Critical Role [+] What does Wildemount do that Forgotten Realms doesn't?

[Elvish Lore]

Having read the through the Wildemount guide, I'm a huge fan and have started a campaign. To be clear, I'm not at all a Critter... I've listened to 10 minutes of one Crit Role ep.

I think Wildemount does a great job of feeling like a classic D&D setting but turns a lot of traditional tropes more into the realm of feeling modern and more socially progressive. It doesn't feel nearly as generic as Forgotten Realms which I have loathed for a long time now... so glad that WotC is increasingly leaving it behind and giving more worlds for their game.

And, to be sure, Wildemount having about 99% pre-written lore for FR is really freeing and curtails continuity-nazi players quoting lore from 35 years worth of material.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I'm not a critter, and for me Wildemount doesn't feel compelling enough to use instead of a Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk, if I'm looking for generic fantasy. That being said, I definitely agree with @Denys that it's more progressive than the older settings. And if I had to pick one thing it does better than FR, it's how so many of the various nations and city-states are at the edge of war with each other. If you're looking for large-scale conflicts, it'd be a better fit.

 

[Oofta]

As someone who hasn't purchased it yet and has only listed to a couple dozen CR podcasts, the biggest reason I would consider it is that it's a clean slate.

FR is ... crowded. A lot of history, a lot of lore. It's kind of overstuffed. I know I can just tell everyone that it's my version but if I then say that Elminister is dead, Drizzt was really evil all along or whatever wackiness I want to do I'll have a minor revolt on my hands.

I run my own home world campaign, but I may still buy it just to mine it for ideas.

 

[Parmandur]

Most importantly, this war is not good versus evil. The Dwendalian Empire will SAY they're the good guys with their traditional fantasy races against the drow and monstrous races of Xhorhas who are spreading a magical darkness across the land.
But the drow are actually civilized, decent and just making a home for themselves and other traditionally subterranean races on the surface without being blinded. And they view the humans of the west as xenophobes who practice religious persecution and arrest those who don't follow their narrow list of prescribed gods.

This part is very well drawn out: the Dwendalian Empire isn't Evil, either, nor is the Dynasty Good (I'd peg them as Lawful Neutral and True Neutral, respectively). It's actually a meaty, complex conflict...that the players don't need to be involved in directly at all!

 

[Jester David]

You had me sold up until that...

They're included in the setting rather than secondary, but they're not essential.

Mostly because there was a kenku in the show for three or four episodes, and it was just as fantastic as you'd expect when played by a professional voice actor and skilled mimic.

 

[Jester David]

This part is very well drawn out: the Dwendalian Empire isn't Evil, either, nor is the Dynasty Good (I'd peg them as Lawful. Eutral and True Neutral, respectively). It's actually a meaty, complex conflict...that the players don't need to be involved in directly at all!

Rewatching the campaign there's some neat foreshadowing. With the PCs learning about the Krynn Dynasty from Dwendalian sources and it really does sound evil and nasty. They do feel set-up to be the "bad guy".
And then the party gets there and finds its mostly propaganda.

Which was all purposely done by Matt (the DM for any readers who don't know the names) to subvert the idea of drow as this evil nation of evil people.

 

[Parmandur]

It's very interesting in being a definite "next generation" Setting, made by a guy who grew up with old school D&D and played a lot of video games in the 80's on. Lots of low-key influences from Final Fantasy, Fire Emblem (which makes sense from Mercer), and other video game and anime sources, but still very grounded in old school D&D assumptions.

It's one of the only official Settings where the relationship between the gods and the world makes much sense.

 

[Parmandur]

Rewatching the campaign there's some neat foreshadowing. With the PCs learning about the Krynn Dynasty from Dwendalian sources and it really does sound evil and nasty. They do feel set-up to be the "bad guy".
And then the party gets there and finds its mostly propaganda.

Which was all purposely done by Matt (the DM for any readers who don't know the names) to subvert the idea of drow as this evil nation of evil people.

It's been really fun reading the book and getting answers to questions the players in the campaign weren't really interested in, that came up for me as a world building nerd.

 

[jgsugden]

...FR is ... crowded. A lot of history, a lot of lore. It's kind of overstuffed. I know I can just tell everyone that it's my version but if I then say that Elminister is dead, Drizzt was really evil all along or whatever wackiness I want to do I'll have a minor revolt on my hands...

I do not prefer to run FR, but I have many times. Every time I do, I start in the same place (Eveningstar) at the same time (the Time of the First Boxed Set). This eliminates a lot of the baggage and leaves me with a "clean" Realms to run.

 

[jgsugden]

All in all, while there are similarities between the Realms and Exandria, there are also similarities between the Realms, Greyhawk, Krynn, Middle Earth, and every other setting you can imagine.

If I'm playing a game with a bunch of 50 year old people that have played for 40 years and know the FR like the back of their hand and want to play there - I'm game to go deep into FR lore.

If I'm playing with a bunch of 20 year olds people that learned to game by listening to Critical Role - WIldemount may be the best experience for them.

If I have a mix of people that have expressed no preference, I'll run one of my campaign settings and steal, steal, steal, steal, steal and borrow from all the other campaign settings. My next campaign will feature a mystery (using Veronica Mars style mystery construction) for levels 1 to 4, a hexcrawl exploration for levels 5 to 10, overlapping dungeon delve and war storylines for levels 11 to 16, and then an extended trip to Hell for high levels followed by an aftermath story to take the PCs to Demi-God status and retirement. About 40% of that is my original work, and about 60% of it is stolen and slightly tweaked.