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After viewing the premiere of Critical Role Campaign 4, it becomes apparent that describing this new venture as "West Marches-style" was somewhat inaccurate. The fresh Dungeons & Dragons story set in the world of Aramán, designed by Brennan Lee Mulligan, promises to be an epic and entertaining tale, yet the opening episode shows it won't follow the West Marches model.

The Elements That Defines a Rotating-Player Campaign

The new season boasts an expanded cast of 13 players who will take turns at the gaming table by splitting into multiple rotating groups. While rotating players is a core premise of a West Marches campaign—first developed by game designer Ben Robbins—the real execution and format differ significantly from what the show is offering in this newest installment. But, if you are curious about West Marches and wonder why it might be a great option for your own campaign, continue.

The Origins of the West Marches Format

West Marches started as the setting for a campaign led by Ben Robbins, who also created the games Microscope and Kingdom. To address the common issue of inconsistent player availability, Robbins introduced the concept 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. Once enough players agreed on a date, the game would proceed ad hoc.

Using a rotating "group" is beneficial for players: It doesn't 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 mindset when constructing 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 go back to town to rest and plan their next foray. This is necessary to enable DMs to run a game with changing players and ad hoc scheduling. Consider designing a large, epic narrative, filled with villains, factions, and plot milestones, but without knowing who the protagonists will be at each session.

Why West Marches Prevents Story Cliffhangers

Certainly every DM has experienced a session end on a huge cliffhanger involving a particular character, only to discover that the participant could not make the next session. It's similar to if Frodo had to step away from Mount Doom briefly before tossing the Ring. West Marches prevents this by effectively removing the main plot. But, that doesn't mean a West Marches-style campaign has zero narrative.

According to Robbins: "There was background and linked details. Clues found in one place could provide insight elsewhere. Rather than just being an fascinating detail, these clues lead to concrete discoveries."

The Way The Show Differs from the Sandbox Model

Initially, I believed something similar would happen with Critical Role Campaign 4, with the mythology of the world emerging naturally and gradually through players’ actions in each episode, but I couldn't be more wrong. Episode 1 is heavily filled with established lore, and there is a strong, overwhelming plot that guides the characters. No issue with that, of course, but West Marches provides a quite distinct gameplay from many D&D campaigns, one that is worth trying at least once.

Advice for Running Your Personal Sandbox Campaign

For my first, long homebrew D&D campaign, I began from a premise similar to 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 surrounding wilderness, either prompted by quests gathered in town or by their own curiosity. This method of play is strongly location-based, so if you're planning to attempt it, make sure to stock up your wilderness with engaging places to discover. The last thing you want is your players declaring, "Today we want to check out 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 hooks for an overall narrative, both in town and in the wilderness.
• I believe that pure sandboxing and aimless dungeon crawling can become tiresome after a while, but Robbins made an key point in this aspect when he described the genesis of West Marches.
• "The reason in setting things up 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."

Finding Equilibrium in Every Game Type

The takeaway here is that no matter the style of campaign you're running, it's crucial to find a balance between your responsibility as a DM in steering the narrative and players’ freedom. If you're designing a complex death maze for a classic dungeon crawl or shaping the fate of the world in a narrative-heavy campaign, always think about what your players may want to do. You set up the table, but they decide what to eat.

Why Now Is a Great Time to Start a Sandbox Adventure

This could be the ideal time to date to start a West Marches-style campaign. D&D’s latest starter set, Heroes of the Borderlands, is a return to the Keep on the Borderlands, offering the ideal setup 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 expand it as it continues.

In fact, the most interesting aspect of the original West Marches is the interaction between the changing players. The town tavern had a map of the surrounding areas carved into a table, where groups included information and sketched new areas as they found 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 grew naturally as the players ventured through it. If you're a DM who is attempting to create a homebrew campaign or world for the first time, West Marches could be exactly what you need.