Introduction

Beyond the Torchlight is a simple rules and role-play forward West Marches style adventure game.

Players must venture out into the wilderness to find valuable treasure or other resources for their survival. Their town rests on the edge of the known world, with the nearest known civilized town days if not weeks away. 

They must help each other to build their town and find resources for survival. Those resources can be used for personal use, to improve themselves, to grow their own influence/business, to improve the town, or send resources back to the civilized world to attract finished goods/services.

What is a West Marches Campaign?

A West Marches campaign is a term popularized and originally developed by Ben Robbins. It was developed as a method to accommodate the unpredictable availability of his players and his own difficulties with designing adventures. 

There is no overarching story or plot and games can be run and played by multiple game masters and players in any combination. Adventures consist of sorties out from the safety of the town into the wilderness and can occur with any combination of players or if needed in parallel with other groups. 

Information and resources about the world are then gathered and brought back to the town and shared with the entire community. 

The further you adventure from the town, the greater the risk of the unknown, but the greater the reward. 

The World of Beyond the Torchlight

The world of Beyond the Torchlight is a wild and dangerous place set in the throws of age coming to an end. Centuries of decline, decay, and defeat have rendered it empty. Old growth forests, ancient mountains, and vast plains and rivers mark the land, but nowhere are signs of new growth. The land stands depopulated, wild and cold, waiting for something. Waiting for the rejuvenation of a future spring. 

The glory of the races and empires of old have come and gone, leaving their remnants scattered across the world as a lost memory. While exploring the wilderness players will come across ancient artifacts of great power that they cannot understand. These artifacts can be of great value or great power and often come with a great risk. The deeper you venture into the wilderness, the more you might find. 

Principles and Concepts

Classless

Beyond the Torchlight is a classless system. The equipment, tools, and items characters find while adventuring define their experience and abilities. 

It might be common for a character to change their equipment in town to suit the adventure they are about to embark on or for the player to select from multiple players to rotate through adventures. 

The Answers Come from Interactions at the Table

To do something, describe your character doing it; if you need to roll, the GM will let you know. Look to the environment and investigate the situation by​ ​asking​ ​the​ ​GM​ ​questions. You will need to describe to the GM what you want to do and you may have traits or abilities that can enhance or inhibit that action. 

Your Characters Aren’t Heroes

Your characters aren’t heroes, they are adventurers setting out into the dangerous world to eke out a new life and find treasure. Rising to challenges they encounter in the world will be the events that define their life. 

The defining moments of your character’s life are not in their backstory, but in the events they have yet to face. 

Combat​ ​is​ Dangerous

Don’t expect encounters to be “balanced”. Approach combat with as much trepidation and preparation you might in real life. Know when to run away and cut your losses. 

The world is magical, you aren’t

Your characters will not have magical abilities, but they will find magical artifacts and items along the way that they can use. Magic is dangerous and a relic of an unknown and dying world. 

Delight in the glory and loss

The world is a harsh mistress. Untold riches and wonders can be found out in the wilderness, but untold horrors and challenges also await. Be creative with the challenges set before you and revel in their success and eventual failure.

Additional information can be found in the Principia Apocrypha.