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Critical Role The New D&D Book Is 'The Explorer's Guide to [Critical Role's] Wildemount!' By Matt Mercer

It looks like Amazon has leaked the title and description of the new D&D book a day early (unless it's all a fake-out by WotC) -- and it's a new D&D setting book called The Explorer's Guide to Wildemount; it's the Critical Role campaign setting, penned by Matt Mercer!

It looks like Amazon has leaked the title and description of the new D&D book a day early (unless it's all a fake-out by WotC) -- and it's a new D&D setting book called The Explorer's Guide to Wildemount; it's the Critical Role campaign setting, penned by Matt Mercer!

Wildemount%2C_Version_20%2C1.png

image from Critical Role wiki

There's no cover image yet, so we're stuck with the "Coming Soon" image.

This book appeared without a title on Amazon last week, and a 'reveal' date of January 9th, which was then later delayed until January 13th. Amazon appears to have jumped the gun a day early.

Here's some information about Wildemount, which is a continent in the same world as Critical Role's other setting, Tal'Dorei. It is described by the official wiki has having "real-world Eastern European influence.... The Dwendalian Empire takes inspiration from 15th century Russia as well as Germanic nations in Central Europe (e.g., Prussia). Xhorhas has a more 13th-century Romanian flair. Outside of Wynandir, on the edges of the Dwendalian Empire, the cultures and peoples of those regions display a distinctly 14th-century Spanish flavor."

HOW DO YOU WANT TO DO THIS?

A war brews on a continent that has withstood more than its fair share of conflict. The Dwendalian Empire and the Kryn Dynasty are carving up the lands around them, and only the greatest heroes would dare stand between them. Somewhere in the far corners of this war-torn landscape are secrets that could end this conflict and usher in a new age of peace—or burn the world to a cinder.

Create a band of heroes and embark on a journey across the continent of Wildemount, the setting for Campaign 2 of the hit Dungeons & Dragons series Critical Role. Within this book, you’ll find new character options, a heroic chronicle to help you craft your character’s backstory, four different starting adventures, and everything a Dungeon Master needs to breathe life into a Wildemount-based D&D campaign…
  • Delve through the first Dungeons & Dragons book to let players experience the game as played within the world of Critical Role, the world’s most popular livestreaming D&D show.
  • Uncover a trove of options usable in any D&D game, featuring subclasses, spells, magic items, monsters, and more, rooted in the adventures of Exandria—such as Vestiges of Divergence and the possibility manipulating magic of Dunamancy.
  • Start a Dungeons & Dragons campaign in any of Wildemount’s regions using a variety of introductory adventures, dozens of regional plot seeds, and the heroic chronicle system—a way to create character backstories rooted in Wildemount.
Explore every corner of Wildemount and discover mysteries revealed for the first time by Critical Role Dungeon Master, Matthew Mercer.

Critical Role's other setting, Tal'Dorei, was published a couple of years ago by Green Ronin. This brings the list of settings in official D&D books to five: Forgotten Realms, Ravnica, Ravenloft, Eberron, and Wildemount.

UPDATE! Barnes & Noble has the cover (but not the title or description).

9780786966912_p0_v2_s600x595.jpg
 

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TheSword

Legend
Disappointed. Have no use for a Nilfguard knock-off.

Got quite excited about an explorers guide to Faerun. Oh well, will just have to wait for the summer for the next project.

... unless we are lucky enough that this is an opportunity elaborate scam and we’re actually getting a different book.
 

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generic

On that metempsychosis tweak
Disappointed. Have no use for a Nilfguard knock-off.

Got quite excited about an explorers guide to Faerun. Oh well, will just have to wait for the summer for the next project.

... unless we are lucky enough that this is an opportunity elaborate scam and we’re actually getting a different book.
Not going to happen, but I'm as ready to engage in wild conspiracy theories as any cultured individual.
 

TwoSix

Dirty, realism-hating munchkin powergamer
I hate to disappoint, there was one: it's called the Sword Coast Adventurers Guide and it came out years ago.

I know people hate it because it focused on the SC and gave lip service to the rest of Faerun, but that is the model WotC has opted for in all their settings. Don't believe me? Rising from the Last War only covers Khorvaire and pays lip service to Xen'drik, Sarlona, and the smaller island kingdoms. Ravnica focuses on one of ten districts in the city. This book seems to be covering one section of this world also. Hell, their coverage of Ravenloft was a single domain!

