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Having watched the premiere of Critical Role Campaign 4, it becomes apparent that describing this new venture as "rotating-player format" was a bit inaccurate. The new Dungeons & Dragons story set in the realm of Aramán, crafted by Brennan Lee Mulligan, promises to be an epic and entertaining journey, yet the opening episode shows it will not adhere to the West Marches model.

The Elements That Characterizes a West Marches Game

The new season features an large group of 13 players who will take turns at the session by dividing into three shifting groups. Although changing participants is a fundamental premise of a West Marches campaign—first pioneered by game designer Ben Robbins—the real gameplay and format are quite distinct from what Critical Role is offering in this latest installment. However, if you are intrigued about West Marches and want to know why it might be a great option for your own game, continue.

The Origins of the Player-Rotating Format

West Marches was originally the setting for a campaign run by Ben Robbins, who also created the games Microscope and Kingdom. To address the frequent issue of inconsistent player availability, Robbins came up with the concept of not maintaining a set group. Because he could select from a large pool of players, he allowed them to schedule sessions freely. Once enough players agreed on a date, the game would run ad hoc.

Using a rotating "group" is great for players: No matter if you can participate once a week or monthly, you will always have a place at the table.

As a Dungeon Master, though, it requires a particular approach when constructing the campaign. West Marches is, at its heart, a sandbox campaign where players investigate the world without being bound to an overall plot. At the conclusion of each session, they return to town to rest and plan their next foray. This is essential to allow DMs to run a game with changing players and flexible scheduling. Imagine designing a big, sweeping narrative, filled with villains, factions, and plot milestones, but without being sure who the protagonists will be at each session.

Why West Marches Prevents Plot Cliffhangers

Certainly every DM has experienced a session conclude on a huge cliffhanger featuring a particular character, only to discover that the participant could not attend the next session. It's like if Frodo had to step away from Mount Doom briefly before tossing the Ring. West Marches prevents this by effectively eliminating the central plot. However, that isn't to say a West Marches-style campaign has no story.

As stated by Robbins: "There was history and linked details. Clues found in one place could shed light elsewhere. Instead of just being an interesting detail, these clues lead to concrete discoveries."

The Way Critical Role Differs from the West Marches Model

At first, I believed something similar would happen with Critical Role Campaign 4, with the mythology of the world emerging organically and gradually through players’ decisions in each episode, but I couldn't be more wrong. Episode 1 is heavily charged with established lore, and there is a strong, overwhelming plot that guides the characters. No issue with that, of certainly, but West Marches offers a pretty different experience from many D&D campaigns, one that is valuable to experience at least once.

Tips for Running Your Own West Marches Adventure

In my first, long homebrew D&D campaign, I began from a concept similar to the iconic The Keep on the Borderlands D&D module, which subsequently inspired Robbins’ original West Marches. After an introduction, the players were placed in a border town, a classic "final bastion of civilization" environment. From there, they have the opportunity to venture into the nearby wilderness, either prompted by quests found in town or by their own curiosity. This method of play is heavily location-based, so if you're planning to attempt it, ensure to stock up your wilderness with interesting places to discover. The last thing you want is your players declaring, "Today we want to investigate the mysterious ruins in the Swamp of the Dead," and you have nothing prepared.

• For me, I like having a defined plot in my campaigns, so I also scattered several story leads for an overall narrative, both in town and in the wilderness.
• I think that complete sandboxing and aimless dungeon crawling can become boring after a time, but Robbins made an important point in this regard when he described the genesis of West Marches.
• "My motivation in designing it this way was to address player apathy and unthinking 'plot following' by putting the players in control of both scheduling and what they did in-game."

Achieving Equilibrium in Every Game Style

The lesson here is that regardless of the style of campaign you're playing, it's important to strike a equilibrium between your responsibility as a DM in guiding the narrative and players’ freedom. If you're designing a intricate death maze for a classic dungeon crawl or determining the fate of the world in a narrative-heavy campaign, always think about what your players may want to do. You prepare the table, but they decide what to eat.

The Present Is a Great Time to Begin a Sandbox Adventure

This could be the best time to date to launch a West Marches-style campaign. D&D’s newest starter set, Heroes of the Borderlands, is a comeback to the Keep on the Borderlands, offering the ideal foundation to draw new players into this format. The following add-on recommends how to more effectively link the various quests in the set, but you can also run this as the center of a sandbox campaign and expand it as it progresses.

In fact, the most interesting element of the original West Marches is the collaboration between the changing players. The town tavern had a map of the surrounding areas etched into a table, where groups added information and drew new areas as they discovered them. This not only ensured that players could help each other even while not being at the table at the same time, but also that the world of West Marches evolved organically as the players explored it. If you're a DM who is trying to build a homebrew campaign or world for the first time, West Marches could be just what you need.