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After viewing the premiere of Critical Role Campaign 4, it becomes apparent that labeling this latest undertaking as "West Marches-style" was somewhat misleading. The new Dungeons & Dragons narrative set in the world of Aramán, crafted by Brennan Lee Mulligan, promises to be an epic and enjoyable journey, yet the first episode shows it will not follow the West Marches model.

The Elements That Defines a Rotating-Player Game

Campaign 4 boasts an expanded group of 13 players who will rotate at the session by splitting into multiple rotating groups. While rotating players is a fundamental premise of a West Marches campaign—first developed by game designer Ben Robbins—the actual execution and structure are quite distinct from what Critical Role is presenting in this latest installment. However, if you are curious about West Marches and wonder why it might be a great choice for your own campaign, continue.

The Beginnings of the West Marches Style

This style started as the backdrop for a campaign led by Ben Robbins, who also created the games Microscope and Kingdom. To solve the common issue of inconsistent player schedules, Robbins introduced the idea of not maintaining a set group. Because he could select from a large pool of players, he let them to schedule sessions on their own. When enough players settled on a date, the game would proceed as needed.

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

For a DM, though, it requires a specific approach when building the campaign. West Marches is, at its core, a sandbox campaign where players investigate the world without being tied to an overall plot. At the end of each session, they return to town to recover and plan their next foray. This is essential to allow DMs to run a game with changing players and flexible scheduling. Imagine crafting a big, sweeping narrative, packed with villains, factions, and plot key points, but without knowing who the main characters will be at each session.

The Reasons West Marches Avoids Plot Cliffhangers

Certainly every DM has had a session conclude on a massive cliffhanger involving a specific character, only to discover that the player was unable to attend the following session. It's similar to if Frodo had to leave Mount Doom briefly before destroying the Ring. West Marches prevents this by essentially eliminating the main plot. However, that doesn't mean a West Marches-style campaign has no story.

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

The Way The Show Differs from the Sandbox Model

Initially, I believed something similar would happen with Critical Role Campaign 4, with the lore of the world emerging organically and gradually through players’ actions in each episode, but I was mistaken. Episode 1 is strongly filled with pre-existing lore, and there is a strong, dominant plot that drives the characters. No issue with that, of course, but West Marches provides a pretty distinct experience from many D&D campaigns, one that is worth trying at least once.

Tips for Running Your Own West Marches Campaign

For my initial, long custom D&D campaign, I started from a premise like the classic The Keep on the Borderlands D&D module, which in turn inspired Robbins’ original West Marches. After an intro, the players found themselves in a frontier town, a classic "final bastion of civilization" environment. From there, they get the chance to venture into the surrounding wilderness, either motivated by quests gathered in town or by their own curiosity. This method of play is strongly location-based, so if you're going to try it, make sure to stock up your wilderness with interesting places to explore. The last thing you want is your players declaring, "Today we want to check out the enigmatic ruins in the Swamp of the Dead," and having no content prepared.

• Personally, I prefer having a defined plot in my campaigns, so I also disseminated several hooks for an main narrative, both in town and in the wilderness.
• I believe that pure sandboxing and purposeless dungeon crawling can become tiresome after a time, but Robbins raised an important point in this aspect when he explained the genesis of West Marches.
• "The reason in setting things up this way was to overcome player apathy and mindless 'plot following' by putting the players in control of both scheduling and what they did in-game."

Finding Balance in Every Game Style

The takeaway here is that regardless of the type of campaign you're running, it's important to strike a equilibrium between your role as a DM in guiding the narrative and players’ agency. Whether you're creating a complex death maze for a traditional dungeon crawl or determining the fate of the world in a narrative-heavy campaign, consistently consider what your players may want to do. You prepare the table, but they choose what to eat.

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

It might be the best time ever to launch a West Marches-style campaign. D&D’s latest starter set, Heroes of the Borderlands, is a comeback to the Keep on the Borderlands, offering the perfect foundation to pull new players into this style. An add-on recommends how to more effectively connect the various quests in the set, but you can also run this as the core of a sandbox campaign and develop it as it continues.

In fact, the coolest aspect of the first West Marches is the collaboration between the changing players. The town tavern had a map of the nearby areas etched into a table, where groups included information and sketched new areas as they found them. This not only meant 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 attempting to build a custom campaign or world for the first time, West Marches could be exactly what you need.