Critical Role Here's The Cover Of The Explorer's Guide to Wildemount; Plus It's #15 In Amazon Bestsellers!

While Amazon may have revealed the title and description of The Explorer's Guide to Wildemount earlier, it had no cover art. Barnes & Noble, on the other hand, has the cover but at the time of writing no title or description. Here it is!

The official announcement should be coming later today. In the meantime, the book - which has not yet been announced! - is already #15 in the bestsellers chart for all books on Amazon, based only on pre-orders. That's pretty astonishing for a book which 'officially' doesn't even exist yet (although the announcement is expected later today).

 

[SharnDM]

Look. I tried Critical Role and, despite noting that the group is pretty talented, it wasn't for me. With rare exception I find watching or listening to others play the game pretty boring.

HOWEVER, it's appeal is huge to a lot of folks, and it has brought tons of fresh blood into this hobby I love.

I may not have known what what Wildemount was until reading these comments but I have no doubt it'll sell very well.

 

[Acolyte of Zothique]

You might never have heard of it, but I assure you, Critical Role is very popular, the book is already sellling well (considering it is the 2nd Critical Role Setting book, even more so) and I wager that there are way more 5th edition players who got in because of Critical Role than any of the other settings awaiting sourcebooks.

I've been a tabletop roleplayed for over 30 years now and a D&D player since '91. As much as I enjoy some of the old settings (Al-Qadim, Ravenloft) I think it is only right and proper that WotC focuses on what attracts the current generation of new players. Kudos to WotC to being up to date and releasing a setting that is very much in the current D&D consciousness. Oh yeah, I'm also a Critical Role fan as are about 4 of my 6 players, some of whom have been playing D&D for years. Not newbies.

I believe that some veteran players have a strong sense of entitlement ('whaaa! I want a new edition of my favourite ancient setting that no new player has ever heard of!). WotC has said they'll get round to some of the more popular ones in time. So, you can wait. We need new material that appeals to the new generation in order to keep D&D healthy. I for one will be buying the - yet to be announced - Wildemount book with anticipation.

 

[Mournblade94]

Very glad this book has nothing for me in it. I can spend my money elsewhere.

 

[Burnside]

Currently popular? I never heard of it before now. Why would anyone possibly think this would sell? How many players or DMs actually watch critical role as compared to the whole playerbase? Of those, how many are in the hunt for a new vanilla campaign setting? Popular amongst fans of critical role is not going to result in a significant number of sales. That could have devoted the resources to creating a book describing the varieties of Faerunian navel lint and it would probably sell more copies.

Not “currently popular”. Consistently popular, for years. Their stream has a million viewers per week. Their kickstarter for their cartoon was the most successful Kickstarter campaign ever, raising 11.4 million dollars and leading to two pre-ordered seasons on Amazon Prime. This book has a very good chance of being the best-selling thing WotC releases in 2020.

 

[akr71]

While my interest in Critical Role is waning, this is incredibly smart business. "Let's take the most popular D&D live stream game and make it a WotC setting." Their Kickstarter to produce an animated series off their games raised an insane amount of money. Amazon picked up the rights to distribute it. Now this. For many folks Critical Role is D&D - their first exposure. It makes sense for WotC to hitch their wagons to CR - at least in the short term.

In my opinion, this might be the moment when CR jumped the shark - and I'm old enough to know the show that spawned that phrase and watched that particular episode when it aired.

 

[Morrus]

Their Kickstarter to produce an animated series off their games raised an insane amount of money. Amazon picked up the rights to distribute it. Now this. For many folks Critical Role is D&D - their first exposure. It makes sense for WotC to hitch their wagons to CR - at least in the short term.

Does this make WotC a third-party publisher of Critical Role?

 

[Rhineglade]

Have to say I am completely surprised by this. I love Critical Role and the whole team that works on it but not so much into playing it. I wish them the best of luck!

 

[akr71]

Does this make WotC a third-party publisher of Critical Role?

I suppose in a sense, yes. I'll defer to your expertise and opinion on publishing - I have none.

 

[akr71]

Have to say I am completely surprised by this. I love Critical Role and the whole team that works on it but not so much into playing it. I wish them the best of luck!

Yes, me too. I bought the first campaign guide they put out for curiosity sake, but I can definitely pass on this one. Even though I am a casual fan of the show, I'm not their target market.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Currently popular? I never heard of it before now.

Because you are not the target audience.

Why would anyone possibly think this would sell?

Because they carried out extensive market research.

How many players or DMs actually watch critical role as compared to the whole playerbase?

Not the grognard DM (i.e. me), but pretty much all the other players in my group.

But more importantly, it is popular amongst people who are not current D&D players, but could be if the right product was waved under their nose.


The point of this product is to fish for new players, not please existing players. But more new players is a win for current players too.