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!

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).

 

[generic]

I can explain D&D 5e in 1 minute. Like this;

"Tell the DM what you want to do. Then roll a 1d20. If it's high, you succeeded. If it's low, you didn't."

Um... Nope. Not really that simple. But you do you.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

.=
Why the hell does Mercer have to apologise for that?

Maybe he has empathy?

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Um... Nope. Not really that simple. But you do you.

Of course it's not, but that is the gist of the game. Roll, add your modifier, that's it.

Combat is obviously more complicated, especially spells, but it's still a variation of "roll, add modifier, succeed or fail."

 

[generic]

Of course it's not, but that is the gist of the game. Roll, add your modifier, that's it.

Combat is obviously more complicated, especially spells, but it's still a variation of "roll, add modifier, succeed or fail."

Understood, and, I don't think anyone would disagree with this, but you can't just say "roll a d20".

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Understood, and, I don't think anyone would disagree with this, but you can't just say "roll a d20".

When I explain how D&D works to people who have no knowledge, I always use the roll 1d20 explanation. Because anyone can understand it, and if you're playing with no combat (a perfectly acceptable way to play D&D) the rules don't get more complicated than "roll, add charisma, succeed or fail."

 

[generic]

When I explain how D&D works to people who have no knowledge, I always use the roll 1d20 explanation. Because anyone can understand it, and if you're playing with no combat (a perfectly acceptable way to play D&D) the rules don't get more complicated than "roll, add charisma, succeed or fail."

Fair enough.

 

[Haffrung]

I can explain D&D 5e in 1 minute. Like this;

"Tell the DM what you want to do. Then roll a 1d20. If it's high, you succeeded. If it's low, you didn't."

Sure. But unless the player is interested in reading the rules and noting or memorizing the myriad modifiers and conditional rules, you'll be walking them through all that (not to mention class abilities, spells, combat actions, conditions, etc.) on every roll forever. Which is what a lot of DMs do. Requiring an alpha gamer to routinely monitor and manage play suggests the game is more complex than a lot of players would prefer.

5E is not difficult for hardcore gamers and longtime RPG players. But it's a massive step up in complexity for people who haven't played anything more complicated than Pandemic or Lords of Waterdeep - which is the great majority of new people who play.

 

[Chaosmancer]

With all due respect, a lot of this post is nonsense. Over the past 4.5 years I have had many people completely new to rpgs, let alone D&D, join my 5e games. Yes, I helped them create a new character but this never took longer than 20-30 minutes. All they needed to know was roll the D20, add that ability modifier and, if you are skilled, that +2 (or +3). They only needed to know what their class and race abilities were. Within 1 to 2 sessions these players got the gist of the game and learned the conditional stuff as it came up in play.

5e, being the DM orientated edition like 1e and 2e before it, makes the game easy to play and learn. On the spectrum of rules light - rules heavy I would rate 5e as rules medium bordering on the lighter side of the spectrum.

So, yeah, 5e being complex? Nonsense and humbug I say! 3.5 was complex. Rolemaster was complex. Shadowrun 4e was complex. 5e is not complex.

No, I'm going to have to agree with Haffrung. DnD 5e is on the higher end of complexity in the current gaming market. It is a "weighty" game as I understand the terminology.

The other games you listed are on the extreme end. But, I literally just tried to teach my sister's boyfriend how to play in advance of him playing in a game with some friends. I could not explain enough material to feel like he had an adequate grasp of his options and how the math works. I skipped a lot, I glossed a lot. Sure, he can play, but understanding his choices and decision points are a lot harder.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

5E is not difficult for hardcore gamers and longtime RPG players. But it's a massive step up in complexity for people who haven't played anything more complicated than Pandemic or Lords of Waterdeep - which is the great majority of new people who play.

I guess each persons situation is individual. In a lunch hour I helped a coworker (who didn't speak English 7 years ago and has never watched or played a RPG) create a character from scratch. She made the decisions where to put her stats, picked a background, a race, and a class, and leveled that character up to 3rd level. We then did some sample skill checks and a really short battle versus a "generic" opponent to see how damage and hit points worked. Did they min/max a power character? Not at all. But they made a Dwarven Barbarian who was an easy enough character for a first timer to hang with.

Now, during character creation, I might have said "If you pick a wizard you have to look through these 50 pages of spells and write a bunch of stuff down" and steered her toward a non-caster but thats kind of par-for-the-course for a first time player. Similarly we didn't go over feats, or magic weapons, or any other things that weren't immediately important. The basics of "here are your skills, add this number to your roll" and "Here is your big axe info and the numbers you use for that" are very simple to explain.

As long as a new player is sitting a table of existing players it is super simple to slowly add to their knowledge as the need comes up. I STILL have a newer player at my table who doesn't understand completely how the Hunters mark works. They just mark off a spell slot and add D6 to their damage for a battle and it works out fine in the end. You don't have to walk into the job on day one with a degree in Advanced Dungeons and Dragons.

 

[Parmandur]

Could have just sold out. If so, I wouldn't be surprised if Green Ronin did another print run though, which means it could reappear in the store soon.

James Haeck mentioned on Todd Talks yesterday that the old book is definitely out of print: Amazon is just selling through stock now.