D&D 5E WotC Announces New Critical Role Hardcover Adventure

Call of the Netherdeep will be out in March 2022. This adventure is set in Exandria and is for character levels 3-12. Interestingly, it also bears Critical Role branding at the top and bottom of the cover.

This is the third Critical Role D&D hardcover. The Tal'Dorei Campaign Guide came out in 2017, and the Explorer's Guide to Wildemount came out in 2020.

Darrington Press, CR's publishing arm, also announced the Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn in July of this year with a release date of late 2021/early 2022.

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An epic Critical Role campaign for the world’s greatest roleplaying game.

The greed of mortals has awakened a powerful entity long thought destroyed. For eons, this mighty champion of the gods has been imprisoned in the darkest depths of Exandria. His name has been forgotten, as have his heroic deeds. Languishing in despair, he calls out for new heroes to save him.

Inspired by the campaigns of the hit series Critical Role, this adventure begins in the Wastes of Xhorhas and leads to the glimmering oasis-city of Ank’Harel on the continent of Marquet, and from there into a sunken realm of gloom, corruption, and sorrow known as the Netherdeep. Above it all, the red moon of Ruidus watches, twisting the fates of those who have the power to shape the course of history.

Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep contains seven chapters of thrilling adventure, new creatures and magic items, and a poster map of Ank’Harel.
  • First major adventure module within Critical Role’s world of Exandria, taking players from levels 3-12.
  • Multi-continental story that spans the scarred Wastes of Xhorhas, introduces the continent of Marquet, and eventually plunges players into the Netherdeep—a terrifying cross between the Far Realm and the deep ocean.
  • Bursting with lore and all new art depicting Exandria.
  • Includes new magic items and creatures and introduces new rival NPCs.
 
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jgsugden

Legend
I think this adventure gives us a glimpse into something else that might happen in Critical Role Season 3 - the book has rules for a rival party of adventures. That may be something Matt does with the Exandria Unlimited folks to keep them tied to CR while CR returns to the forefront. I can see them being a group of adventuring types that the Campaign 3 party meets who come together over time and become a rival group.
 

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jgsugden

Legend
I agree that it's a pretty standard fantasy world, but it does have quite a few more special things going for it, being:
  1. How it treats the different races. It doesn't have the problematic treatment of Drow, Orcs, Gnolls, and similar races that Greyhawk, FR, or Mystara have. It's a kitchen sink, and it's fair to the different races in it. And unlike Eberron, which just says "Hey, you can include this race if you want, but you have to figure it out", it has a clear spot in the world for nearly every D&D 5e race from both the PHB and Volo's Guide to Monsters...
I would hold your reigns a bit there. The Curse of Strife for Goblinkind is problematic, and something I am guess Matt regrets at this point. It is the quintessential 'they have no choice but to be evil because of what they are' justification. When I first saw it, I found it out of place in the CR materials, and ... very interesting as I also had a similar origin for orcs, goblins, etc... in my world (the Gods didn't give them complete free will) that I have been addressing over the past few years. I've been waiting for Matt to address it more distinctly on stream.
 

billd91

Not your screen monkey (he/him)
Meh, the creative team keeps having people breaking off and creating their own rival settings. Do we want the classic setting? Or the purple bird setting? Or the stripey tiger setting?
Well that statement reminds me of the 2e settings glut days...
 

BRayne

Adventurer
I would hold your reigns a bit there. The Curse of Strife for Goblinkind is problematic, and something I am guess Matt regrets at this point. It is the quintessential 'they have no choice but to be evil because of what they are' justification. When I first saw it, I found it out of place in the CR materials, and ... very interesting as I also had a similar origin for orcs, goblins, etc... in my world (the Gods didn't give them complete free will) that I have been addressing over the past few years. I've been waiting for Matt to address it more distinctly on stream.
I think Haeck mentioned it being addressed in Tal'Dorei Reborn at some point, I'd imagine it'll end up like how the "Curse of Ruin" is depicted in EGtW
 

Inchoroi

Adventurer
I'm simultaneously happy for Mercer, and at the same time incredibly jealous for a multitude of reasons. I don't know if I'll get the book, if I'm honest; I bought the Wildemount book on roll20 just because I ended up using magic items from it and one of my players was playing an Echo Knight, but didn't bother with the hardcover.
 

Weiley31

Legend
Well, that’s certainly not what anyone was expecting.

Critical Role isn’t something I’ve ever gotten into (how does anyone even find the TIME?) but wotc must believe it’s a huge component of the modern D&D zeitgeist if they’re committing to it so hard.

I admit I was hoping for the big FR/spelljammer/lantan adventure though. We’ll be finishing our current campaign early next year and will need a new one, and I really liked the idea of zany swashbuckling in space for a while. Exandria as a setting hasn’t really done much for me.
The big FR book has to be the revisited setting for 2024, just in time for the 50th Anniversary. I'm not expecting that anytime soon.
 




jgsugden

Legend
I think Haeck mentioned it being addressed in Tal'Dorei Reborn at some point, I'd imagine it'll end up like how the "Curse of Ruin" is depicted in EGtW
They can break the Curse of Strife 'offscreen' to end it (or have it be something that happens in Campaign 3), but it is established in the lore as existing, and as being real in explicit opposition to the Curse of Ruin. I was shocked that Matt didn't push the campaign towards haveing Veth/Knott get an opportunity to end it somehow. If there is a goblinoid PC in this next game, I will bet it will be tackled early in the campaign.
 

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