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

[zakael19]

1. Yes, Exandria is the Starbucks of D&D in that it's way more available and heavily advertised. That doesn't make it the better product.

Nobody is saying Exandria is the be-all-end-all of settings. Within "standard D&D high fantasy published by WOTC" it's pretty decent, has some specific stuff going for it enumerated herein, and Wildemount in particular is a much better then average setting handbook for a DM to actually use. Expanding beyond that categorical division turns into kind of a lost cause, there's just so many possible settings (inclusive primarily of most DMs who want to step outside of primary published lines into creating their own).

Exandria is great for younger players, those who don't want to deal with certain subjects,

Ah yes, younger players who are notoriously into grand political fights; wars; complex grey areas around how societies deal with expansion and the disposed (sometimes bleeding into metaphysical questions); just like George Lucas determined when he made a prequel series about the fascinating topic of pan-galactic trade.

(what certain subjects are you alluding to? Exandria tends to have plenty of classic D&D stuff, it just does a better job of presenting many sides to an idea or conflict then stuff like FR)

 

[gnarlygninja]

(FYI - robots and crashed alien ships were not only integral to blackmoor as the seminal campaign setting from which D+D developed, they also featured as prominent plot points in the first published D+D adventure; greyhawk came along later with gary's sword+sorcery weird-fantasy pastiche, but dave's blackmoor was quasi-medieval science-fantasy from day zero)

And Conan has it too, Tower of the Elephant is about an alien.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

There's a spell that drops bird poop on your enemies

So, crass stupidity then.

I would be more interested in low magic gritty realism.

But if you are talking about 3PP stuff, there are literally hundreds of generic fantasy settings. Some are probably almost as good as one I create myself, but no one has used them and so are useless as a point of comparison.

 

[Necropolitan]

Ah yes, younger players who are notoriously into grand political fights; wars; complex grey areas around how societies deal with expansion and the disposed (sometimes bleeding into metaphysical questions)

That's Eberron, Exandria doesn't have those.

 

[zakael19]

That's Eberron, Exandria doesn't have those.

That's categorically false, everything I just listed is directly out of the Wildemount book.

 

[Necropolitan]

That's categorically false, everything I just listed is directly out of the Wildemount book.

Exandria attempts that, but it being unwilling to deal with the actual ramifications of war means you end up with either obvious morals like "Making refugees bad, helping refugees good" or have to add in stuff I don't think most players would want (although I think the Pathfinder adventure path The Ironfang Invasion handled them about as well as they could be handled).

 

[zakael19]

Man, I don't even know how to respond to that. Feels like endless goalpost shifting, I dont think it's worth continuing this discussion.

 

[Umbran]

So, crass stupidity then.

Mod Note:
I put a warning in this thread earlier today.

"He only said ad hominem, so I can just swap to a generally insulting tone, instead. That'll be fine," is entirely NOT the take-away from that warning.

If you can't keep your approach to discussion respectful, please recuse yourself from the discussion.

 

[mamba]

Conan doesn’t have robots or crashed ships etc and same with blackmor

Arneson's Blackmoor? City of the Gods...