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

[Paul Farquhar]

You're claiming it makes more sense to worship gods who want to destroy the world than gods who want to rule it.

The former is nonsensical, not the latter.

People do some really irrational stuff. It’s no more irrational than people killing themselves because they believe god told them to do it.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I said "meaningful conflicts," so you're strawmanning.

No, you’re just being pedantic. There is no meaningful difference between the two phrases.

You're claiming it makes more sense to worship gods who want to destroy the world than gods who want to rule it.

The former is nonsensical, not the latter.

The gods don’t have to be worshipped to exist, my dude. The only people worshipping Asmodeus are power hungry who don’t care what his ultimate goals are.

Frankly it would make even more sense to just take the final step and not call them gods, but instead the setting takes the stance that they are gods because that is thier metaphysical nature, not because they are worshipped. worship of the betrayer gods isn’t widespread, they’re gods because that’s just what they are, regardless of worship. Which is much closer to a reasonable cosmology.

Also all the gods being usurpers was a really bad addition to the lore.

No, it isn’t. The conflict that is basically the 4e Dawn War is a classic order vs chaos creation myth, expanded into the present day of the setting in its tangible effects. No other published D&D setting does that, or takes the evil gods and makes it murky why they are evil and if it’s even right to call them evil, which makes it possible to have cults that don’t actually believe that they are evil, while anyone who believes the mythology that the prime deities hand down as dogma does view them as evil in a way that means they would never worship them.

That is a better setup than “Bhaal is Evil. Without any room for debate. He is objectively Evil and doesn’t pretend otherwise. His priests are Evil. His followers are…Evil. He has enough followers to be a powerful deity in this setting where divine power is relative to worship…because…reasons?”

It makes it make sense that while the betrayers aren’t widely worshipped like the Primes, they do have cults that generally are either psycho annihilation cults (which exist irl so why wouldn’t they in a fantasy world?) and cults that view them differently from the mainstream view and don’t beleive that they do want to destroy everything.

Hell IIRC some of the betrayers weren’t even in it because they want the world destroyed but because they had vendetta against one or more prime deity, or were trying to use the conflict to weaken the primes in order to take power from them.

All of which is vastly more interesting in terms of reading a campaign book and in terms of running a game that uses the cosmological conflicts as the basis for the campaign conflicts, than the cosmos of FR.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Pretty much everything about the setting's been done before and done better.

That can also be said about every other setting.

 

[Pale Violet Light]

Literally all of that is true of Mystara as well, and most of it can be said of one or more other well-known published settings too. Maybe "generic" was the wrong word on the previous poster's part, but I see what they were getting at.

Folks on this forum have so much knowledge of obscure (or just old) RPG settings that they have a distorted idea of what “generic” is. And also some of them don’t know the difference between derivative and generic.

 

[Seramus]

Exandria has never been a "unique" setting. Instead, it takes some of the coolest elements of other settings and puts them in one place. It has the Dawn War, the Ring of Siberys, the crashed ruins of Netheril, airships, a savage land full of dinosaurs, a dragon rage, etc.

It's also full of meaningful conflicts the players can grab onto, since it is very much NOT a land of peace. There are wars, a post-dragon-rage continent picking up the pieces, politics out the wazoo, and ice torn regions with the ruins of fallen cities to explore, etc.

It's not as dark as a pure Points of Light style setting, but you can probably find some kind of adventure off any beaten path. And eldritch gribbles do lurk in the shadows.

So, it's a kitchen sink. Is it better than the other kitchen sinks? Not necessarily, but it did mug them for ideas while somehow still feeling comfy and familiar. It's a great starter setting if you don't already have a nostalgic favorite.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It might be worth mentioning the for a time The Explorers Guide to Wildemount was the best-written 5e setting book available on DDB.

 

[wicked cool]

Pretty much everything about the setting's been done before and done better.

It's the best setting if you want something so generic you can do anything there, but otherwise the only real draw is Critical Role.

And yet it sells better and gets better reviews

 

[TiQuinn]

Literally all of that is true of Mystara as well, and most of it can be said of one or more other well-known published settings too. Maybe "generic" was the wrong word on the previous poster's part, but I see what they were getting at.

Mystara is also a 30+ year old setting whose official last works were published for AD&D. If you’re running it for 5e, that’s going need to be converted.

I really don’t understand why such a premium is being put on uniqueness in this thread.

 

[Necropolitan]

All of which is vastly more interesting in terms of reading a campaign book and in terms of running a game that uses the cosmological conflicts as the basis for the campaign conflicts, than the cosmos of FR.

No it's not. It reduces the entire divine conflict to whether or not the world should exist.

The 'Betrayer Deities' all wanting to destroy the world and barely having any worshipers makes them boring.

That can also be said about every other setting.

No it can't. Eberron does higher tech levels better, Forgotten Realms does gods better, etc.

It's also full of meaningful conflicts the players can grab onto, since it is very much NOT a land of peace. There are wars, a post-dragon-rage continent picking up the pieces, politics out the wazoo, and ice torn regions with the ruins of fallen cities to explore, etc.

The conflicts amount to "Generic Evil Empire," "Gods who want to destroy the world," and "Eldritch abominations that want to destroy the world."

And yet it sells better and gets better reviews

Remove the Critical Role name and it'd be forgotten.