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After viewing the first episode of Critical Role Campaign 4, it becomes apparent that labeling this new venture as "West Marches-style" was somewhat misleading. The fresh Dungeons & Dragons story set in the world of Aramán, designed by Brennan Lee Mulligan, vows to be an grand and entertaining journey, yet the opening episode demonstrates it won't adhere to the West Marches structure.

The Elements That Defines a West Marches Campaign

Campaign 4 boasts an expanded group of thirteen players who will rotate at the gaming table by splitting into three shifting groups. While changing participants is a core premise of a West Marches campaign—first pioneered by game creator Ben Robbins—the real execution and format are quite distinct from what the show is presenting in this newest installment. But, if you are intrigued about West Marches and want to know why it might be a good choice for your own campaign, continue.

The Beginnings of the Player-Rotating Style

This style started as the setting for a campaign run by Ben Robbins, who also created the games Microscope and Kingdom. To solve the common issue of varying player schedules, Robbins introduced the idea of not maintaining a set group. Because he could select from a big pool of players, he allowed them to schedule sessions freely. Once enough players settled on a date, the game would proceed ad hoc.

Having a rotating "group" is beneficial for players: No matter if you can participate weekly or once a month, you will consistently have a spot at the table.

As a Dungeon Master, though, it requires a specific mindset when constructing the campaign. West Marches is, at its heart, 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 rest and organize their next foray. This is essential to enable DMs to run a game with rotating players and ad hoc scheduling. Imagine designing a big, epic narrative, filled with villains, factions, and plot key points, but without being sure who the main characters will be at any given time.

Why This Style Prevents Story Cliffhangers

I'm sure every DM has experienced a session end on a massive cliffhanger featuring a particular character, only to discover that the player could not attend the following 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 central plot. However, that isn't to say a West Marches-style campaign has zero narrative.

As stated by Robbins: "There was history and interconnected details. Clues found in one place could shed light elsewhere. Rather than just being an interesting detail, these clues lead to tangible discoveries."

How The Show Diverges from the Sandbox Model

Initially, I thought something similar would occur with Critical Role Campaign 4, with the mythology of the world developing organically and gradually through players’ actions in each episode, but I was mistaken. Episode 1 is strongly filled with pre-existing lore, and there is a powerful, dominant plot that drives the characters. No issue with that, of certainly, but West Marches offers a pretty distinct experience from many D&D campaigns, one that is valuable to experience at least once.

Advice for Running Your Personal Sandbox Campaign

For my first, extended custom D&D campaign, I began from a concept like the iconic The Keep on the Borderlands D&D module, which subsequently inspired Robbins’ first West Marches. After an introduction, the players found themselves in a border town, a classic "last outpost of civilization" setting. From there, they get the chance to explore the surrounding wilderness, either motivated by missions found 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 locations to explore. The worst scenario you want is your players declaring, "Today we want to investigate the mysterious ruins in the Swamp of the Dead," and having nothing prepared.

• Personally, I like having a defined plot in my campaigns, so I also scattered several hooks for an main narrative, both in town and in the wilderness.
• I believe that complete sandboxing and aimless dungeon crawling can become tiresome after a while, but Robbins raised an key point in this aspect when he explained the genesis of West Marches.
• "The reason in designing it this way was to address player disinterest and unthinking 'plot following' by putting the players in control of both scheduling and what they did in-game."

Finding Balance in Every Game Style

The takeaway here is that no matter the type of campaign you're playing, it's crucial to find a equilibrium between your responsibility as a DM in guiding the narrative and players’ agency. Whether you're designing a complex death maze for a classic 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.

Why Now Is a Perfect Time to Begin a Sandbox Adventure

It might be the ideal time ever to start a West Marches-style campaign. D&D’s newest starter set, Heroes of the Borderlands, is a return to the Keep on the Borderlands, providing the ideal setup to pull new players into this style. The following add-on recommends how to better link the different quests in the set, but you can also run this as the center of a sandbox campaign and expand it as it continues.

Actually, the most interesting element of the first West Marches is the interaction between the changing players. The town tavern had a map of the nearby areas etched into a table, where groups added information and sketched new areas as they discovered them. This not only meant that players could assist each other even while not being 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 create a custom campaign or world for the first time, West Marches could be exactly what you need.