West Kingdom Tomesaga: How to Run the Campaign
By Garphill Games | Published: 2026-10-16
Category: Návody
A step-by-step West Kingdom Tomesaga guide: set up the campaign, link your trilogy games, and avoid the bookkeeping mistakes that stall a saga run.
Quick answer
Treat Tomesaga as one long campaign, not three separate game nights. Pick your mode first: competitive campaign, where players collect the most tomes across all three West Kingdom games, or the separate co-operative modes that pit the table against the Overlord in each game. Set up a single shared record sheet before you open the first box, then play the trilogy in order and log results at the end of every session. If you cannot decide, start competitive — it is the version that uses the full trilogy and the one most groups finish.
Decide the mode before you open a box
Tomesaga supports two genuinely different experiences, and switching mid-campaign is the fastest way to lose your group. The competitive campaign is an epic journey across the trilogy where players compete to collect the most tomes and earn a place in their people's chronicles. The co-operative option is separate: each game in the West Kingdom Trilogy has its own co-op mode where the table bands together against the ruthless Overlord. Pick one, write it at the top of your record sheet, and hold to it. If you own only one base game, the co-op route is the cleaner entry point because it does not require carrying progress across three boxes.
Set up a record sheet that survives three games
Tomesaga rewards bookkeeping, and the campaign breaks down when nobody can remember who earned what two sessions ago. Before game one, draw a table with a row per player and columns for each session: tomes collected, game played, and any notable outcome. Keep it with the Tomesaga box, not inside a base game box that might get shelved. One checkpoint worth enforcing: at the end of every session, read the totals aloud and let every player agree before anyone packs up. Disagreements are cheap now and expensive three weeks from now.
Play the trilogy in a consistent order
The campaign is designed to run across the three West Kingdom games, and consistency matters more than which order you choose. Whichever order your group picks, announce it before session one and never shuffle it mid-campaign, because players build strategies around what is coming next. If your group is new to the trilogy, start with the game your table already knows best so the first campaign session is about learning Tomesaga, not learning a base game. Save the games you know least for later sessions when the campaign rhythm is already established.
Teach the campaign layer, not the whole rulebook
The most common teaching mistake is re-teaching a base game to players who have already played it. Tomesaga adds the campaign layer on top of games your group already knows, so open with what is new: how tomes are collected, how the campaign objective is judged, and what carries between sessions. Ten minutes on the campaign layer beats a forty-minute recap. If a player is genuinely new to a specific base game, teach that game separately before the campaign session rather than folding two lessons into one night.
Pace the campaign across realistic sessions
A campaign that runs three games back-to-back in one evening feels great and then nobody remembers it. Schedule one trilogy game per session, with the record sheet updated immediately after. The co-operative Overlord modes are self-contained per game, so a group that wants a shorter commitment can run those as standalone nights and still get the full Tomesaga experience without a multi-week arc. For the competitive campaign, plan the number of sessions before you start so the finale has a date rather than drifting.
Campaign run order, step by step
- 1. Choose competitive or co-operative: Read both options in the Tomesaga rules, then commit in writing. Competitive means collecting the most tomes across the trilogy; co-operative means the table versus the Overlord in each game's separate mode. Checkpoint: every player can state the mode and the win condition out loud before setup begins.
- 2. Build the shared record sheet: One row per player, one column per session, plus a tomes column. Keep it in the Tomesaga box so it travels with the campaign rather than the base games. Mistake to avoid: tracking tomes on loose paper or a phone note that gets lost between sessions.
- 3. Lock the trilogy order: Announce which West Kingdom game you play first, second, and third, and write it on the sheet. New groups should open with the game the table knows best. Checkpoint: nobody proposes changing the order after session one.
- 4. Run a short campaign-layer teach: Spend ten minutes on what Tomesaga adds — tomes, campaign scoring, and carry-over — instead of re-teaching a base game everyone already knows. Mistake to avoid: a forty-minute rules recap that eats the session and teaches nothing new.
- 5. Play, then log immediately: Finish the game, read the tomes aloud, and have every player confirm the totals before anything is packed away. Checkpoint: the record sheet is updated and initialed the same night.
- 6. Schedule the finale before you need it: Set the date for the last session when you start the campaign, and decide in advance whether promos or optional content enter play only before session one. Next step: if the group wants a shorter commitment, switch to the per-game co-operative Overlord modes instead of stretching the competitive arc.
What you need at the table
- The West Kingdom Tomesaga: The West Kingdom Tomesaga is the expansion that adds the campaign mode where players compete to collect the most tomes, plus separate co-operative modes for each game in the West Kingdom Trilogy against the Overlord. This is the box that makes a campaign possible; without it you are playing three standalone games, not a saga.
- Architects of the West Kingdom: Architects of the West Kingdom is a base game where players score victory points by constructing buildings and advancing work on the Archbishop's cathedral, with moral decisions judged at game's end. It is a natural first campaign session if your table already knows it, since the virtue judgment at the end gives the campaign an early, memorable result to log.
- PP4: West Kingdom Various: PP4: West Kingdom Various contains 10 promo cards for Architects, Paladins, and Viscounts. Optional variety for a long campaign, but introduce promos before session one rather than mid-campaign so nobody has to relearn a game between sessions.
