Critical Role Tal’Dorei Reborn from Critical Role's Darrington Press

Critical Role's publishing arm, Darrington Press, has announced that it is relaunching the Tal'Dorei campaign setting (which was originally published inn 2017 by Green Ronin). The new setting is called Tal’Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn and will launch in late 2021/early 2022.

Since we launched Darrington Press, one product has been asked for again and again: the popular and out-of-print Tal’Dorei Campaign Setting.

Today, we are delighted to announce that the sourcebook is coming back, in a shiny new form: Tal’Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn—lovingly hashtagged #TalDoreiReborn for short. This definitive sourcebook brings the locations, people, creatures, and character options of Critical Role’s Tal’Dorei to your gaming table, complete with 5th edition stats for new magic items, subclasses, and even the members of Vox Machina. Whether you’re a fan of the original sourcebook or are totally new to Tal’Dorei, this book is for you.

The book is double the size of the original, at 280 pages, and advances the setting by two decades.

Inside, you'll find info on each major region of the setting, 9 new subclasses and 5 new backgrounds, new magic items, creatures, and updated stat blocks for the members of Vox Machina.

There will also be a deluxe boxed set from Beadle & Grimm's.

The FAQ indicates that it will not be possible to buy the PDF-only version at launch, but if you buy from the Critical Role shop you get the PDF bundled in (not if you buy it elsewhere though).

 

[darjr]

@Dire Bare don't get me wrong. I'd be ecstatic if that were the case.

 

[Dire Bare]

How do you know that? I've asked them point blank about third party books and their answer was "We have a license with WotC" implying that their hands are tied. Also Matt (MCDM) has said they'd love to have their books on DNDBeyond but said their license prevents it, though he didn't go so far as to say he'd actually talked to them about it. It sounded like he just knew, he used to know several principals of the company when they were over there.

In fact their partnership with Nerdarchy was VERY limited, basically it was Nerdarchy sharing home brew things, it wasn't any of their books. I got the distinct impression that DNDBeyond wanted to do just that, have books from Nerdarchy.

How do I know? Ah . . . memory . . . which of course, could be wrong. I'm not going to go looking for the interview or article . . .

DDB can produce official D&D books because, of course, they have that license with WotC. To product MCDM books, they'd need a license with MCDM. Or whichever 3rd party publisher we're talking about, such as Darrington Press. Pursuing and negotiating that license takes time/manpower, which (I'm fairly certain) they've stated they don't have right now. And of course actually adding new books takes more time/manpower. Is their license with WotC exclusive? Preventing them from adding non-WotC content to DDB? I'm fairly certain it isn't, but I could be wrong. After all, they have added that smidge of Critical Role content.

 

[Parmandur]

How do I know? Ah . . . memory . . . which of course, could be wrong. I'm not going to go looking for the interview or article . . .

DDB can produce official D&D books because, of course, they have that license with WotC. To product MCDM books, they'd need a license with MCDM. Or whichever 3rd party publisher we're talking about, such as Darrington Press. Pursuing and negotiating that license takes time/manpower, which (I'm fairly certain) they've stated they don't have right now. And of course actually adding new books takes more time/manpower. Is their license with WotC exclusive? Preventing them from adding non-WotC content to DDB? I'm fairly certain it isn't, but I could be wrong. After all, they have added that smidge of Critical Role content.

WotC did have Beyond take down the League of Legends material. So they at least need WotC's permission, which they would probably have for Critical Role.

 

[Dire Bare]

WotC did have Beyond take down the League of Legends material. So they at least need WotC's permission, which they would probably have for Critical Role.

Did WotC though? Or was the League of Legends material a temporary marketing thing? I honestly don't remember, other than I thought it was a weird add to the service.

I totally can see WotC giving the thumbs up for the Critical Role content, as many WotC staffers are also fans, and WotC also partners with CR. If the license truly is exclusive, I hope Fandom is willing to pursue adding Tal'Dorei Reborn, and WotC willing to allow it.

 

[Parmandur]

Did WotC though? Or was the League of Legends material a temporary marketing thing? I honestly don't remember, other than I thought it was a weird add to the service.

