Critical Role The New D&D Book Is 'The Explorer's Guide to [Critical Role's] Wildemount!' By Matt Mercer

It looks like Amazon has leaked the title and description of the new D&D book a day early (unless it's all a fake-out by WotC) -- and it's a new D&D setting book called The Explorer's Guide to Wildemount; it's the Critical Role campaign setting, penned by Matt Mercer!

It looks like Amazon has leaked the title and description of the new D&D book a day early (unless it's all a fake-out by WotC) -- and it's a new D&D setting book called The Explorer's Guide to Wildemount; it's the Critical Role campaign setting, penned by Matt Mercer!

Wildemount%2C_Version_20%2C1.png

image from Critical Role wiki

There's no cover image yet, so we're stuck with the "Coming Soon" image.

This book appeared without a title on Amazon last week, and a 'reveal' date of January 9th, which was then later delayed until January 13th. Amazon appears to have jumped the gun a day early.

Here's some information about Wildemount, which is a continent in the same world as Critical Role's other setting, Tal'Dorei. It is described by the official wiki has having "real-world Eastern European influence.... The Dwendalian Empire takes inspiration from 15th century Russia as well as Germanic nations in Central Europe (e.g., Prussia). Xhorhas has a more 13th-century Romanian flair. Outside of Wynandir, on the edges of the Dwendalian Empire, the cultures and peoples of those regions display a distinctly 14th-century Spanish flavor."

HOW DO YOU WANT TO DO THIS?

A war brews on a continent that has withstood more than its fair share of conflict. The Dwendalian Empire and the Kryn Dynasty are carving up the lands around them, and only the greatest heroes would dare stand between them. Somewhere in the far corners of this war-torn landscape are secrets that could end this conflict and usher in a new age of peace—or burn the world to a cinder.

Create a band of heroes and embark on a journey across the continent of Wildemount, the setting for Campaign 2 of the hit Dungeons & Dragons series Critical Role. Within this book, you’ll find new character options, a heroic chronicle to help you craft your character’s backstory, four different starting adventures, and everything a Dungeon Master needs to breathe life into a Wildemount-based D&D campaign…
  • Delve through the first Dungeons & Dragons book to let players experience the game as played within the world of Critical Role, the world’s most popular livestreaming D&D show.
  • Uncover a trove of options usable in any D&D game, featuring subclasses, spells, magic items, monsters, and more, rooted in the adventures of Exandria—such as Vestiges of Divergence and the possibility manipulating magic of Dunamancy.
  • Start a Dungeons & Dragons campaign in any of Wildemount’s regions using a variety of introductory adventures, dozens of regional plot seeds, and the heroic chronicle system—a way to create character backstories rooted in Wildemount.
Explore every corner of Wildemount and discover mysteries revealed for the first time by Critical Role Dungeon Master, Matthew Mercer.

Critical Role's other setting, Tal'Dorei, was published a couple of years ago by Green Ronin. This brings the list of settings in official D&D books to five: Forgotten Realms, Ravnica, Ravenloft, Eberron, and Wildemount.

UPDATE! Barnes & Noble has the cover (but not the title or description).

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No, the target audience is explicitly fans of Critical Role. I might buy the book for the class options, but how many people bought Ravnica for the class options instead of the setting?

I did.

The Order Cleric is awesome.

Portable rules for playable minotaurs and centaurs, new monsters, and some great examples on faction-building were definitely a plus though.
 
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dave2008

Legend
If you want to completely dodge the fact that it is first and foremost connected with a particular IP, and that some of us are not into that IP, I do not think discussing with you will be particularly fruitful.
I bought it for the monsters primarily and secondarily the factions. So that is similar. Those are probably the same reasons I would buy this book (if I buy it).
 
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Sacrosanct

Legend
Well, they didn’t release a book with what I wanted. So they will never release a book with stuff I want.

Just trying to make sure I’m getting the overreaction right 😉

On a serious note, nothing they’ve released is something I’ve wanted as a whole, but had bits and pieces of things I liked. Being a home brewer, none of the settings have any special appeal, but I do like options and monsters. So I’ll refrain judgement until after I see what’s all included.
 

gyor

Legend

This parody is what introduced me to Jester, I have not actually watched Jester, but these parody music videos made me love the character already. Side note given that the Pantheon of Exandia is mostly based on the Dawn Pantheon (+1 Pathfinder deity), but with the names removed, I find it interesting that Jester worships Eberron's The Traveller.
 

Remathilis

Legend
He mentioned Eberron: RftLW in the quote you snipped, and it fit the same pattern (though with a bit more than SCAG)
SCAH most definitely was a trial balloon, and they learned their lesson with it, but aside from depth of detail, it's similar in concept.

  • Brief overview of the setting
  • One geographic zone in focus
  • A "this also exists" section for beyond the focus zone.
  • Some PC fluff info (races, deities, etc)
  • Some PC crunch (races, subclasses, spells, etc)

What it lacks is DM centric stuff (villains, plots, magic items, and monsters) as it assumes the AP of the year will be doing that. It is the weakest of the three setting guides, but you can see the seed of the idea there.
 

Staffan

Legend
Honest question:

Why do you want a 5E version of a setting you already own from an older edition?

I thought the setting stuff was basically independent of the game system.
All published settings have a mechanical aspect to them. For some, it's just a matter of specific monsters and NPCs, and usually some setting-specific spells, but others also have a bunch of stuff going on on the player's side of the table. For example:
  • Eberron - new races, dragonmarks, druidic orders, psionics (though that's mostly sequestered in its own part of the world), Deathless (sort-of-undead but powered by positive energy instead of negative), a whole bunch of war remnants...
  • Birthright - different takes on various races, bloodline powers, kingdom management, awnsheghlien...
  • Spelljammer - SPACESHIPS!
  • Planescape - new races, factions.
  • Savage Coast - new races, guns, legacies.
  • Dark Sun - new races, new classes, defiling/preserving magic, elemental magic, psionics, survival rules.
  • Al-Qadim - new sub-classes, elemental magic (though of a different kind than Dark Sun - in Al-Qadim, the elements are a wizard thing whereas they are a divine or primal thing in Dark Sun), sha'ir and some other weird forms of magic.
And the list goes on from there. These are things I would like to have ready if I were to play or run a game in any of these settings.
 


gyor

Legend
SCAH most definitely was a trial balloon, and they learned their lesson with it, but aside from depth of detail, it's similar in concept.

  • Brief overview of the setting
  • One geographic zone in focus
  • A "this also exists" section for beyond the focus zone.
  • Some PC fluff info (races, deities, etc)
  • Some PC crunch (races, subclasses, spells, etc)

What it lacks is DM centric stuff (villains, plots, magic items, and monsters) as it assumes the AP of the year will be doing that. It is the weakest of the three setting guides, but you can see the seed of the idea there.

E: RotLW is much bigger with far more details on various nations then the SCAG. The SCAG should have been the FRAG and been much larger, with the same great writing.
 

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