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After viewing the first episode of Critical Role Campaign 4, it becomes apparent that describing this new undertaking as "rotating-player format" was a bit inaccurate. The fresh Dungeons & Dragons narrative set in the realm of Aramán, designed by Brennan Lee Mulligan, vows to be an epic and entertaining tale, yet the first episode demonstrates it won't adhere to the West Marches model.

What Characterizes a West Marches Campaign

The new season features an expanded group of 13 players who will rotate at the session by splitting into multiple rotating groups. Although changing participants is a fundamental premise of a West Marches campaign—first developed by game designer Ben Robbins—the real execution and structure differ significantly 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 good choice for your own campaign, continue.

The Origins of the Player-Rotating Style

This style was originally the setting for a campaign led by Ben Robbins, who also created the games Microscope and Kingdom. To address the frequent issue of inconsistent player schedules, Robbins came up with the idea of not having a fixed group. Since he could select from a large group of players, he allowed them to arrange sessions freely. When a sufficient number of players agreed on a date, the game would proceed ad hoc.

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

For a DM, however, it requires a particular mindset when building the campaign. West Marches is, at its core, a sandbox campaign where players explore the world without being bound to an main plot. At the end of each session, they go back to town to recover and plan their next foray. This is essential to enable DMs to run a game with changing players and flexible scheduling. Imagine crafting a large, sweeping narrative, filled with villains, factions, and plot key points, but without being sure who the main characters will be at each session.

Why West Marches Prevents Story Unresolved Endings

Certainly every DM has experienced a session conclude on a huge cliffhanger involving a particular character, only to discover that the participant was unable to attend the following session. It's like if Frodo had to leave Mount Doom for a moment before tossing the Ring. West Marches prevents this by effectively eliminating the central plot. But, that doesn't mean a West Marches-style campaign has no story.

According to Robbins: "There was history and interconnected details. Tidbits discovered in one place could provide insight elsewhere. Rather than just being an fascinating detail, these clues lead to tangible discoveries."

The Way The Show Diverges from the West Marches Approach

At first, I believed a comparable approach would happen with Critical Role Campaign 4, with the mythology of the world emerging organically and slowly through players’ decisions in each episode, but I couldn't be more wrong. Episode 1 is heavily charged with pre-existing lore, and there is a powerful, overwhelming plot that drives the characters. Nothing wrong with that, of certainly, but West Marches provides a quite different experience from many D&D campaigns, one that is worth trying at least once.

Tips for Running Your Personal West Marches Adventure

In my first, long homebrew D&D campaign, I started from a premise similar to the classic The Keep on the Borderlands D&D module, which subsequently inspired Robbins’ first West Marches. After an intro, the players found themselves in a frontier town, a classic "last outpost of civilization" environment. From there, they have the chance to explore the nearby wilderness, either prompted by missions gathered in town or by their own curiosity. This style of play is heavily focused on places, so if you're planning to attempt it, make sure to fill your wilderness with engaging locations to discover. The worst scenario you want is your players declaring, "Today we want to check out the enigmatic ruins in the Swamp of the Dead," and you have nothing prepared.

• Personally, I prefer having a strong plot in my campaigns, so I also disseminated several story leads for an overall narrative, both in town and in the wilderness.
• I believe that complete sandboxing and aimless dungeon crawling can become boring after a while, but Robbins raised an key point in this aspect when he explained the genesis of West Marches.
• "My motivation in designing it this way was to overcome player disinterest and mindless 'plot following' by putting the players in control of both scheduling and what they did in-game."

Finding Balance in Every Campaign Style

The lesson here is that no matter the type of campaign you're playing, it's crucial to find a balance between your responsibility as a DM in guiding the narrative and players’ freedom. If you're creating a intricate death maze for a traditional dungeon crawl or determining 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 Great Moment to Begin a West Marches Adventure

This could be the best time to date 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, providing the ideal foundation to pull new players into this format. The following add-on suggests how to more effectively link 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.

Actually, the coolest element of the first West Marches is the interaction between the rotating players. The town tavern had a map of the surrounding areas etched into a table, where adventuring parties added information and sketched 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 naturally as the players ventured through it. If you're a DM who is attempting to build a custom campaign or world for the first time, West Marches could be just what you need.