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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TwoSix

Dirty, realism-hating munchkin powergamer
The original CR home game was Pathfinder, not 4E.
I believe the timeline is that the first session was a simplified 4E, and then they converted to PF when the game became a regular thing. I don't think the fact that the Exandria pantheon is the Dawn War pantheon + PF's Sarenrae is in dispute, though.
 

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As someone who follows CR, I'm disappointed in this being a thing so soon. There's still a lot of Season 2 CR to go and a lot mysteries to unfold that cannot possibly be in this book. I wonder how much dunamancy can be in the book as the party wizard only knows 2 or 3 such spells. It's too soon.
 

Eric V

Hero
It's ranked number 15 on Amazon and it hasn't even been officially announced yet. There's certainly a demand for it!

View attachment 117407
With the release schedule that WotC has, it seems there will -always- be demand for a new product. Just count the number of people in this thread who have answered along the lines of "Not at all for me, but I'll get it anyway for whatever I can mine from it." Imagine spending full price for a product that you know, going in, you'll use 20 percent of.

...but if it's 20 percent or nothing, then people will buy, especially if they are collectors. So yeah, this was always going to sell well.
 

darjr

I crit!
As someone who follows CR, I'm disappointed in this being a thing so soon. There's still a lot of Season 2 CR to go and a lot mysteries to unfold that cannot possibly be in this book. I wonder how much dunamancy can be in the book as the party wizard only knows 2 or 3 such spells. It's too soon.
Uh.... hmmmm... I don’t expect this will be the last we hear of this collab.
 


dave2008

Legend
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.
I don't mind the mainstreaming of D&D, it doesn't change my D&D in the slightest.
 

Salthorae

Imperial Mountain Dew Taster
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.

I kind of agree with this sentiment, though not wholeheartedly.

I have 0 interest in basically any of the tie-in products, though I don't mind the mainstreaming of D&D. I just wish they'd publish those as additional supplements and not as part of their primary release schedule.
 




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