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After viewing the premiere of Critical Role Campaign 4, it becomes apparent that labeling this latest venture 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 grand and enjoyable tale, yet the first episode shows it will not adhere to the West Marches structure.

What Defines a Rotating-Player Campaign

Campaign 4 features an expanded group of 13 players who will rotate at the session by dividing into three shifting groups. Although rotating players is a core premise of a West Marches campaign—originally pioneered by game creator Ben Robbins—the real execution and format differ significantly from what the show is presenting in this latest season. 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 was originally the backdrop for a campaign run by Ben Robbins, who also created the games Microscope and Kingdom. To address the frequent issue of inconsistent player schedules, Robbins introduced the idea of not maintaining a set group. Because he could draw from a large pool of players, he let them to schedule sessions freely. When a sufficient number of players settled on a date, the game would run ad hoc.

Using a rotating "cast" is beneficial for players: It doesn't matter if you can participate weekly or monthly, you will consistently have a place at the table.

For a DM, though, it requires a specific mindset when constructing the campaign. West Marches is, at its heart, a sandbox campaign where players explore the world without being bound to an overall plot. At the conclusion of each session, they go back to town to recover and plan their next expedition. This is essential to enable DMs to run a game with changing players and ad hoc scheduling. Consider crafting a large, sweeping narrative, packed with villains, factions, and plot milestones, but without knowing who the main characters will be at each session.

Why West Marches Avoids Plot Unresolved Endings

I'm sure every DM has experienced a session conclude on a massive cliffhanger involving a particular character, only to discover that the player could not make the following session. It's like if Frodo had to leave Mount Doom briefly before tossing the Ring. West Marches prevents this by effectively eliminating the main plot. But, that doesn't mean a West Marches-style campaign has no story.

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

How Critical Role Differs from the West Marches Approach

Initially, I believed a comparable approach would happen with Critical Role Campaign 4, with the lore of the world developing naturally and gradually through players’ decisions in each episode, but I was mistaken. Episode 1 is strongly charged with established lore, and there is a strong, overwhelming plot that guides the characters. Nothing wrong with that, of certainly, but West Marches provides a pretty different experience from many D&D campaigns, one that is valuable to experience at least once.

Advice for Managing Your Personal Sandbox Adventure

In my first, long homebrew D&D campaign, I started from a concept similar to the iconic The Keep on the Borderlands D&D module, which subsequently influenced Robbins’ first West Marches. After an intro, the players were placed in a frontier town, a classic "final bastion of civilization" environment. From there, they have the chance to explore the nearby wilderness, either prompted by quests gathered in town or by their own interest. This style of play is strongly focused on places, so if you're going to try it, ensure to fill 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 you have nothing prepared.

• Personally, I prefer having a defined plot in my campaigns, so I also disseminated several hooks for an overall narrative, both in town and in the wilderness.
• I think that complete sandboxing and aimless dungeon crawling can grow tiresome after a time, but Robbins made an key point in this regard when he described the genesis of West Marches.
• "My motivation in designing it this way was to address player disinterest and unthinking 'plot following' by putting the players in charge of both scheduling and what they did in-game."

Finding Equilibrium in Every Campaign Type

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

Why Now Is a Great Moment to Start a Sandbox Campaign

This could be the ideal time to date to launch a West Marches-style campaign. D&D’s newest starter set, Heroes of the Borderlands, is a return to the Keep on the Borderlands, offering the ideal foundation to draw new players into this format. The following add-on recommends how to better connect the different quests in the set, but you can also run this as the center of a sandbox campaign and develop it as it continues.

Actually, the most interesting aspect of the first West Marches is the collaboration between the rotating players. The town tavern had a map of the nearby areas carved into a table, where adventuring parties added information and drew 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 grew organically as the players explored it. If you're a DM who is attempting to build a homebrew campaign or world for the first time, West Marches could be exactly what you need.