What is a West Marches Style Game?

If you haven't read the Edge of the World intro, read that first. Here is a general overview of this type: The campaign consists of a large number of players and one DM, playing a wilderness exploration sandbox. The player characters will have some knowledge of the treasures and locations to explore out in the wilderness. On the Edge of the World Discord channel, the players will communicate and form a party of 3-6 players, who will work with the GM to schedule a session. The players get together on that day, play for a few hours, collect loot and defeat monsters. Afterwards the players share their experience with those who did not play via the post session discussion channel on the Discord.

Expectations

Here are my expectations for this campaign, and hopefully they give you an idea of what to expect:
I, as the GM, will act more like an impartial referee than a storyteller. Aside from secret rolls, I will be making all rolls (especially combat) out in the open. What you see is what you get. I will not be fudging die rolls to create dramatic moments, the drama will come from the dice themselves. Along the same vein, death and dismemberment will be a constant threat in this campaign. Danger is ever present in the wilderness. Being unprepared is a sure fire way to get yourself killed in the Edge of the World. As a general rule of thumb, the further away from Herford you travel, and the deeper underground you go, the more deadly it will become.
The primary themes of the campaign are as follows: Exploration, Treasure Hunting, and Survival. Check out the Expectations page for a more detailed summary of what to expect from this campaign.