Critical Role Here's The Cover Of The Explorer's Guide to Wildemount; Plus It's #15 In Amazon Bestsellers!

While Amazon may have revealed the title and description of The Explorer's Guide to Wildemount earlier, it had no cover art. Barnes & Noble, on the other hand, has the cover but at the time of writing no title or description. Here it is!

The official announcement should be coming later today. In the meantime, the book - which has not yet been announced! - is already #15 in the bestsellers chart for all books on Amazon, based only on pre-orders. That's pretty astonishing for a book which 'officially' doesn't even exist yet (although the announcement is expected later today).

 

[MarkB]

One would imagine an English language programme would be less popular in countries where English isn't the first language...

Likewise an English language sourcebook.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

It’s tops out of all books on Amazon

I won't judge the quality of this particular book but don't you find strange that it (or, for what it's worth, any) gaming book is #1? I am glad if the author is the new JK Rowling or Dan Brown, just surprised.

 

[Shardstone]

Seeing people talk about how they, in theirs 50s and 60s, have always been the glue of the hobby, somehow when they were even in their teens and 20s, is precious beyond compare.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Likewise an English language sourcebook.

If it's not in my first language I find text a lot easier to understand than the spoken word.

 

[Parmandur]

I won't judge the quality of this particular book but don't you find strange that it (or, for what it's worth, any) gaming book is #1? I am glad if the author is the new JK Rowling or Dan Brown, just surprised.

Amazon rankings are real time, not historical: this isn't selling better than anything ever has, just better than anything else right now. Still very impressive

 

[Parmandur]

One would imagine an English language programme would be less popular in countries where English isn't the first language...

The CR troop are very lingually proficient and clear: it wouldn't surprise me if more than few ESL folk watch to practice comprehension.

 

[Superchunk77]

I sometimes I think fans of old settings assume they were more popular than they really were. All real "statistical" information we have been given has shown they really were not that popular. Like me, over 50% of groups play homebrew settings. I started playing in the early - mid eighties and I have never played a game in an official D&D setting. In fact, there is some suggestion that the multitude of settings was the cause for the fall of TSR. To stay alive D&D has to provide for new players, not just old ones.

The thing is, the RPG market "back then" was way different than it is now. Marketing and social media, as well as the internet in general have really taken the game's limited exposure from the 80's, 90's and early 2000's and thrust it into the spotlight. Back in those days the game was only as popular as word of mouth made it. Maybe a few magazine ads as well. I remember going into my local mall's game store to see what Dark Sun and Birthright modules they had on the shelf at the time. It was always a surprise, but I really had no way of knowing release dates or what was in the pipeline. Still, those books were, and still are, some of my favorite things to run, regardless of the rules system chosen.

Fast forward to today and people are finding out about books before they're even announced through leaks on the internet, and they're selling out before they're even official printed in some cases.

I think the TSR problems due to too many setting books are well known by most here but that's not really what I'm talking about.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The CR troop are very lingually proficient and clear:

I thought they where American?!

 

[Parmandur]

I thought they where American?!

Yes, they speak real English.

At least, Mercer, Johnson and Jaffee do: the rest are sundry forms of Transsierran barbarian.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Seeing people talk about how they, in theirs 50s and 60s, have always been the glue of the hobby, somehow when they were even in their teens and 20s, is precious beyond compare.

Yes, I see this as further evidence that gen x's relevance to popular culture (that they made popluar!) is in serious decline. I was thinking that Rise of Skywalker was the final nail in the gen-x popular culture coffin.

(spoken as a full fledged gen-x'er)

Since this isn't "my" D&D, I am not so interested in it. But I'm super stoked it's #1 on Amazon.

I'm also excited for more diverse worlds (although this looks like bog-standard F20 type fantasy) so that when I do my multi-verse hopping campaign, I'll have another option for a world to take my players to.