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Having watched the first episode of Critical Role Campaign 4, it becomes apparent that labeling this latest undertaking as "rotating-player format" was a bit misleading. The new Dungeons & Dragons narrative set in the realm of Aramán, crafted by Brennan Lee Mulligan, promises to be an epic and entertaining tale, yet the first episode demonstrates it will not adhere to the West Marches model.

What Defines a Rotating-Player Game

Campaign 4 boasts an expanded group of thirteen players who will take turns at the gaming table by dividing into three shifting groups. While rotating players is a core concept of a West Marches campaign—originally pioneered by game designer Ben Robbins—the actual execution and format differ significantly from what the show is offering in this newest installment. However, if you are curious about West Marches and wonder why it might be a good option for your own campaign, continue.

The Beginnings of the Player-Rotating Format

West Marches was originally the setting for a campaign led by Ben Robbins, who also designed the games Microscope and Kingdom. To address the frequent problem of varying player schedules, Robbins introduced the idea of not maintaining a set group. Because he could select from a big group of players, he allowed them to schedule sessions on their own. Once a sufficient number of 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 weekly or monthly, you will always have a place at the table.

As a Dungeon Master, however, it demands a specific mindset when constructing the campaign. West Marches is, at its heart, a sandbox campaign where players investigate the world without being bound to an main plot. At the conclusion of each session, they go back to town to recover and plan their next expedition. This is essential to allow DMs to run a game with changing players and ad hoc scheduling. Consider designing a large, epic narrative, packed with villains, factions, and plot milestones, but without knowing who the main characters will be at each session.

The Reasons West Marches Prevents Plot Unresolved Endings

Certainly every DM has experienced a session conclude on a huge cliffhanger featuring a particular character, only to find out that the player was unable to make the next session. It's like if Frodo had to step away from Mount Doom briefly before destroying the Ring. West Marches prevents this by essentially removing the main plot. However, that isn't to say a West Marches-style campaign has zero narrative.

As stated by Robbins: "There was background and interconnected details. Tidbits found in one place could shed light elsewhere. Rather than just being an fascinating detail, these clues result in tangible discoveries."

The Way The Show Diverges from the West Marches Approach

Initially, I believed a comparable approach would occur with Critical Role Campaign 4, with the lore of the world developing organically and slowly through players’ decisions in each episode, but I was mistaken. Episode 1 is strongly charged with established lore, and there is a powerful, dominant plot that guides the characters. Nothing wrong with that, of certainly, but West Marches provides a pretty distinct experience from many D&D campaigns, one that is worth trying at least once.

Advice for Running Your Own Sandbox Adventure

For my first, long custom D&D campaign, I began from a premise similar to the iconic The Keep on the Borderlands D&D module, which subsequently inspired Robbins’ original West Marches. After an intro, the players were placed in a frontier town, a traditional "final bastion of civilization" environment. From there, they get the opportunity to venture into the nearby wilderness, either motivated by quests gathered in town or by their own curiosity. This method of play is heavily location-based, so if you're going to try it, ensure to fill your wilderness with interesting locations to explore. The worst scenario you want is your players saying, "Today we want to check out the mysterious ruins in the Swamp of the Dead," and having no content prepared.

• For me, I like 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 think that complete sandboxing and aimless dungeon crawling can become tiresome after a while, but Robbins raised 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 disinterest and mindless 'plot following' by placing the players in control of both scheduling and what they did in-game."

Achieving Balance in Every Game Type

The lesson here is that regardless of the type of campaign you're playing, it's crucial to find a balance between your role as a DM in guiding the narrative and players’ agency. Whether you're designing a intricate 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.

The Present Is a Great Moment to Begin a West Marches Campaign

It might be the ideal time to date to start a West Marches-style campaign. D&D’s newest starter set, Heroes of the Borderlands, is a comeback to the Keep on the Borderlands, providing the perfect setup to draw new players into this format. An 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.

Actually, the coolest aspect of the original West Marches is the interaction between the changing players. The town tavern had a map of the nearby areas etched into a table, where adventuring parties added information and drew new areas as they found them. This not only meant that players could assist each other even while not playing at the table at the same time, but also that the world of West Marches evolved organically 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.