They took it down almost immediately, and were not forthcoming about whybother than there were licensing issues.

 

[OblivionDrive]

Did WotC though? Or was the League of Legends material a temporary marketing thing? I honestly don't remember, other than I thought it was a weird add to the service.

I totally can see WotC giving the thumbs up for the Critical Role content, as many WotC staffers are also fans, and WotC also partners with CR. If the license truly is exclusive, I hope Fandom is willing to pursue adding Tal'Dorei Reborn, and WotC willing to allow it.

All I remember was folks speculating it was because Riot had their own LoL digital trading card game that could have been seen as potential competition for WotC’s MtG Arena and maybe Wizards wasn’t happy and leaned on that.

Meanwhile, CR’s campaign guide effectively needs WotC books to function properly (yes, yes I know - the SRD exists. Still, I don’t know any groups personally who function off an SRD document alone and eschew actually buying any official material, even if only a couple books) so it’s really a one hand washing the other situation here. WotC’s always seemingly had a close and positive relationship with CR thus far. See no reason why that would change now.

 

[Dragonhelm]

The original Tal'Dorei book is my introduction to Critical Role. I haven't watched any of their games yet, but I think I would like to. What I have seen of the setting is excellent.

 

[overgeeked]

All I remember was folks speculating it was because Riot had their own LoL digital trading card game that could have been seen as potential competition for WotC’s MtG Arena and maybe Wizards wasn’t happy and leaned on that.

Meanwhile, CR’s campaign guide effectively needs WotC books to function properly (yes, yes I know - the SRD exists. Still, I don’t know any groups personally who function off an SRD document alone and eschew actually buying any official material, even if only a couple books) so it’s really a one hand washing the other situation here.

You could make the exact same argument about every other unofficial 5E book...yet exactly zero of them are in D&D Beyond.

WotC’s always seemingly had a close and positive relationship with CR thus far. See no reason why that would change now.

They bloody well better. WotC owes a huge part of their success with 5E to Critical Role. But note how the original Tal'Dorei Campaign book was also not in D&D Beyond. The safest assumption to make is that WotC's license with Fandom is limited to official WotC products only with a caveat for a limited amount of free fan material. Whole books from publishers who are technically illegally selling their products...not so much.

Technically here because none of them have a license from WotC to produce 5E materials yet they are. They get away with it because they're smart enough to never use the D&D trademark with their products and because it ultimately benefits WotC directly. If WotC wanted to they could put a huge crimp is a lot of 3PPs' style.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Fandom's license with WotC for D&D Beyond does not prevent them from adding non-WotC content to the service. If they want to, they can add just about anything they want. They've been on record saying that they're basically too busy just keeping up with WotC's releases and increasing the capabilities of the service, and don't really have the time or manpower to add other titles. They've obviously made some exceptions for Critical Role elements, but that was likely because, 1) it's only a couple of classes, 2) folks at DDB are Critical Role fans, and 3) they frequently partner with Critical Role for marketing purposes.

We'll have to wait and see, but it would not shock me at all if the new Tal'Dorei Reborn book actually does show up in full on D&D Beyond.

This is both true... and not true. I think theoretically they can add whatever they want, but I remember when they added material that was tied to League of Legends, intended to promote their card game... and that got pulled down pretty quickly.

I'm unaware of whether it was Riot or WotC that was responsible, but the LoL card game competes with MTG Online, so it was probably WotC who said, "Yo, cut that out!" And they did.

 

[OblivionDrive]

Technically here because none of them have a license from WotC to produce 5E materials yet they are. They get away with it because they're smart enough to never use the D&D trademark with their products and because it ultimately benefits WotC directly. If WotC wanted to they could put a huge crimp is a lot of 3PPs' style.

Did… you forget the OGL is a thing? They literally do have a license to use the OGL compliant rules because they’re required to print that license in full in every third party published book as a condition of being able to use the license. The original Tal’Dorei campaign guide has it printed in the back. This has zero to do with them being “smart enough” not to use WotC’s trademarks.