Critical Role Tal'Dorei Reborn from Critical Role Is Out!

Darrington Press' reboot of Critical Role's Tal-Dorei D&D setting has been spotted in the wild, and on social media folks who worked on it are showing off pictures of their books.

The book is available from Critical Role's various online stores. The print version comes with a free PDF; however you cannot buy the PDF alone.

(Forgive the huge mess that this post is! That's what Twitter does to articles!)

 

[Hexmage-EN]

Going by the guidelines in TCSR, here's my attempt at a goliath-loxodon using goliath as the base:

Strength +2, Constitution +1
Medium
Loxodon Serenity (Loxodon) - Traded away Mountain Born (Goliath)
Natural Athlete (Goliath)
Natural Armor (Loxodon) - Traded away Stone's Endurance (Goliath)
Powerful Build (both Goliath and Loxodon)

Not certain what this would look like, TBH. Maybe a heavyset goliath with leathery skin and somewhat bigger ears and nose? I wonder how I would determine life span; the average goliath lives about as long as a human, but the average loxodon lives up to 450. Going by half-elves, who live about a fourth as long as elves, I guess this goliath-loxodon hybrid would live to about 112.

EDIT: I also just found out that one of the tiefling characters of Campaign 2 of Critical Role, Jester, has cold resistance and deals cold damage with Hellish Rebuke as a nod to her father being a water genasi.

 

[Hexmage-EN]

Just found something interesting in the location called "The Throne of the Arch Heart". Both the original Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting and the new Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn have an adventure hook here called "Fist of the Ruiner".

In both books, the adventure hook involves this location being known as the spot where both centaurs and orcs came into being during a battle between the Ruiner (aka Gruumsh) and the Arch Heart (aka Corellon), and worshipers of the Arch Heart are being attacked by orcs. In the original book the worshipers are centaurs who want protection, while in the new book the worshipers are both centaurs and orcs, and the evil orcs are explicitly cultists of the Ruiner.

Interestingly, the friendly orcs are stated as paying homage to the Arch Heart for spilling the Ruiner's blood, allowing their race to come into existence.

 

[Longspeak]

As a side note, the races section also mentions characters of mixed-ancestry beyond half-elves and half-orcs. An illustration of an elf-dragonborn and an orc-dwarf is included, though the book gives only general advice on working with a DM to create a mixed-ancestry character.

This is something I've already been doing in my own Tal'Dorei set game. I wish there were a few more examples or ideas to show my players. But, there are other third party options that can work here. The very nice game Those Who Wander has a nice set up for picking your Parent 1 and Parent 2, and drawing traits from both. It even has a system for picking traits from more than two if you want a really mixed ancestry.

The first Tal'dorei Campaign Setting is set before the end of Campaign One of Critical Role, at around the year 811. This new book is set twenty-five years later, just after the end of Campaign Two, and both describes changes that have happened to certain locations in the past two decades, adds more detail to them, and includes brand new content.

Some of the most major changes in terms of the setting's lore is that in the 25 years since the first campaign:

• One of the two warring criminal syndicates in the region, the Clasp, has enjoyed a much improved public image due to the organization helping protect the citizens of the captial city during its occupation by the red dragon called the Cinder King. Clasp members now cooperate at times with the ruling council and serve as informants, while their rival the Myriad has become even more brutal and cutthroat in contrast.

The Clasp's place in folk lore is also part of my game. It seemed a logical extension from events in the podcast that many common folk would see them that way after their actions during the Chroma Conclave.

The lack of a Gunslinger option is annoying. I understand the reasons for it, and I have the PDF, but still wish it was all in one handy book. Also, unless I missed it on my first read there isn't a ton on the effects of firearms technology on the course of the setting. I'd have liked to see Mercer's take on that.

My own game is set ten years after the Conclave, and events have already push the setting in other directions, so some of this book won't see much use for a while. But it's interesting to see where they imagined the setting going in the intervening time. And the PDF is lovely.

 

[Bitbrain]

Coinmistress Vex'ahlia de Rolo - Half-Elf Master of Commerce

Of course she is.

 

[teitan]

So I have it on the way now, should be here by Wednesday but I do have the PDF and it is awesome. Some seems to be copypasta with editing and the best art from the previous iteration retained. I am glad they gave it a much needed heftier page count, timeline update to match up with Wildemount (my favorite 5e book). The whole half or partial ancestry thing I think is a tip of the hat to Tasha's myself. They can't specifically spell it out in the book but they obviously take advantage of rules options when they come out on the show such as Nott the Brave being very explicitly a Volo's guide Goblin with a randomly generated background of being cursed to be a goblin. Tasha's definitely opens up those variations in ancestry that these things are showing in the book without them being able to spell it out.

 

[Samurai]

In my Exandria, Wildmount is the place characters will start (because I own the book and know the setting, having watched every episode of Campaign 2. Tal'Dorei, on the other hand, because I never saw campaign 1 and only have the original book for it, has had some sort of calamity befell it. All trade and travel from there (which had always been minimal) ceased about 20 years ago. A few expeditions of adventurers have been sent to try and find out what happened, but the survivors who returned said that the land was over-run by undead and other creatures. There were not many living survivors that they found. When the next book comes out, Call of the Netherdeep, I'll probably buy it, expanding my livable areas of Exandria, and possibly also giving some clues to what happened to Tal'Dorei (maybe some of the denizens of the Netherdeep influenced things on Tal'Dorei, leading to its destruction?)

 

[Aldarc]

I'm definitely interested in some of these subclasses, such as the Blood Wizard, but as someone lukewarm to Critical Role and Tal'dorei,* I'm not sure if it will be worth it to buy this book.

* Its existence feels like a sad reminder of the neglected, but beloved, Nentir Vale setting.

 

[vilainn6]

and the Canadian store is sold out. Yeah! I hope it is because the stock hasn't arrive yet and not because they didn't print enought because if it is the later, it is really pathetic.

 

[Scott Christian]

I am honestly so confused when people talk about their serious games where they get made at people for joking at the table out of character and how a scarred, ancient mercenary with the blood of dragons in his veins is too silly for their magic elf who throws out sparkly lights and slaps people with big glowy hands.

I have never met a D&D player that gets mad at anyone for telling a joke. What I have seen is frustrated DMs and players when someone at the table can't read the table's mood. The game is based on mood. That is why there are musical accompaniments, visuals, and descriptions of both playful and horrendous things.
Players and DMs are allowed to express consternation when one person refuses to involve themselves in the mood of the story. There is a time and place for everything - and sometimes everything doesn't always belong in a time and place.

 

[Vaalingrade]

I have never met a D&D player that gets mad at anyone for telling a joke. What I have seen is frustrated DMs and players when someone at the table can't read the table's mood. The game is based on mood. That is why there are musical accompaniments, visuals, and descriptions of both playful and horrendous things.
Players and DMs are allowed to express consternation when one person refuses to involve themselves in the mood of the story. There is a time and place for everything - and sometimes everything doesn't always belong in a time and place.

That... was the point. I know those moods exist, but find the idea of serous D&D to be weird. Like having a racecar bed that's a 1 for 1 replica of a Bugaratti with billion thread silk sheets.