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.

 

[akr71]

You can already use Critical Role characters in Pillars of Eternity II - they are even voiced by the actors themselves

Ya, I know. I hated the story to the first one, so I'm not getting burned a second time. Great game play, horrible story line. That's just my opinion though.

 

[Mournblade94]

I think the sales of this book also highlight just how much a factor the world of streaming has affected D&D's success and made the game as huge as it currently is. I know many players like to poo-poo the idea of watching people play D&D... but the sales of this book are an incredibly strong indicator of just how many people have had Critical Role be their introduction or their primary go-to into the world of Dungeons & Dragons.

5E did a very good job of being an edition that re-introduced older players to either switch in, or come back to the game. But it was Critical Role and other streamers that helped bring in the huge swathe of younger players to the game for the first time-- the generation for whom game streaming of all types has become their primary entertainment. And while this book might not be what many of the older generation wants (those who want to recapture the nostalgia of game worlds past)... the younger generation sees their game world available to be played in alongside all the characters they love.

I much rather prefer they release new campaign settings for the newer players rather than tamper with the settings to 'make them welcoming' like they did to Forgotten Realms.

 

[dave2008]

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

Yep, that is one of the things I love abut 5e, it is so easy to mod into that old school deadly feel.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Ya, I know. I hated the story to the first one, so I'm not getting burned a second time. Great game play, horrible story line. That's just my opinion though.

The second one is much the same: lots of great sandboxy sidequests, but the main quest story isn't only bad, it makes no sense whatsoever.

 

[gyor]

I'm not surprised by this news, but it makes me a bit sad and comes with a sense of foreboding.

I've read Matt Mercer's statement about this product not getting in the way of other publications/settings. I get that.

But if these sales #'s hold up, then they are going to likely put OTHER Exandria publications in place of older or more traditional setting publications because they are what is selling well.

Since I have very little tie to the CR worlds (I've watched a handful of episodes, but none of Campaign 2 so far), I care nothing for this product or other CR products.

I'm glad for the CR folks and for D&D that they're having something sell this well, but I'm bummed for what that probably means for the prospects of other settings I love.

Matt Mercier made it clear that it means absolutely nothing for other settings, it didn't impact other settings at all (although it's extreme success and the success of other Campaign Setting Guides so far means more setting guides are very likely, especially traditional settings).

 

[JeffB]

It seems tht Chris Perkins has said the opposite in his interviews on D&D Beyond- this certainly did take up WOTC resources (and he talks about the development, and editing, and art, etc). According to him, they had a gap in their schedule and decided to fill that gap with the Wildemount book. So definitely not Mercer's fault- but WOTC certainly could have filled the schedule with a different product- They chose to reach out to Mercer for a CR book.

 

[cmad1977]

It seems tht Chris Perkins has said the opposite in his interviews on D&D Beyond- this certainly did take up WOTC resources (and he talks about the development, and editing, and art, etc). According to him, they had a gap in their schedule and decided to fill that gap with the Wildemount book. So definitely not Mercer's fault- but WOTC certainly could have filled the schedule with a different product- They chose to reach out to Mercer for a CR book.

It would have been an awful business decision but they COULD have filled the schedule with a different, less profitable, product.

 

[JeffB]

It would have been an awful business decision but they COULD have filled the schedule with a different, less profitable, product.

I agree completely. Just adding some info to the conversation per Perkins.

 

[Dave2]

Wildemount is 304 pages. It was indicated in the product announcement. I also just picked up Tal’Dorei from Amazon which has it for great price 21 and get 3 for price of 2. Was hard to pass up. Speaking of Amazon; I think if the animated show his hit they could lock in a contract for the Critical Role staff. What was the season cost estimates Lord Rings something like 1 Billion. I think saying here is 150 million for 5 to 6 seasons Crtical Role signs the contract tomorrow. I think if any company could buy D&D like an after thought it would be Amazon who intern for good measure could by the distabuion chains of Allaunce/Diamond for good measure.

