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).

9780786966912_p0_v2_s600x595.jpg
 

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3catcircus

Adventurer
I am going to guess that Dark Sun would probably be the least profitable old setting they could pump out, far less than Planescape but probably only marginally less profitable than Greyhawk. Just based on what we have seen produced in the last couple of editions and what people seem to clamor for.

In any case, people are forgetting something pretty important: millennials are adults with disposable income now and they significantly outnumber Gen-X. It makes no sense for WotC to continue to rely on nostalgia for an evergreen edition. It definitely helped establish 5E but now it is likely diminishing returns. And I say good. Let D&D breathe game of the millennials and Zoomers. If I want to play old settings I literally have 30 years worth of stuff in boxes.
If it makes no sense to rely on nostalgia, then why bother trying to keep things backwards-convertible? Why not completely ignore older players and not worry about making each successive generation of rules at least vaguely similar to previous editions?

When they went to 3e, why did they bother with Greyhawk or FR? Why didn't they publish nothing but new campaign settings exclusively? Likewise 4e and 5e?
 

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SkidAce

Legend
Supporter
I guess each persons situation is individual. In a lunch hour I helped a coworker (who didn't speak English 7 years ago and has never watched or played a RPG) create a character from scratch. She made the decisions where to put her stats, picked a background, a race, and a class, and leveled that character up to 3rd level. We then did some sample skill checks and a really short battle versus a "generic" opponent to see how damage and hit points worked. Did they min/max a power character? Not at all. But they made a Dwarven Barbarian who was an easy enough character for a first timer to hang with.

Now, during character creation, I might have said "If you pick a wizard you have to look through these 50 pages of spells and write a bunch of stuff down" and steered her toward a non-caster but thats kind of par-for-the-course for a first time player. Similarly we didn't go over feats, or magic weapons, or any other things that weren't immediately important. The basics of "here are your skills, add this number to your roll" and "Here is your big axe info and the numbers you use for that" are very simple to explain.

As long as a new player is sitting a table of existing players it is super simple to slowly add to their knowledge as the need comes up. I STILL have a newer player at my table who doesn't understand completely how the Hunters mark works. They just mark off a spell slot and add D6 to their damage for a battle and it works out fine in the end. You don't have to walk into the job on day one with a degree in Advanced Dungeons and Dragons.

Quoted in entirety for truth.
 

Let's not move the goalposts shall we? They published a book that a ton of people are buying. If a ton of people are buying it that must mean there's a significant demand. And unless you think it's being purchased by random grandma's in Pacedina that demand is from fans of D&D. Case closed.
But they might be D&D fans that I don't like!
 

If it makes no sense to rely on nostalgia, then why bother trying to keep things backwards-convertible? Why not completely ignore older players and not worry about making each successive generation of rules at least vaguely similar to previous editions?

When they went to 3e, why did they bother with Greyhawk or FR? Why didn't they publish nothing but new campaign settings exclusively? Likewise 4e and 5e?
You do realize that they can appeal to both demographics or that both of those might apply to the same people?
 

Rikka66

Adventurer
I am going to guess that Dark Sun would probably be the least profitable old setting they could pump out, far less than Planescape but probably only marginally less profitable than Greyhawk. Just based on what we have seen produced in the last couple of editions and what people seem to clamor for.

I'd be interested in hearing your logic on this detailed.
 





Parmandur

Book-Friend
Are they, or are they listening to critical role viewers who may not actually purchase any other products besides the TalDorei and Wildemount ones?

Studies show that 65% of a company's business comes from existing customers and that a 5% increase in customer retention increases profits between 25% and 95%.

Do they expect to grow profits in the long term with this, or are they further fragmenting their customers?

They have conducted extensive market research, and made their decisions: the results appear to be wild sales, ergo we can conclude that they are listening to their paying customers correctly.
 

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