Critical Role Wildemount: Most Pre-orders Since D&D Core Rulebooks

It seems that the most popular D&D setting in the 5E era is... Wildemount! Talking about the upcoming Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, WotC's Greg Tito said on a Twitch stream recently that "we're pretty sure that this book has seen the most pre-orders and pre-release excitement since any of the core rulebooks for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition were released".

Here's the quote in full:

"...It was number 1, ranked number 1, for all books on Amazon. How many of you out there remember when Amazon was just selling books? Raise your hands. Yeah, that's me. So it's really cool, even though obviously I do a lot more other fun stuff right now, there is a ton out there that are excited for this book, and it isn't even out yet.

"We have little bit of an internal metrics, but we're pretty sure that this book has seen the most pre-orders and pre-release excitement since any of the core rulebooks for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition were released, and if you've been following along at home, Dungeons & Dragons has been selling like hotcakes since 5th Edition released in 2014."

It sounds like the Critical Role setting is proving more popular (at least right now) than traditional D&D settings like Ravenloft or Eberron, newer ones like Ravnica, or adventures set in the Forgotten Realms.

Explorer's Guide to Wildemount will hit game stores on March 17th.

 

[Von Ether]

I didn’t play 4E D&D, but I found the Gamma World editionthat used the 4E D&D rule set as its base fit Gamma World really well. The randomly changing abilities also fit nicely.

Digression: I agree that a kitchen sink Gamma World setting seemed a better fit for 4e than a kitchen sink fantasy setting. YMMV.

 

[Reynard]

No reflection on the quality of whatever work you did on it, which I'd love to hear about, BTW. (I've heard rumors about it's development.)

But, GW was way over on the Thundarr the Barbarian side of the post-apocalyptic spectrum. S&SS's version reminded me more of Survivors, with some speculative nano-tech frosting, and such very small nods to GW mainstays like mutant powers.

My favorite edition is 4th (the first d20 game from TSR IMO) and it sort of started the move the dial away from Thundarr, but you are right. The idea was to try and "ground" it some and that may not have been the best choice. But aside from the background the stuff we created was very GW.

 

[Longspeak]

For someone with zero Critical Role knowledge, how does this book “fit” with the Green Ronin Critical Role book?

Is the Green Ronin book a whole world guide a la Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting and this book will just focus on one small section a la Sword Coast Adventurers Guide?

Each book is a separate continent, the main setting for one of the "seasons" of Critical Role.

The Green Ronin book details Tal'Dorei, the main setting of the first "season" of Critical Role. Aside from a few trips to Vasselheim (City on a northern Continent), all of the adventures of Vox Machina (so far; I am not through season 1 yet), are on this continent, which is also the name of the land.

The WotC book is the setting of the season 2 campaign, "The Mighty Nein." Wildmount is the continent just to the east of Tal'Dorei, separated by a relatively narrow body of water.

 

[Jer]

There are no less than 7 editions of Gamma World out there, most of them easily and cheaply available, and all of them fun and playable. Go get one!

Seriously, just because a game or setting is not currently supported doesn't mean it is bad or not worth playing.

Like I don't own every edition of Gamma World and all of the supplements and play it quasi-regularly as a fill-in game when my usual gang of 13th Age players are down a player. To the point where I even shelled out for a print and play deck of the cards from the most recent edition off of DriveThru because the most recent edition is so much fun.

I'd just like to see the game get more exposure so other folks can know the joy we feel. I think there are a lot of folks out there who might love the setting but will never see it for lack of exposure.

 

[gyor]

I’m not surprised. I expect there’ll be a significant group for whom this is the first D&D book they buy, and many others who will own this and the PHB.

I think it’d probably beat a hypothetical Forgotten Realms Campaign guide, even though that would also attract people who aren’t regularly buying the adventures or rulebooks.

No there are a huge amount of FR fans waiting for a proper FRCG type book, there is reason FR is the King of settings since it first came out.

 

[dwayne]

pass, would have rather had an up dated older setting than a shinny new one, I have my own fantasy setting like i need another one of those. But who ever bought it most likely new gamer or those who enjoyed the show. But guess i liked it better when the game was not so main stream now it's cool to play, but the rules are way to friendly. I ran an old school game and scared the hell out of this new generation of gamer, but to each their own and as all things this too shall pass. I might pick up a PDF of the book at some point and scavenge it for stuff maybe for others games.

 

[teitan]

I'm not very familiar with Critical Role, so I don't know what the fuss is about. Is there anything unique about Wildemount compared to Forgotten Realms, Eberron, etc? Didn't the CR folks already publish a world guide for 5e under Green Ronin?

It's actually pretty unique in my opinion. While the previous setting was a little more traditional D&D, Wildemount is not so much. In Tal'dorei for example, drow are the drow you are used to, underground, spider-worshiping sociopaths. In Wildemount they rule an empire on the surface that they have a spell cast over to keep it in perpetual darkness. Monster races are not so black & white. The Queen of the Drow Empire doesn't come across as an evil character, more neutral and her aggression is spurred by the Dwendalian empire attacking her people. While not good, she is not wholly evil. The weaving of mythology into the landscape and especially the use of the Dawn War pantheon and D&D lore is well thought out and fun. Any setting that creatively uses Vecna and Tharizdun, Torog and company the way they have been implemented in this setting is a fun romp. Also dark.

If all you've listened to is the first campaign or episodes here & there then it could be forgiven that someone would think it was more traditional magi-Europe, but Wildemount, while having similarities to the Holy Roman Empire, is very much it's own thing.

 

[teitan]

To my mind, that is the fundamental problem in how WotC bungled the D&D movies. D&D (a set of rules) is not an IP in the same way that Dragon Lance (a series of stories) or even Forgotten Realms (a set of lore and histories) would be.

They should have tried converting the more popular books into films IMO, rather that cutting right back to rogues, mages and beholders like the first film did (though I think the world did plumb the depths of TSR IP IIRC). But presumably the person with the rights to produce a film didn’t have the rights to these other properties.

I'd blame the filmmakers rather than TSR or WOTC for that one. They purchased the rights to the name Dungeons & Dragons, not the Forgotten Realms or Dragonlance IP. Even then, egads the Forgotten Realms is a complicated IP because Driz'zt, for example, is huge and is the only D&D novel line still being published, showing the character's value outside of the generic Forgotten Realms.

 

[Von Ether]

but the rules are way too friendly.

No such thing.

I ran an old school game and scared the hell out of this new generation of gamer

I ran a good old DCC meat grinder funnel for a bunch of this "new generation" and they loved it. Twenty four 0-level PCs went in and only 7 came out. Only one extra PC. Which is good considering three of them died in the first five minutes of game play. Those peeps came back for more the next week and we had a little mini-campaign until RL work schedules came into play.

And some of them play with me to this day. And really at this point "old school" is beginning to encompass 3.X. Starting with B/X, it's all new school to me, but the basics never really change. Which is to say, have fun.

 

[Parmandur]

Each book is a separate continent, the main setting for one of the "seasons" of Critical Role.

The Green Ronin book details Tal'Dorei, the main setting of the first "season" of Critical Role. Aside from a few trips to Vasselheim (City on a northern Continent), all of the adventures of Vox Machina (so far; I am not through season 1 yet), are on this continent, which is also the name of the land.

The WotC book is the setting of the season 2 campaign, "The Mighty Nein." Wildmount is the continent just to the east of Tal'Dorei, separated by a relatively narrow body of water.

Vox Machina made their way to Wildemount, brieflyy, but Wildemount was always the mysterious Far Away Over the Sea in the far background. A big time jump and pushing across the Sea was the big hook for the new Campaign.