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).

 

[Tun Kai Poh]

That's because most of what the Second Sundering did was reset the setting back to the late 3.5 version, with a few tweaks from the Spellplague Era. Seriously, if you have been following the various APs and reading between the lines, the setting is as close to reset as possible without literally saying "that didn't happen."

• Elminster, Drizzt and the companions, Laeral and the sisters, Murt and Durran, Volo, Dragonbait and Arcus, Minsc and Boo, and nearly every other important NPC has survived due to magic, elfdom, or other form of immortality. I think the only victims are bit part players, and Blackstaff.
• Likewise, most of the villains made it out 100 years later no worse for wear. Artemis, Jaraxle, Manshoon, Halaster, Xanathar, and plenty other's made it out just fine, not even including the various liches, demon lords, dragons, and other ageless types. Again, Fzoul might be the only permadead foe.
• Nearly all geographic changes were reversed; from restoring the Sea of Fallen Stars to fixing Chult, to returning missing areas from the landswap. Futher, nearly every nation that suffered setbacks are "on the mend" and the few that changed (like Myth Drannor or Etruril) are returning back to classic.
• All the dead or misssing deities? Back. Even those who died before the Spellplague are back.

All of this was intentional to make 1400 as close to 1300 as possible so that older material would work again and come as close to making an "evergreen" version of the setting possible. With a few tweaks, there is little in Dragon Heist or Descent into Avernus that couldn't be done in the 1300's. "Today" is nearly interchangable with yesterday by design".

Yup. And trust me, this is a good thing. Be thankful you weren't a longtime Legend of the 5 Rings GM during the years before the timeline reboot, when you had a decade of horrible plot twists from the card game ruining your setting on a regular basis.

 

[darjr]

Those plot twists from the card game are the REASON for l5r. It’s literally what made the thing a thing.

 

[teitan]

I wanna add, another thing that makes Wildemount and to a lesser extent Tal'Dorei, is that standard default D&D races don't really seem to be a big thing like in Greyhawk and the Realms. They are there but not broadly developed. It's part of what gives the world a different flavor. A LOT of room for DM development in the world to make it your own.

 

[teitan]

Here is a cool location

Bazzoxan

Bazzoxan is a large village at the base of the cliffs at the northernmost point of the Penumbra Range in Xhorhas. The village is built below an ancient black temple, which was historically named Bazzoxan, on top of ruins. Demonic incursions from the temple beginning about 795 PD caused most...

criticalrole.fandom.com

Also the Temple under the township

Betrayers' Rise

The Betrayers' Rise is a temple to the Betrayer Gods and, in the time of the Calamity, was the seat of the Demon Princes of the Abyss. The temple was once called "the Bazzoxan" but Bazzoxan later came to refer to the entire settlement built around its ruins. A gargantuan double door called the...

criticalrole.fandom.com

A nightmare fueled dungeon.

 

[Nebulous]

Yeah, another fantasy medieval setting does not interest me in the least.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I mean, Exandria simply started using the vague default setting of 4E: the pantheon and mythos is most of what the Setting consists of, other than race and monster lore (which Exandria uses exactly).

That is...a very foreign perspective on settings, to me.

perhaps even outright alien.

A setting, I would posit, is just as much it’s history and it’s...politics and political geography, as it is it’s gods/cosmology.

And Exandria’s monster lore, cosmology, etc isn’t actually the same as Nentir Vale. It’s got most of the same gods by name, but they aren’t exactly the same, the cosmology is similar but unique, and you need only look to Drow to see monster lore that is wholly different from Nentir Vale.

 

[Phenomen]

Hard pass. Zero-interest in someone's half-assed homebrew setting.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

That's because most of what the Second Sundering did was reset the setting back to the late 3.5 version, with a few tweaks from the Spellplague Era. Seriously, if you have been following the various APs and reading between the lines, the setting is as close to reset as possible without literally saying "that didn't happen."

• Elminster, Drizzt and the companions, Laeral and the sisters, Murt and Durran, Volo, Dragonbait and Arcus, Minsc and Boo, and nearly every other important NPC has survived due to magic, elfdom, or other form of immortality. I think the only victims are bit part players, and Blackstaff.
• Likewise, most of the villains made it out 100 years later no worse for wear. Artemis, Jaraxle, Manshoon, Halaster, Xanathar, and plenty other's made it out just fine, not even including the various liches, demon lords, dragons, and other ageless types. Again, Fzoul might be the only permadead foe.
• Nearly all geographic changes were reversed; from restoring the Sea of Fallen Stars to fixing Chult, to returning missing areas from the landswap. Futher, nearly every nation that suffered setbacks are "on the mend" and the few that changed (like Myth Drannor or Etruril) are returning back to classic.
• All the dead or misssing deities? Back. Even those who died before the Spellplague are back.

All of this was intentional to make 1400 as close to 1300 as possible so that older material would work again and come as close to making an "evergreen" version of the setting possible. With a few tweaks, there is little in Dragon Heist or Descent into Avernus that couldn't be done in the 1300's. "Today" is nearly interchangable with yesterday by design".

This is exactly why I wouldn’t purchase an FR book for 5e unless it had a lot to use in homebrew settings.
To me, this is much, much, worse than any drastic changes they’ve ever made to a setting.

 

[Parmandur]

That is...a very foreign perspective on settings, to me.

perhaps even outright alien.

A setting, I would posit, is just as much it’s history and it’s...politics and political geography, as it is it’s gods/cosmology.

And Exandria’s monster lore, cosmology, etc isn’t actually the same as Nentir Vale. It’s got most of the same gods by name, but they aren’t exactly the same, the cosmology is similar but unique, and you need only look to Drow to see monster lore that is wholly different from Nentir Vale.

Nentir Vale doesn't have a huge amount of that, though: you have to go through a looooot of material to get some little nuggets. The Dawn War and the pantheon thereof is really the most upfront part of the Setting.

 

[Parmandur]

This is exactly why I wouldn’t purchase an FR book for 5e unless it had a lot to use in homebrew settings.
To me, this is much, much, worse than any drastic changes they’ve ever made to a setting.

Makes it easy to use the SCAG and AP with my 3x FRCS, though.