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!

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).

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Essafah

Explorer
Your 22 year old player would have been 7 or 8 when Eberron was released in 2004. Too young to have cared about it, obviously, but long past "barely walking". And if she started in say, middle school, Eberron would have still been a young setting.

I get it, time is only getting faster, but context.


Yeah no need to be pedantic. :) I don't have children (and never wish to) so not good with what babies are doing at what exact age but the point is this "classic" world she enjoyed because it was well produced, distinctive from generic fantasy, and brand new (to her age group). So they whole idea of not producing classic worlds simply because they are classic I think is a poor argument.
 

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Fenris-77

Small God of the Dozens
Supporter
The idea that Greyhawk might be too similar to FR to be exciting to fans who aren't already fans is probably a cogent objection. Dark Sun doesn't have that problem, which is why I'd expect to see it done for 5e before Greyhawk. I don't say that because I personally don't like Greyhawk either - both Castle Greyhawk and Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure are personal favorites of mine.
 

Rikka66

Adventurer
Suggesting they liberally license settings isn't really a realistic proposition. If they wanted more books, they'd either expand their team or contract more freelancers a year. 5e is doing well enough that the problem isn't budget cuts on the D&D team. Avoiding a creation of glut or the potential for fragmenting the player base with settings as 2e is often accused of are among their highest priorities.

I do agree that their are plenty of benefits to releasing older settings, and its not as simple as "the younger generation doesn't remember them and won't buy them." But letting Paizo bolster Pathfinder 2 with Greyhawk isn't going to happen.
 
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Reynard

Legend
Your 22 year old player would have been 7 or 8 when Eberron was released in 2004. Too young to have cared about it, obviously, but long past "barely walking". And if she started in say, middle school, Eberron would have still been a young setting.

I get it, time is only getting faster, but context.
Also Eberron has been the setting for DDO for years.
 

Reynard

Legend
I like the detail available on forums. Twitter doesn't have the resources that this place does. I am also old, or at least old enough that forums are my thing, so maybe it's a perfect storm. I have found reddit occasionally useful, but only a handful of times.
R/dnd is a very lively place with a strong millennial bent but still plenty of old schoolers and middle schools. But if you look at the fan art, you can see that the tone and genre of modern D&D is very different. Eberron was the right choice to grab those fans based on aesthetics alone.
 

Rikka66

Adventurer
In 4e they came out with FR, Eberron, and Dark Sun setting books. My guess, their marketing research says those are the 3 most popular / profitable.

Speaking of this, do we know anything about the 4e "if Essentials hadn't happened" setting future? I know a Nentir Vale book was a casualty, but I've never heard anything else. I can't imagine a Planescape book was a possiblity.
 



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