travel during the day, if uninterrupted, is about 6 hexes, for a total of 12 hours of constant travel. More than this and you party will need to succeed on CON saves or start suffering from Exhaustion.

8.1 Hex Codes (for the shared map)

When a quest takes place in a hex, that hex gets a permanent code:

[Compass].[YYMMDD].[RangeBand].[IncrementIfNeeded]

Example: NW.251016.Y → Northwest of Quickstone, explored on 2025-10-16, Band Y.
If two sessions happen same day/direction/band: NW.251016.Y.1, NW.251016.Y.2.

Y in this instance indicates that the Hex containing the Quest/Adventure is in the Yellow area.

DMs will pin coded hexes on the map (LK) and link your session notes in the pin’s thread.

8.2 Coded vs. Uncoded Hexes

• Coded Hexes: Previously “tamed” by expeditions → 0% random encounter chance while traveling through them; If staying idly in coded hexes random encounters are incremented up every 2 hours, based on the zone's increment. Long Rests in coded hexes are safe.

• Uncoded Hexes: Untouched wilds. Traveling may trigger random encounters and Long Rest checks (see below).

8.3 Zone Danger & Encounter Chances

Each zone color sets the base increment (per hex traveled or every 2 hours outward from your starting point this expedition):

• Green: 10% per hex; 30% chance if you Long Rest (night check = 3× increment).

• Yellow: 15% per hex; 45% LR check.

• Orange: 20% per hex; 60% LR check.

• Red: 25% per hex; 75% LR check.

How to roll while traveling:
For each uncoded hex you enter, roll d100 against the current increment track (which steps up by the zone’s increment each hex away from your starting point).

• Example: Red zone (25%). First hex = 25; second = 50; third = 75; fourth = 100 (an encounter is certain).

• The starting point can be Quickstone or any Railway hex you began from this session.

• Orien roads halve the per-hex increment for travel along the road.

• You can take one Long Rest per 24 hours. In uncoded hexes, roll the LR check once at night.

• The increment track resets when you return to your starting point or when a DM calls for a reset (e.g., major route change, extended downtime).

8.4 After the Session (Returning & Shopping)

By default, if nothing in the fiction threatens your path home, the return to Quickstone is off-screen.
Loot distribution and shopping happen on Discord after the game. Do your shopping in the designated Discord thread or #shopping-sessions before or after the session with your DM.

9) Encounters & Difficulty:

We use DMG 2024 XP budgets (Easy/Moderate/Deadly) and curated/setting-themed tables.

Encounter difficulty for random encounters should be set based on the Zone Danger the hex is in (Easy or Moderate).
The XP budget is calculated based on the Average Party Level (APL) x the number of players in the party. Ie. For a party with of 5 players with an APL of 3 the XP Budget for an easy encounter is 5 x 225 = 1125 XP for monsters.

We recommend using a tool like: https://koboldplus.club/ to generate relevant encounters for the players. A series of screenshots and instructions on how to setup and use Kobold Plus to generate relevant encounters is here.

It is a good practice to have a few encounters pre-generated for the players.

10) Tech & Table

We play online using Foundry VTT v13 for maps/mechanics and Discord for voice/video.

• No purchase/installs required beyond a modern browser.

• Foundry imports are not persistent; your actor will be deleted after play. Keep your DDB sheet authoritative and updated.

• You may play on different Foundry servers across sessions.

Performance best practices (recommended):

• Use Chrome or Firefox in an Incognito/Private window just for Foundry.

• Disable heavy extensions for the session; close unrelated tabs.

• Ensure Hardware Acceleration is enabled in your browser.

• If possible, use wired Ethernet (or sit near your router).

• In Discord, prefer push-to-talk and avoid 1080p video streaming.

• Having issues? This community guide helps:
  https://www.reddit.com/r/FoundryVTT/comments/1e9ckic/system_agnostic_having_performance_issues_in/

11) How to Join & Play

1. Get the role. Ask for/select the Prospector role on our Discord to unlock West Marches channels.

2. Join D&D Beyond. Use the campaign link above and create your character using the rules in this guide.

3. Post to the roster. Share your character in #wm-roster using the template below; a WM-DM will review and add you to the Adventurers Roster.

4. Sign up / Propose. Claim a slot in #gather-your-party or propose an expedition (party-led!).

5. Discuss anything in #quickstone-general

6. Pre-flight. Before session start, import your Beyond sheet to Foundry and verify your token works.

Roster Post — Template

Character Name - Class/Subclass (level X)
Player: @YoursDiscordHandle
Species/Background:
Backstory Hook (1-2 lines):
Preferred Play Times & Days(EET):
D&D Beyond Sheet:
Notes: (faction interests, languages, vehicles, hirelings, etc.)

After Your Expedition

• Hand your DM session notes for the Adventure Journals (what you did, what you saw, what you learned, what you left behind).

• Do your loot tally and shopping in the designated Discord thread or #shopping-sessions before or after the session with your DM.

• Update D&D Beyond to reflect any changes.

12) Quickstone FAQ (Fast Reminders)

• Town is safe. No fights in Quickstone.

• You choose the goal. GMs don’t push a main plot; follow Quest Board leads or your own rumors.

• One session, one expedition. Start and end in town.

• The world bites back. If it looks too hot, it probably is—fall back and live.

• Write your notes. Your discoveries boost everyone’s game.

• Death sticks. Resurrection is a legendary exception.

• DDB is law. Foundry is just the table.

See you on the road out of Quickstone. Bring a map. Bring a friend. And bring something heavier than a torch.

Changelog

1.0.0 / 26.10.2025

- Initial Release

1.0.1 / 28.10.2025

- Added "your next one can be of a Dragonmarked Sub-Race." to NewGame+ option in 4) Levelling: Expedition Milestones
- Added "ERLW (Dragonmarks permitted only in New Game+)" to Expanded Rules Allowed in 2) Setting & System

1.0.2/05.11.2025

- Added "Do your shopping in the designated Discord thread or #shopping-sessions before or after the session with your DM." in 8.4 After the Session (Returning & Shopping)
- Added "or #shopping-sessions before or after the session with your DM." in 11. How to play - After your expedition

1.0.3/17.11.2025

- Added 6.2 Prospector Contract
- Added "ATTENTION: The completion fee and items looted during the expedition are considered and are part of the final Treasure Hoard roll." in 6.1 

1.0.4/21.11.2025

- Added new section: 7.1 Downtime Points (DP)

1.0.5/07.12.2025

- Added 6.3 No Character-to-Character Transfers
- Removed "your next one can be of a Dragonmarked Sub-Race." to NewGame+ option in 4) Levelling: Expedition Milestones || REASON: THEY GOT REPRINTED IN FORGE OF THE ARTIFICER AS FEATS
- Removed "ERLW (Dragonmarks permitted only in New Game+)" to Expanded Rules Allowed in 2) Setting & System || REASON: THEY GOT REPRINTED IN FORGE OF THE ARTIFICER AS FEATS