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).

 

[Chaosmancer]

So,ercer has posted an open letter to the D&D community about this book. Of note, he has apparently bugged the WotC folks in person repeatedly about releasing Planescape and Dark Sun books:

Nothing about this is directed at Parmandur, just quoting this post since it has the open letter tweet in it.


It really bothers me to read that letter, because over half of it is an apology.

Here is a guy who has spent years on his setting (the critical role season 1 game was two years old by the time it started, so his setting has been in a steady game for at least 7 to 8 years by my count), a setting which has garnered hundreds of thousands of fans, a setting which has spawned comics, two sourcebooks, and an animated show on top of the massively successful campaigns, and he feels the need to apologize for not being a good enough game designer? To reassure us that his product being officially adopted by the company that owns the game he loves does not impact our ability to get a new book for settings that are decades old?

I then I read the thread and there is still a lot of "well this setting is too generic, not good enough, ect ect ect". How good does he have to be?

Remember (or let me tell you) Critical Role started as a home game between friends, and it was so notorious in voice acting circles that Geek and Sundry sought them out and asked them to do the game live for an audience. And it blew up.

Think about Gygax and Arneson for a second. Most of Greyhawk and Blackmoor started as their home games. And people heard about them, and clamored to know more and to join. I guarantee you, both games put together are no where near as popular as Critical role is right now. And both of them were generic medieval fantasy games to, heck, I own an Atlas for Greyhawk, I've read it. Nothing I have ever seen is "unique" in it. The closest thing I know of from Greyhawk as 'politically interesting' is "an evil empire run by an evil god-like being", I mean, Mordor was great why not do it again.

And I'm sure Greyhawk fans can tell me exactly how I'm wrong and that Greyhawk isn't generic fantasy fodder.... but even if it is, that isn't a bad thing. It is what the DM wanted to run and the table wanted to play, and it got big enough to be published and sold to other people. And Critical Role is the exact same thing.

Yet it is somehow not good enough for people? We need to be consoled that a fan of the game did so well it became an official product? Isn't that a thing homebrewers have been striving to prove all along? That, hey, I can make a setting that is just as good, just as interesting, just as in-depth as the official product. That DnD is for everyone who wants to sit down and play it?

I don't know. I don't know why this isn't being celebrated a bit more. You don't need to love the setting, or agree with the rules, or even like them as people, but here we have a group of friends who met weekly to play a game we all love. And they did such a good job at it, that they got fans and got the company to acknowledge their world and their game as official content. I think you at least have to respect that.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

And I'm sure Greyhawk fans can tell me exactly how I'm wrong and that Greyhawk isn't generic fantasy fodder.... but even if it is, that isn't a bad thing. It is what the DM wanted to run and the table wanted to play, and it got big enough to be published and sold to other people. And Critical Role is the exact same thing.

Yet it is somehow not good enough for people? We need to be consoled that a fan of the game did so well it became an official product? Isn't that a thing homebrewers have been striving to prove all along? That, hey, I can make a setting that is just as good, just as interesting, just as in-depth as the official product. That DnD is for everyone who wants to sit down and play it?

I don't know. I don't know why this isn't being celebrated a bit more. You don't need to love the setting, or agree with the rules, or even like them as people, but here we have a group of friends who met weekly to play a game we all love. And they did such a good job at it, that they got fans and got the company to acknowledge their world and their game as official content. I think you at least have to respect that.

Yeah this is driving me nuts. People saying "But I wanted Dark Sun/Planescape/Spelljammer," those settings require a hell of a lot of rules, rules that need to be developed internally.

This new book is not taking up a slot on D&D's normal schedule; it's been in development for 18 months, and all the writers appear to be external to Wizard (it's only the layout designers and editors that are internal). So it's not even taking a slot from Greyhawk.

There will still be at least two more products this year, one we know has gem dragons in it, and one adventure book.

 

[Tazawa]

So what must be noted in these regards is that while there is no limit on the number of grognard initiates and all are welcome, there can be only 1,000,000 Grognards. At such time as a would-be Grognard attains ossification points sufficient to advance him, her, or them to Grognard, the rank of Grognard is attained only:

1. If there are currently fewer than 1,000,000 other Grognards, or
2. The would-be Grognard bests one of the 1,000,000 current Grognards in a Grumbling Contest.

This process is repeated with respect to becoming one of the 10,000 permitted Old Grognards, excepting that there the test is a Shouting Match, and with respect to becoming one of the 100 Arch Grognards in which case the competition is the Bladder Control Challenge.

Should an Arch Grognard wish to become the unique Exalted Great Grognard, the challenger must first locate the current title holder in the umpteenth level of their dungeon. If the challenger can thus reach the Exalted, there then commences the Trial of Tables. Each shall have 1 hour to construct a collection of d100 tables to cover all aspects of their lives, at which point both shall commence rolling percentile dice and taking the indicated actions. The loser is the contestant who first either a) dies to unlucky rolls, or b) becomes Too Grumpy to Continue, or c) forgets that there is some sort of contest going on.

If the challenger loses (and lives), they must retreat in shame to their abode, where they will be subject to 1 year and 1 day of younger people playing D&D on their lawn, having fun by mostly ignoring the rules.
If the current Exalted loses, but is still, for the moment, upright, they must commit to 3d10 + 5 autograph sessions at cons, with ticket proceeds going to the new Exalted. If dead, they will be entombed in the Great Hall of Grognards together with their books, dice, mini, and other paraphernalia, excepting that the new Exalted may take a number of bone samples to be encased in d20s and sold on Etsy or used as Kickstarter rewards to fund the construction of their own dungeon. The samples may be taken from
01 - 08 Brain case
09 Upper jaw
10 Lower jaw
11- 21 Vertebra
22 - 24 Sternum
25 - 41 Ribs
42 Scapula
43 - 49 Upper arm
50 - 58 Lower arm
59 - 67 Hand
68 - 72 Hip bone
73 - 84 Upper leg
85 - 91 Lower leg
92 - 97 Foot
98 - 00 Roll twice on the table, ignoring results of 98-00

HOw COME I can’T LIkE tHIS MORe thanONCE!!??!

