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Having watched the premiere of Critical Role Campaign 4, it is clear that describing this new undertaking as "West Marches-style" was somewhat misleading. The new Dungeons & Dragons story set in the realm of Aramán, designed by Brennan Lee Mulligan, vows to be an epic and enjoyable tale, yet the opening episode shows it will not follow the West Marches model.

The Elements That Defines a Rotating-Player Campaign

The new season boasts an expanded group of thirteen players who will rotate at the session by dividing into three shifting groups. Although rotating players is a fundamental concept of a West Marches campaign—originally developed by game designer Ben Robbins—the actual execution and structure are quite distinct from what the show is presenting in this newest season. But, if you are curious about West Marches and wonder why it might be a great option for your own game, continue.

The Origins of the West Marches Format

This style was originally the backdrop for a campaign run by Ben Robbins, who also designed the games Microscope and Kingdom. To address the common problem of inconsistent player availability, Robbins came up with the concept of not maintaining a set group. Because he could select from a big pool of players, he let them to arrange sessions freely. When a sufficient number of players agreed on a date, the game would run ad hoc.

Using a rotating "group" is beneficial for players: No matter if you can participate weekly or monthly, you will consistently have a place at the table.

For a DM, though, it requires a specific mindset when building the campaign. West Marches is, at its heart, a sandbox campaign where players investigate the world without being tied to an main plot. At the conclusion of each session, they return to town to rest and organize their next foray. This is necessary to enable DMs to run a game with rotating players and flexible scheduling. Consider crafting a large, epic narrative, filled with villains, factions, and plot milestones, but without knowing who the protagonists will be at any given time.

Why West Marches Avoids Plot Cliffhangers

Certainly every DM has had a session end on a huge cliffhanger involving a particular character, only to find out that the player was unable to attend the following session. It's similar to if Frodo had to step away from Mount Doom for a moment before tossing the Ring. West Marches prevents this by essentially removing the central plot. But, that isn't to say a West Marches-style campaign has no story.

According to Robbins: "There was background and interconnected details. Tidbits found in one place could shed light elsewhere. Rather than just being an interesting detail, these clues lead to concrete discoveries."

The Way The Show Diverges from the West Marches Model

At first, I believed a comparable approach would happen with Critical Role Campaign 4, with the mythology of the world developing organically and gradually through players’ actions in each episode, but I was mistaken. Episode 1 is heavily charged with established lore, and there is a strong, overwhelming plot that guides the characters. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but West Marches offers a pretty different experience from many D&D campaigns, one that is worth trying at least once.

Tips for Managing Your Personal Sandbox Campaign

In my first, long custom D&D campaign, I started from a concept like the classic The Keep on the Borderlands D&D module, which subsequently influenced Robbins’ original West Marches. After an introduction, the players were placed in a border town, a traditional "last outpost of civilization" environment. From there, they get the chance to venture into the nearby wilderness, either prompted by missions gathered in town or by their own curiosity. This style of play is strongly location-based, so if you're planning to attempt it, make sure to fill your wilderness with interesting locations to explore. The worst scenario you want is your players declaring, "Today we want to investigate the enigmatic ruins in the Swamp of the Dead," and having no content prepared.

• For me, I prefer having a strong plot in my campaigns, so I also disseminated several hooks for an overall narrative, both in town and in the wilderness.
• I believe that pure sandboxing and aimless dungeon crawling can grow tiresome after a time, but Robbins made an key point in this aspect when he described the origin of West Marches.
• "The reason in designing it this way was to address player apathy and mindless 'plot following' by placing the players in control of both scheduling and what they did in-game."

Achieving Equilibrium in Any Game Style

The takeaway here is that regardless of the type of campaign you're playing, it's important to find a balance between your responsibility as a DM in steering the narrative and players’ freedom. Whether you're designing a intricate death maze for a traditional dungeon crawl or shaping the fate of the world in a Critical Role-style campaign, always consider what your players may want to do. You prepare the table, but they choose what to eat.

Why Now Is a Perfect Time to Begin a West Marches Campaign

This could be the ideal time ever to launch a West Marches-style campaign. D&D’s newest starter set, Heroes of the Borderlands, is a return to the Keep on the Borderlands, offering the ideal setup to draw new players into this format. The following add-on suggests how to better connect the various quests in the set, but you can also run this as the center of a sandbox campaign and develop it as it progresses.

In fact, the coolest aspect of the first West Marches is the interaction between the changing players. The town tavern had a map of the nearby areas carved into a table, where groups added information and sketched new areas as they found them. This not only meant that players could assist each other even while not being at the table at the same time, but also that the world of West Marches evolved naturally as the players explored it. If you're a DM who is attempting to create a homebrew campaign or world for the first time, West Marches could be just what you need.