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!

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).

 

[DEFCON 1]

We don't know what the 5e D&D version of Exandia or Nerath looks like yet, but given they altered Eberron even to fit it into the 5e Multiverse, I expect they will do the same with Exandia and Nerath and other settings.

They didn't alter Eberron, it's always been a part of the D&D multiverse, even before 5E. Keith Baker (the setting creator) has even said as much recently here on the boards.

 

[dave2008]

We don't know what the 5e D&D version of Exandia or Nerath looks like yet, but given they altered Eberron even to fit it into the 5e Multiverse, I expect they will do the same with Exandia and Nerath and other settings.

If the Eberron stuff you are referencing is the "controversy" over a few lines that say Eberron is in fact set in the wider D&D multiverse (though still cut off from it), that is not in fact a change in 5e. Keith Baker clarified that this was always the case from its inception on these forums shortly after the book came out. If it is something else, I don't know the setting well enough to comment.

 

[PMárk]

But isn't that thrown out if your campaign diverges from the official "living" setting? I mean if FR was living and in my campaign Tiamat won at the end of RoT, wouldn't be odd that none of the living documents mention that? Isn't it effectively no longer "living" for my group then?

Please understand I don't us official settings, so I am having a hard time understanding the appeal. Other than just immersing yourself in the fiction with no real relevance to your game

Depends on how much you want to diverge from the official story. It's not a black and white question, but a scale. Yes, you can broke hard from the official setting at an important point and further on, it won't be too relevant for you, what happens in the official story, because you don't use it anyway.

Or, you can go with the flow of the canon story to various extents.

It's the old "can we kill Darth Vader?" question. Yes, you can and yes that would fundamentally alter the SW setting, making it an "alternate universe". That's fun, but it doesn't diminish the appeal of playing in the official SW universe. You could also participate in the big story (you don't have to, though), just from another perspective than the movies'.

Also, immersing myself in the fiction does have relevance to my game, because, as I mentioned, it makes the whole setting and game more immersive and it adds detail. Look at how much Salvatore added to D&D by writing about drow society in detail. Or how Cunningham did the same more recently with the dragonborn.

 

[NaturalZero]

I like Critical Role.
I enjoy Matt Mercer as a DM, improviser, and human.
I love the whole cast. They're the cool adult friends that I wish I had.

That said, I'm having a hard type getting hyped about this release because it just feels like I'd be trying to run a homebrew based on someone else's homebrew. What makes the show magical is the level of characterization that everyone emotes and the depth they bring to the story. The campaign setting is something I would LOVE to play in if Matt Mercer were running the game, but I can't summon any sort of excitement to explore another fairly standard D&D setting without the kind of involvement that a real player at his table would have.

 

[PMárk]

Yup. White Wold found this out extensively with the whole metaplot to the WoD pre-nWoD. It's a double-edged sword. Yes, it makes some people buy books, creates FOMO and can create hype, but it also creates frustration, a feeling of being ripped off, and disengages people with divergent settings, which is a very large group. Also if you go in an unpopular direction you can potentially cause yourself huge problems.

Mind, I explicitely do not like the direction new WW went with the metaplot of VtM 5e. It's just so not my VtM. I'm using pieces of it though. Similarly, I wasn't on board with the 4e version of the Realms. despite that, I still prefer living settings with ongoing story though, in comparison to settings that were written down once and then exist in a perpetual year one condition. I just like the sense of a bigger, living world beyond the actual game. Does that mean that I'll lawishly adhere to every minutae of canon, in all my home games? Of course not. It's still great to have background material and I still like the feeling.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Most of the people who are the targets for this book have probably only begun playing D&D since 5E and the Critical Role stream began, a little over 5 years ago. I seriously doubt any of them have thought the "traditional fantasy" of the Forgotten Realms has "gotten old" already to the point where they aren't going to pick up EGtW. Those of us who have been in the game for the last 40 years may think it's played out (especially if we've played in the same exact specific setting for 30 of it) but other players will not look at Wildemount and say "Oh, well, that's just a Forgotten Realms replacement. Forget it!" They will see both Wildemount and the Realms as different settings (which they are) and not get bored with one just because they've played in the other these past couple years.

I don't agree because I saw a lot of people get bored with the FR and similar settings in well under 5 years in the 1990s, when we were new to RPGs. I think this book will not be the straw that breaks the camel's back, and will sell great, but if we see a GH or DL or another generic fantasy book after that, I would not expect good sales.

 

[Retreater]

I'm clearly no longer the target audience for official D&D projects, since many recent projects haven't interested me (Eberron, Ravnica, Acquisitions Inc, Rick & Morty, Stranger Things, and this). Five of those have been media tie-in products, which is sort of losing the heart of D&D to me.

I don't like the mainstreaming of D&D. I guess this makes me officially a grognard.

 

[Reynard]

If the Eberron stuff you are referencing is the "controversy" over a few lines that say Eberron is in fact set in the wider D&D multiverse (though still cut off from it), that is not in fact a change in 5e. Keith Baker clarified that this was always the case from its inception on these forums shortly after the book came out. If it is something else, I don't know the setting well enough to comment.

"Clarified" is a weird way to spell "retcon."

 

[Tyler Do'Urden]

I'm clearly no longer the target audience for official D&D projects, since many recent projects haven't interested me (Eberron, Ravnica, Acquisitions Inc, Rick & Morty, Stranger Things, and this). Five of those have been media tie-in products, which is sort of losing the heart of D&D to me.

I don't like the mainstreaming of D&D. I guess this makes me officially a grognard.

As I posted elsewhere, I'm not the target audience for any of this stuff and will probably not be buying it, but you know what? I love it.

This keeps the game vital and keeps bringing people in the doors. Media tie-ins? Bring it on. Since the end of the D&D cartoons and toys phase in the early 80s up until 5e, D&D had become too much of a sealed, hermetic environment; too self-referential and cliquish. Open the doors wide!

The OSR movement, Kobold, Frog God, Goodman, and many others are making the stuff I want. If Wizards was, I'd be worried about the health of the company and the hobby. Plus there's such a backlog of old stuff I'll never get to... why do I need an ongoing metaplot, or updates of books I bought 25 years ago? I don't. Those are still fully usable and available in PDF download and Print-on-demand.

Keep things fresh. Keep things vital. Don't pander to the grognards. We've already got everything we need and then some.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

We don't know what the 5e D&D version of Exandia or Nerath looks like yet, but given they altered Eberron even to fit it into the 5e Multiverse, I expect they will do the same with Exandia and Nerath and other settings.

"Clarified" is a weird way to spell "retcon."

The 3.5 Eberron books state that Eberron exists in the dnd multiverse, but can’t be reached from other dnd worlds.
Kieth Baker pointed this out directly in the thread about Eberron being ruined by extremist paganism or whatever.