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).

 

[gyor]

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.

I'm glad he did, it was the right thing to do for fans of other settings, who are getting frustrated.

 

[JeffB]

Over 50 spells, a bunch of monsters, three Subclasses, four Adventures, a bunch of books and NPCs that can be repurposed, a new Background generation system.

What makes the setting worth owning?

 

[Parmandur]

What makes the setting worth owning?

I'm not the person to ask, since I like world building as an art form and generic fantasy as such (not to mention bring a Critter!). That the setting is fairly generic means the material is widely useable, though, so if there is no love lost on the show I'd say the crunch and Adventure building material justifies the price of admission.

If you want more about the feel of the Setting... it's a video game and heavy metal inspired Millenial's take on traditional High Fantasy. Timey-wimey psychedelic shenanigans involving Eldritch beings, emphasis on Law vs. Chaos both cosmically and geopolitically, gods are definitely real but absent due to an ancient Apocalypse (though one of the characters on the book cover is older than the Apocalypse, because Elves), guns, etc. It's fun.

 

[Tiles]

When this all shakes out and we’ve had the book for a couple years, here is what I think will stand out about this book.

WotC introduce a popular NEW setting for the first time in a long time.

A new type of magic was released into D&D (haste-slow-anti-gravity-black hole-luck???) Math Magic. Time Magic?? Fate Magic?? Dr.Who anyone?

I think this book is being undersold. I think fans of spelljammer and dark sun should be patient and try to enjoy the ride. They are going to get their turn because WotC IS listening and 5e isn’t going anywhere soon.

 

[3catcircus]

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.

I can tell you exactly why I'm not pleased that they are devoting publishing schedule and resources to Wildemount. Its because it is no longer about the game. Its about voice actors who happen to play D&D being paid to voice act who are getting a product published that does nothing to further the game and everything to further their gravy train. Want your homebrew setting published? Great - have at it, but if the idea of publishing a campaign setting is so wildly-popular amongst their fans they should have self-published rather than take up schedule that could be used for a 5e version of any of the campaign settings that players have been begging WotC to produce - Planescape, Greyhawk, etc., or a crunch book, or anything else, while at the same time saturating D&D with yet another setting.

 

[Quickleaf]

I can tell you exactly why I'm not pleased that they are devoting publishing schedule and resources to Wildemount. Its because it is no longer about the game. Its about voice actors who happen to play D&D being paid to voice act who are getting a product published that does nothing to further the game and everything to further their gravy train. Want your homebrew setting published? Great - have at it, but if the idea of publishing a campaign setting is so wildly-popular amongst their fans they should have self-published rather than take up schedule that could be used for a 5e version of any of the campaign settings that players have been begging WotC to produce - Planescape, Greyhawk, etc., or a crunch book, or anything else, while at the same time saturating D&D with yet another setting.

Oh goodness. I had a completely different interpretation.

It seemed to me that this was a bridge for more fans of Critical Role to venture into tabletop D&D. In much the same way as the Rick & Morty boxed set, the Stranger Things boxed set, the Acquisitions Incorporated book, and the Ravnica book offer fans of those media an accessible entrance into the D&D hobby.

Actually, Matt Mercer did publish Tal'dorei (another continent in the same world) originally through Green Ronin.

It may not be the way us long-time D&Ders got into the hobby with Planescape, Greyhawk, Eberron, and so on, but it is a way for the next wave of D&Ders to access the hobby. They've already covered some past settings like Ravenloft's Barovia, Greyhawk's Saltmarsh, and Eberron. Heck, Descent into Avernus is dripping with Planescape flavor. Even if bringing older settings back into the light is not happening as fast as you might like, it certain has been happening and all indications from designer interviews are it will continue to happen.

I guess what I am saying is that I don't see D&D product releases as a zero sum game. A rising tide lifts all ships.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

I can tell you exactly why I'm not pleased that they are devoting publishing schedule and resources to Wildemount. Its because it is no longer about the game. Its about voice actors who happen to play D&D being paid to voice act who are getting a product published that does nothing to further the game and everything to further their gravy train. Want your homebrew setting published? Great - have at it, but if the idea of publishing a campaign setting is so wildly-popular amongst their fans they should have self-published rather than take up schedule that could be used for a 5e version of any of the campaign settings that players have been begging WotC to produce - Planescape, Greyhawk, etc., or a crunch book, or anything else, while at the same time saturating D&D with yet another setting.

They did. With Green Ronin. It sold out, and showed Wizards the demand was there. And Mercer and contract writers did the writing, so it hardly "took resources away from Wizards" and "nothing to further develop the game?" Are you serious? Mercer is a) a great ambassador for the game b) brings tons of new players c) creates a stack of content both crunch and fluff.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

I'm glad he did, it was the right thing to do for fans of other settings, who are getting frustrated.

.=
Why the hell does Mercer have to apologise for that?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Well, virtually all of those Forgotten Realms novels are now out of print unless they are Dragonlance or written by R.A. Salvatore. So, yep they don't count as easily accessible sources of lore. There are some good FR wikis though and plenty of FR info generally online.

The Forgotten Realms coffee table book is available through DMs Guild and Drive Thru RPG. It's systemless and arguably the best setting bible available, written as it is by Greenwood as a setting overview.

 

[Mecheon]

These days it's pretty easy to check your facts: Dragonlance - Wikipedia

Other sources (Like 1d4chan) counter it so, not as clear as it seems