 

[Demetrios1453]

Yeah this is driving me nuts. People saying "But I wanted Dark Sun/Planescape/Spelljammer," those settings require a hell of a lot of rules, rules that need to be developed internally.

This new book is not taking up a slot on D&D's normal schedule; it's been in development for 18 months, and all the writers appear to be external to Wizard (it's only the layout designers and editors that are internal). So it's not even taking a slot from Greyhawk.

There will still be at least two more products this year, one we know has gem dragons in it, and one adventure book.

I'm pretty sure that gem dragons, being psionic, will be released in conjunction with the finalized psionic rules, presumably later this year.

 

[Henry]

So what must be noted in these regards is that while there is no limit on the number of grognard initiates and all are welcome, there can be only 1,000,000 Grognards. At such time as a would-be Grognard attains ossification points sufficient to advance him, her, or them to Grognard, the rank of Grognard is attained only:

1. If there are currently fewer than 1,000,000 other Grognards, or
2. The would-be Grognard bests one of the 1,000,000 current Grognards in a Grumbling Contest.

This process is repeated with respect to becoming one of the 10,000 permitted Old Grognards, excepting that there the test is a Shouting Match, and with respect to becoming one of the 100 Arch Grognards in which case the competition is the Bladder Control Challenge.

Should an Arch Grognard wish to become the unique Exalted Great Grognard, the challenger must first locate the current title holder in the umpteenth level of their dungeon. If the challenger can thus reach the Exalted, there then commences the Trial of Tables. Each shall have 1 hour to construct a collection of d100 tables to cover all aspects of their lives, at which point both shall commence rolling percentile dice and taking the indicated actions. The loser is the contestant who first either a) dies to unlucky rolls, or b) becomes Too Grumpy to Continue, or c) forgets that there is some sort of contest going on.

If the challenger loses (and lives), they must retreat in shame to their abode, where they will be subject to 1 year and 1 day of younger people playing D&D on their lawn, having fun by mostly ignoring the rules.
If the current Exalted loses, but is still, for the moment, upright, they must commit to 3d10 + 5 autograph sessions at cons, with ticket proceeds going to the new Exalted. If dead, they will be entombed in the Great Hall of Grognards together with their books, dice, mini, and other paraphernalia, excepting that the new Exalted may take a number of bone samples to be encased in d20s and sold on Etsy or used as Kickstarter rewards to fund the construction of their own dungeon. The samples may be taken from
01 - 08 Brain case
09 Upper jaw
10 Lower jaw
11- 21 Vertebra
22 - 24 Sternum
25 - 41 Ribs
42 Scapula
43 - 49 Upper arm
50 - 58 Lower arm
59 - 67 Hand
68 - 72 Hip bone
73 - 84 Upper leg
85 - 91 Lower leg
92 - 97 Foot
98 - 00 Roll twice on the table, ignoring results of 98-00

A deep-cut like that belongs in the AG&G (Advanced Gatekeeping & Grognards) Player’s Handbook! Well done!

(My AD&D Druid was too much of a chicken to challenge the higher druids...)

 

[billd91]

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.

To be honest, that pretty much rules out most published campaign settings.

 

[Henry]

Remember (or let me tell you) Critical Role started as a home game between friends, and it was so notorious in voice acting circles that Geek and Sundry sought them out and asked them to do the game live for an audience. And it blew up.

Think about Gygax and Arneson for a second. Most of Greyhawk and Blackmoor started as their home games. And people heard about them, and clamored to know more and to join. I

this is perhaps the most important part to me. With the exception of Eberron, practically every popular game setting followed this path, even outside of D&D. Shane Hensley’s Deadlands? Homebrew. Varisia in Golarion? James Jacobs’ homebrew. Ed Greenwood? Prior to Exandria, perhaps the most famous homebrew of all time.

We have this weird dichotomy in Tabletop RPG; first there’s the “great creator tinkering in their basement” meme, where their work isn’t beholden to The Man, and they do it for love of the game instead of the Almighty Dollar. Then, there’s the ”if it’s not designed by WotC/the professional game houses, it’s crap” meme. We HAVE to reconcile our “tribe“ on this, because we can’t have it both ways. it’s either playtested slickly by a large soulless enterprise, or it’s designed by a few handpicked individuals, and may not be as slick. Mercer’s earned my trust by reading his other offerings, so I’m picking up his book.

 

[dave2008]

Rifts is an amazing setting. My group has had an awesome time with the Savage Worlds version. It's been a welcome departure and palate cleanse whenever we've gotten tired of D&D. (That concept is a little hard for me to accept, as I never thought it would happen - but there you are!)

Rifts sounds similar to Numenera (or vice versa I guess) which has, or will have (to be released "early 2020") a 5e version. I assume you could play the rifts setting with 5e if you want.

 

[jmucchiello]

It really bothers me to read that letter, because over half of it is an apology.

Matt Mercer would apologize for the weather if you got rained on. That's just who he is.

 

[Retreater]

Rifts sounds similar to Numenera (or vice versa I guess) which has, or will have (to be released "early 2020") a 5e version. I assume you could play the rifts setting with 5e if you want.

As long as it's not using the Cypher system, I might be down for trying it. I really enjoyed the Numenera setting, but the mechanics didn't really do it for me.