I recently ran the final session of my long-running D&D 5e campaign, a West Marches–style campaign centered around the frontier town of Phandalin on the Sword Coast of the Forgotten Realms. Using the “Dragon of Icespire Peak” adventure from the Essentials Kit as a foundation and mixing in elements from the associated DLCs, “Lost Mines of Phandelver,” Tales from the Yawning Portal, Neverwinter Campaign Setting, and more, I was able to turn this map by Mike Schley into a living sandbox. Starting in December 2021 and wrapping up in August 2024, I ran 69 sessions and 34 discrete adventures total for 18 characters across 15 players. The PCs started at level 3 and worked their way up to level 9 by the end, slaying multiple dragons and defeating the ghost of a dreaded dracolich.

I’m really proud of being able to maintain and finish a campaign that lasted almost three years. Typically, my interest in any given campaign begins to wane at the tenth session or thereabouts, by which time I start getting the itch to run a different game. For this campaign, a couple of factors made a big difference in helping me continue to run adventures without burning out. What follows is something of a campaign post-mortem of lessons learned from my experience running the game. Perhaps you’ll find some of these reflections useful in your own campaigns, especially if you’re considering using the West Marches structure for your next game.