Critical Role Tell me the selling points of Tal'Dorei / Wildemount, without mentioning Critical Role, Matt Mercer, etc.

[Paul Farquhar]

I've used Exandria stuff without being a fan of Critical Role, and I will support what most of the others are saying. It's just a well designed high quality generic D&D setting.

I ran the Call of the Netherdeep campaign. As an adventure, it's not very good, but as a supplemental setting book it has good stuff in it, going into quite a high level of detail for several adventure locations.

Watch out for the monster design - they tend to be deadlier than standard WotC monsters for the same CR.

 

[DrJawaPhD]

What is unique or interesting or especially well-done about the setting material? Would the answers mean anything to a non-follower of Critical Role?

I don't actually follow Critical Role or use the Tal'Dorei / Wildemount worlds, but two things I do love and use in my world are a) Deities (which is basically the Dawn War pantheon with one added), and b) Vestiges of Divergence legendary items tied to the deities.

 

[TiQuinn]

I think the different continents match the complexity of Critical Role as it evolved.

So, Tal’Dorei is pretty much standard fantasy: There’s a city of the gods (where all gods are represented), a benevolent human kingdom, a reclusive elven forest kingdom, a dwarven enclave, and some various towns in between. The gods are of the generic, descriptor as name style - The Crawling King, The Changebringer, The Matron of Ravens, etc. The villains are basically from the show: There’s a dragon allegiance attempting to take over the land, a Vecna-analog lurking behind the scenes, a pair of vampires, etc. Technology, particularly gunpowder, is starting to become a factor in the setting.

Wildemount is the more interesting continent to me because there is a direct conflict between two rival kingdoms, neither of which is neatly put into a moral box. The Kryn Dynasty is a non-Lolth worshipping above ground Drow kingdom that also has a large population of monsters/non-humans simply trying to live their lives. They’re bordered by an expansive human empire that with an authoritarian organization of mages growing in power and seeking to gather artifacts from bygone eras. There is much more political intrigue, conflict and outright war on Wildemount.

Across both of these you have some unique subclasses, magic, spells, and monsters. I think you get more out of the whole by being a fan of Critical Role but they do stand on their own - at least in no different way than any other fantasy setting.

 

[Charlaquin]

The gods are of the generic, descriptor as name style - The Crawling King, The Changebringer, The Matron of Ravens, etc.

Only in the books for copyright reasons. In the show they were Torog, Avandra, the Raven Queen, etc.

 

[Leatherhead]

Effectively, they are generic fantasy settings that differ from other dnd worlds on two key points: they don't have decades worth of lore to sift through or weed out for modern sensibilities. And they have guns incorporated into them instead of being highly regulated option things.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Just know that a lot of stuff was cribbed from other sources. Like his Dark Elves are 90% Shadow Elves from Mystara.

Which is fine. Lord knows I borrow things from other sources.

 

[Charlaquin]

Just know that a lot of stuff was cribbed from other sources. Like his Dark Elves are 90% Shadow Elves from Mystara.

Which is fine. Lord knows I borrow things from other sources.

Yeah, D&D itself is fundamentally pastiche. Taking your favorite ideas from a variety of sources and throwing them together into a soup is a tradition as old as the game itself.