 

[gyor]

It seems tht Chris Perkins has said the opposite in his interviews on D&D Beyond- this certainly did take up WOTC resources (and he talks about the development, and editing, and art, etc). According to him, they had a gap in their schedule and decided to fill that gap with the Wildemount book. So definitely not Mercer's fault- but WOTC certainly could have filled the schedule with a different product- They chose to reach out to Mercer for a CR book.

Maybe what they told Mercier is different from what really went down, its not like WotC has lied to people before.

 

[darjr]

Maybe what they told Mercier is different from what really went down, its not like WotC has lied to people before.

Calling WotC liars. Real class there

 

[Salthorae]

Matt Mercier made it clear that it means absolutely nothing for other settings,

As I said... I understand that concept for THIS book. But its success is going to mean more CR products from WotC, and likely those will come at the slot/spot/expense of time & resources of other potential settings in the future.

 

[FlyingChihuahua]

As I said... I understand that concept for THIS book. But its success is going to mean more CR products from WotC, and likely those will come at the slot/spot/expense of time & resources of other potential settings in the future.

And that would be a bad thing because...?

 

[werecorpse]

CR is quite a phenomenon.
I know plenty of people buy Rpg material to read rather than play but is anyone aware of any information on what proportion of fans of watching critical role actually play tabletop RPGs?

 

[Urriak Uruk]

It seems tht Chris Perkins has said the opposite in his interviews on D&D Beyond- this certainly did take up WOTC resources (and he talks about the development, and editing, and art, etc). According to him, they had a gap in their schedule and decided to fill that gap with the Wildemount book. So definitely not Mercer's fault- but WOTC certainly could have filled the schedule with a different product- They chose to reach out to Mercer for a CR book.

It took up resources, but not as much as a normal book, as Mercer had to do most of the work himself... it looks like Perkins was occupied by this somewhat, and some editors/designers, but not any rules development except as filtering at the tail-end of the development.

 

[Salthorae]

And that would be a bad thing because...?

For me? Because I don't care about CR or their setting information. I'd rather have ones that I do care about.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

Oh, so we are going to start with the "Wildemount stole a spot that could've been Dark Sun/Planescape/Greyhawk/Birthright" conspiracy theories again?

Guys WoTC/Hasbro is big enough to release books every month if they wanted to. IF THEY WANTED TO is the key word. The reasons we haven't got a Greyhawk book or the others yet is not because they don't have the "time". It is because they haven't yet discovered an angle that makes it a worthwhile release. With the core books and DMSGuild you can play pretty much any previously released campaign setting. Most of them don't need new campaign settings, and since WoTC has given up on metaplot and advancing timelines, just what new info would most of them have?

 

[OblivionDrive]

As I said... I understand that concept for THIS book. But its success is going to mean more CR products from WotC, and likely those will come at the slot/spot/expense of time & resources of other potential settings in the future.

If it makes you feel any better, it's highly unlikely you'd see another CR book for at least a few years.

They're still playing campaign 2 and even if they finished up and campaign 3 started later this year, they're not going to release a new campaign guide as soon as it starts up. It took two years+ between the start of C2 and the release of this guide.

 

[Salthorae]

Oh, so we are going to start with the "Wildemount stole a spot that could've been Dark Sun/Planescape/Greyhawk/Birthright" conspiracy theories again?

No. Read my posts more carefully. I am aware Wildemount didn't do that.

With the core books and DMSGuild you can play pretty much any previously released campaign setting

Only officially released Settings have material for 5e on DMs Guild. So Ravenloft, Eberron, Forgotten Realms.

If it makes you feel any better, it's highly unlikely you'd see another CR book for at least a few years.

Maybe? Why do book/material releases need to be tied to where CR is adventuring?

 

[OblivionDrive]

Maybe? Why do book/material releases need to be tied to where CR is adventuring?

I mean, I guess it's possible they could do just standalone adventure paths set in the world but... there isn't really much precedent for that yet save for FR because that's been the "default" setting so far?

But so far their books have kinda followed the "part setting guide, part adventure" format and until they show a plan make a major departure from that, I don't think you have much to worry about.

What books do you think they'd choose to release tied to the setting if not campaign guides?