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).

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I have been running tabletop games for my family and friends for the last few years. (I'm a much longer term veteran, but they only relatively recently got into it.) Ages range from 12 to 76. Very few of the players have "mastered" 5E, although all of them know the dice mechanics and where to look at their skills and saving throws.

On the other hand, with the much simpler Beyond the Wall, an OSR game that uses mechanics from Powered by the Apocalypse games, especially the wonderful playbooks that put 99 percent of what a player has to care about on a two-page class-specific playbook that also serves as their character sheet, everyone inhaled and fully understands the rules (and could certainly run the game without the rulebook).

I'm going to be teaching another group of RPG-curious folks who aren't interested in D&D to play using the Powered by the Apocalypse game Monster of the Week. The folks who don't want to play D&D both don't care about the genre and specifically mentioned they were intimidated by its perceived complexity, which they've picked up on from Stranger Things and the like.

For a veteran D&D player, 5E is about as simple as officially licensed D&D has ever been (I'd say the unified D20 mechanic puts it ahead of the Basic sets from the 1970s and 1980s, where you still had to look at charts and figure out whether a high roll was good or bad, depending on what you were doing). I think in absolute terms, even just in RPGs, there's certainly games more complex than 5E, but it's still on the right side of that particular bell curve.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Conversely, I have loads of real world experience from 4.5 years of running 5e of people telling me 1) They like how easy it is to get into 5e; 2) They like how easy the game is to play compared to 3.x or Pathfinder; or 3) They think 5e is too simple and they would like more rules mechanics/character customisation options etc.

You know, I try so hard to reign in my naturally sarcastic tendencies, but sometimes people make it so hard.

That bolded bit, the one where you are talking about 3.X or Pathfinder? Games that I have acknowledged are far more complex than 5e? That is your problem here.

Of course people familiar with 3.X will find 5e simpler, it is simpler than 3.X. Just like earning a Bachelors degree is easier than a Masters degree.

But, for someone who has never played an RPG before? Who doesn't own dice and have never seen a die other than a d6? They find 5e highly complex. Because as a game to get started on, 5e is complex, more complex than a game like Dread. Which is an RPG where you pull blocks from a Jenga tower (that is the only resolution mechanic) and character creation is a personality Quiz.

I know people keep bringing in board games is fine, and I agree with them, but you don't even need to. Their are RPGs that are far less complex than 5e that prove the exact same point. There is a scale of complexity.

"Dread"< DnD 5e < Shadowrun 4e

 

[doctorbadwolf]

If that's the most interesting bit though, that's more of same type of thing TSR did with a mass of product in the '90's- wannabe novelists writing gaming products that sat on shelves (at the store, and home)

It's entirely possible to write up a setting with minimal backstory and have a more interesting present to play in. Scarred Lands Gaz (the 48 pager) & Nentir Vale (as presented in the 4E DMG or Essentials books) for more "recent' D&D settings. I don't run Eberron- but Secret's of Xen'Drix has given me tons of mileage- Great backstory AND interesting things happening right now for the PC' s- useful gaming material for next week, or even tonite if I'm pressed for a quick one-shot.

I have a couple thousand dollars worth of "nice reads" on my shelf. I want and need to get a good amount use out of a book at the game table.

@Chaosmancer- please see above. I am not looking for Epic save the world adventure.

Exandria has plenty of what’s in those books, it just also has a calamity and a divergence.

And the consequences of those events may return in a campaign, or not, per the DM’s preference.

the TalDorei guide presented the Chroma Conclave, a cooperation of ancient chromatic dragons lead by an elemental infused ancient red, but each with own story, hooks, and personality.

Wildemount has the battlefields and ruins of the Age of Arcanum, a drow-lead empire of “monsters” who worship a mysterious deity of light and reincarnation, a place run by Tieflings IIRC, Dragonborn refugees whose home was destroyed 20 years ago by an ancient white dragon, and the Managerie Coast with its diverse Independent port cities and odd inhabitants, just off the top of my head.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

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.

This is a really bad take, bud.

 

[generic]

This is a really bad take, bud.

Weapons-grade bad takes are my specialty, so, I can sympathize.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Thanks for the FYI. Honestly that sounds like something I have no interest in whatsoever. But I will reserve final judgement once I can take a look at it.

Good plan, because I wouldn’t ever describe it like that.

 

[Fenris-77]

The gravy train you speak of is new fans turning into new players, and providing revenue so that WotC can occasionally publish other stuff like a 5E version of Greyhawk or whatever. Redoing just the same settings again and again isn't a workable business model, they get old and they don't draw new players. There's a reason Eberron (newest and most modern) and the Forgotten Realms (most popular) got done first, and why Wildemount is coming out now. If you want Dark Sun, or Greyhawk, or Spelljammer, you should be ecstatic that Wildemount is doing so well.

 

[3catcircus]

This is a really bad take, bud.

You may think so, and that's also ok for your opinion to be different than mine.

Long time players have been asking for 5e versions of multiple older campaign settings. It feels like a slap in the face that their opinions seem to be of less importance than the obvious money grab associated with capitalizing on the current hot thing of watching people play D&D. If WotC needs the cash that bad, there are bigger problems with the foundation of the company.

Someone mentioned that Wildemount wasn't talking up scheduling in WotC's release schedule, but I would argue that if they could squeeze something in in addition to their planned releases, it should have been something associated with one of the previously published settings. At least pretend to give a damn about players and DMs who have been purchasing products since the 1970s.

I was excited when 5e was announced but other than the core books, I've been completely disappointed with their publishing rate and content.

Between Critical Role, Rick and Morty, and the Ravnica book it feels like either they are treating it as a parody of itself or they're so out of ideas they're just seeing what sticks.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

You may think so, and that's also ok for your opinion to be different than mine.

Long time players have been asking for 5e versions of multiple older campaign settings. It feels like a slap in the face that they're opinions seen to be of less importance than the obvious money grab associated with capitalizing on the current hot thing of watching people play D&D.

Someone mentioned that Wildemount wasn't talking up scheduling in WotC's release schedule, but I would argue that if they could squeeze something in in addition to their planned releases, it should have been something associated with one of the previously published settings. At least pretend to give a damn about players and DMs who have been purchasing products since the 1970s.

I was excited when 5e was announced but other than the core books, I've been completely disappointed with their publishing rate and content.

Between Critical Role, Rick and Morty, and the Ravnica book it feels like either they are treating it as a parody of itself or they're so out of ideas they're just seeing what sticks.

They don’t owe you anything. Period.

 

[generic]

They don’t owe you anything. Period.

I agree, but still, it is okay for someone to express their opinion in strong terms, especially if they've apologized for their blatant trollery upthread.