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West Marches is a tabletop campaign format in which changing groups of players explore one shared setting, usually setting out from a common base, and what they do carries forward into the world for the next group. Critical Role’s Campaign Four applies that structure to a produced actual-play series. After an opening run of four episodes called an Overture, the cast divides into three rotating tables, the Soldiers, Seekers, and Schemers, whose stories Critical Role says will intertwine in Aramán. The change is real in how the show organizes its cast. Calling it “revolutionizing” is an editorial judgment about that ambition, not a measured finding that the format has reshaped actual-play as a whole.
What is a West Marches campaign?
West Marches is a campaign format, not a rules system. A group of players shares one setting, and the people at the table change from session to session. Each expedition explores part of the world, and its results stay in place for everyone who plays afterward.
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A contemporary how-to guide from WestMarches.games describes one common loop, which looks like this:
- A group sets out from a town or base the wider player community shares.
- The group chooses a route and decides how much risk to accept.
- The group explores the parts of the setting it reaches.
- The group returns to base, and another group continues the world’s activity from where it was left.
The same guide recommends shared maps, records of what has happened, consistent procedures, and clear social rules. These are useful habits rather than requirements, and tables that run the format differ in how closely they follow them.
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This article does not trace the format’s origin. The guide cited here is a present-day how-to, not the account of an original designer, so no single version is treated as the canonical one.
What Critical Role announced for Campaign Four
Critical Role’s official announcement, published August 21, 2025, says Campaign Four moves beyond Exandria into a new setting, Aramán. The campaign uses the 2024 Dungeons & Dragons rules and is led by Brennan Lee Mulligan as Game Master. The primary source is Critical Role’s “What Is Campaign Four?” page.
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The Overture
The first four episodes were presented as an Overture, meant to establish the story and introduce the characters before the format changes. Treat the Overture as the setup phase: it is the part of the campaign that gives viewers the cast and the starting situation before the tables split.
Three rotating tables
The next phase divides the cast among three tables: the Soldiers, the Seekers, and the Schemers. Critical Role says their fates will intertwine. The announcement does not describe a fixed schedule for rotating between them in the material reviewed, so readers should confirm how individual episodes are assigned on the official pages rather than assume a pattern.
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Where the campaign stands now
The official campaign page still presents the show as a West Marches-style Dungeons & Dragons campaign with three rotating tables. It also hosts character profiles, lore, episode listings, and recaps. When the page was accessed on October 8, 2026, it showed a recap for Episode 37 dated October 7, 2026, which means the campaign is ongoing and the page’s details may keep changing. See Critical Role’s Campaign 4 page.
Why the structure matters
A fixed-party actual-play show follows one group, so viewers track one party’s decisions and one set of relationships. Campaign Four spreads its cast across several tables, while keeping them in one world. That lets viewers follow more than one party and connect details across table arcs, which is the core change the format introduces.
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The format also carries trade-offs. Separate tables can give the cast more room, but they also ask viewers to keep track of more storylines, and they ask production to keep the shared world consistent across them. These are design implications of the format, not evidence that the show is easier to follow or more coherent on screen.
How the format compares with a fixed-party campaign
| Axis | Fixed-party campaign | Campaign Four’s rotating-table format |
|---|---|---|
| Who is at the table | One recurring party | Distinct groups drawn from a larger cast |
| How stories connect | Mainly one continuous party arc | Separate table arcs whose events are set to intertwine |
| How viewers follow continuity | One central group’s viewpoint | Several party perspectives within one world |
| What coordination requires | One cast’s shared schedule | Managing changing groups and keeping shared-world context clear (a practical implication of the format, not a stated production detail) |
What a third-party critic made of it
GamesRadar+ published a piece on December 5, 2025, examining the expanded cast and the multiple connected storylines. Its headline frames the campaign against lessons from Dimension 20 and the new Dungeon Master, Brennan Lee Mulligan. Treat it as criticism rather than official information, and read it alongside the primary pages. See GamesRadar+’s December 5, 2025 article.
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Is “revolutionizing” an accurate description?
The defensible core of the claim is that the structure changes how the show presents its cast and story. The official announcement supports that. What the available evidence does not establish is that the format has transformed actual-play as a genre. No measured audience or industry impact figure, and no named statement assessing that impact, was found in the official or independent sources cited here. Use “revolutionizing” as a description of the show’s ambition, not as a verified outcome.
Running a West Marches game at your own table
Trying the format at home is mostly a coordination task rather than a matter of special rules. The following are the practices the how-to guide recommends, and they are the parts that most often decide whether a rotating group stays coherent:
- A shared map of the setting, updated after each session.
- A session log recording what each group found, who it met, and what changed in the world.
- Consistent procedures so different groups resolve the same situations the same way.
- Clear social rules and a transparent sign-up process, so players know who can join each session.
Rules reference
Campaign Four uses the 2024 Dungeons & Dragons rules, so the Dungeons & Dragons 2024 Player’s Handbook is the relevant rules reference for readers who want to play under the same ruleset. It is a general rules book, not a Critical Role campaign product.
Viewers can use the official campaign page and recaps to check current details, and the format’s logistics will depend on the group you assemble rather than on the show itself.
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