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Having watched the premiere of Critical Role Campaign 4, it is clear that describing this new undertaking as "rotating-player format" was somewhat misleading. The fresh Dungeons & Dragons story set in the world of Aramán, crafted by Brennan Lee Mulligan, vows to be an epic and enjoyable tale, yet the first episode shows it will not follow the West Marches structure.

What Characterizes a Rotating-Player Game

The new season boasts an large group of thirteen players who will rotate at the session by dividing into multiple shifting groups. Although rotating players is a fundamental premise of a West Marches campaign—first developed by game creator Ben Robbins—the actual gameplay and structure are quite distinct from what Critical Role is presenting in this latest season. But, if you are curious about West Marches and want to know why it might be a great choice for your own game, read on.

The Origins of the West Marches Format

This style started as the backdrop for a campaign led by Ben Robbins, who also created the games Microscope and Kingdom. To address the common problem of varying player availability, Robbins introduced the idea of not having a set group. Since he could select 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 as needed.

Using a changing "group" is beneficial for players: It doesn't matter if you can play once a week or once a month, you will always have a spot at the table.

For a DM, though, it demands a specific approach when constructing the campaign. West Marches is, at its core, a sandbox campaign where players investigate the world without being tied 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. Imagine designing a large, sweeping narrative, filled with villains, factions, and plot key points, but without knowing who the main characters will be at each session.

The Reasons West Marches Avoids Story Cliffhangers

Certainly every DM has had a session end on a massive cliffhanger involving a specific character, only to find out that the participant was unable to make the following session. It's similar to if Frodo had to step away from Mount Doom for a moment before tossing the Ring. West Marches prevents this by essentially eliminating the main plot. But, that isn't to say a West Marches-style campaign has no story.

According to Robbins: "There was history and interconnected details. Clues discovered in one place could shed light elsewhere. Rather than just being an fascinating detail, these clues result in tangible discoveries."

How Critical Role Diverges from the Sandbox Model

At first, I thought something similar would occur with Critical Role Campaign 4, with the mythology of the world emerging organically and gradually through players’ actions in each episode, but I was mistaken. Episode 1 is strongly charged with established lore, and there is a powerful, overwhelming plot that drives the characters. Nothing wrong with that, of certainly, but West Marches offers a quite different gameplay from many D&D campaigns, one that is worth trying at least once.

Tips for Running Your Own Sandbox Campaign

For my first, long homebrew D&D campaign, I started from a concept similar to the classic The Keep on the Borderlands D&D module, which in turn influenced Robbins’ original West Marches. After an intro, the players were placed in a frontier town, a classic "last outpost of civilization" setting. From there, they have the chance to explore the surrounding wilderness, either prompted by quests found in town or by their own interest. This style of play is heavily focused on places, so if you're going to try it, make sure to fill your wilderness with interesting locations to discover. The last thing you want is your players saying, "Today we want to check out the enigmatic ruins in the Swamp of the Dead," and you have nothing prepared.

• For me, I prefer having a strong plot in my campaigns, so I also scattered several hooks for an overall narrative, both in town and in the wilderness.
• I think that pure sandboxing and aimless dungeon crawling can become boring after a time, but Robbins made an key point in this regard when he explained the origin of West Marches.
• "The reason in designing it this way was to overcome player apathy and unthinking 'plot following' by placing the players in charge of both scheduling and what they did in-game."

Achieving Equilibrium in Any Game Style

The lesson here is that no matter the style of campaign you're playing, it's crucial to strike a equilibrium 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, always consider what your players may want to do. You prepare the table, but they decide what to eat.

The Present Is a Great Time to Begin a Sandbox Adventure

This could be the best time to date to start 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 draw new players into this format. An add-on suggests how to more effectively 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.

In fact, the most interesting element 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 adventuring parties included information and sketched 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 trying to create a homebrew campaign or world for the first time, West Marches could be just what you need.