The era of the encyclopedic campaign guide like the FRCS or ESC seem over. I might be wrong (guessing WotC's next move is a fool's errand) but it looks like WotC's method of covering a setting is general info, some setting-specific crunch, and one section of the world detailed with any detail. The rest gets a mention and the assumption the DM will either hunt for older material (available on the DMs Guild!) Or make up their own based on the tease and perhaps a fan wiki.
Agreed. Wanting official encyclopedic support for the Shining South, or Sarlona, or Taladas, is pretty much like waiting for J.K. Rowling to write her next novel about the life of Justin Finch-Fletchley; you're pretty much a niche of a niche, and are going to have to resort to fanfics.
 

ChaosOS

Legend
I hate to disappoint, there was one: it's called the Sword Coast Adventurers Guide and it came out years ago.

I know people hate it because it focused on the SC and gave lip service to the rest of Faerun, but that is the model WotC has opted for in all their settings. Don't believe me? Rising from the Last War only covers Khorvaire and pays lip service to Xen'drik, Sarlona, and the smaller island kingdoms. Ravnica focuses on one of ten districts in the city. This book seems to be covering one section of this world also. Hell, their coverage of Ravenloft was a single domain!

The era of the encyclopedic campaign guide like the FRCS or ESC seem over. I might be wrong (guessing WotC's next move is a fool's errand) but it looks like WotC's method of covering a setting is general info, some setting-specific crunch, and one section of the world detailed with any detail. The rest gets a mention and the assumption the DM will either hunt for older material (available on the DMs Guild!) Or make up their own based on the tease and perhaps a fan wiki.


The ECS only paid lip service to !Khorvaire. Rising was pretty similar to the ECS on coverage - the cuts were Khorvaire content for game advice in chapter 4. In fact, Rising gave us the most content on the Everice (south pole) of any supplement
 

generic

On that metempsychosis tweak
The ECS only paid lip service to !Khorvaire. Rising was pretty similar to the ECS on coverage - the cuts were Khorvaire content for game advice in chapter 4. In fact, Rising gave us the most content on the Everice (south pole) of any supplement
I love !Khorvaire. 🙃
 


I hate to disappoint, there was one: it's called the Sword Coast Adventurers Guide and it came out years ago.

I know people hate it because it focused on the SC and gave lip service to the rest of Faerun, but that is the model WotC has opted for in all their settings. Don't believe me? Rising from the Last War only covers Khorvaire and pays lip service to Xen'drik, Sarlona, and the smaller island kingdoms. Ravnica focuses on one of ten districts in the city. This book seems to be covering one section of this world also. Hell, their coverage of Ravenloft was a single domain!

The era of the encyclopedic campaign guide like the FRCS or ESC seem over. I might be wrong (guessing WotC's next move is a fool's errand) but it looks like WotC's method of covering a setting is general info, some setting-specific crunch, and one section of the world detailed with any detail. The rest gets a mention and the assumption the DM will either hunt for older material (available on the DMs Guild!) Or make up their own based on the tease and perhaps a fan wiki.
The difference here is scale - it would be like an Eberron book devoted almost entirely to Breland. An equivalence to the actual Eberron campaign as released would be a FR book dedicated to Faerun, but give lip service to Kara-Tur, Zakhara, and Maztica, which I doubt anyone but a fanatical few would mind.

Given that the paradigm for WotC campaign settings has changed quite a bit since that time (Ravnica and Eberron have very similar layouts, far different from SCAG), and that SCAG was published third-party, the possibility they could want to revisit the setting on their own terms and using the new, seemingly-popular, setting format still remains open.
 


Urriak Uruk

Gaming is fun, and fun is for everyone
It can't work as a superhero comic, but it is a franchise not only for TTRPG. I bet Hasbro has got projects for the media, for example new streaming series after the "test" of Magic: the Gathering.

And a "multiverse war/secret crisis" would need a really good plot but for this you need the best cripters and now they are publishing their own novels or working for the big or little screen. I guess the future media projects will cause some retcon of the lore/background canon.

I meant that a multiverse war/secret crisis thing is very much a comic-book created concept, meant for comic books. It's something designed to sell more comic books as the "big event," often to kick off a reboot of the comic lines.

It is not something remotely needed for D&D.
 

generic

On that metempsychosis tweak
I meant that a multiverse war/secret crisis thing is very much a comic-book created concept, meant for comic books. It's something designed to sell more comic books as the "big event," often to kick off a reboot of the comic lines.

It is not something remotely needed for D&D.
At this point, I can't tell when LuisCarlos17f is joking, and when he's serious.
 

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