All you need to know is that the preorder comes with six COLOURED backgrounds that you can use with the character sheets on Beyond. And you can use them right away!
That said, I purchased the preorder and plan to find the answers to those questions myself. I know it's based on Critical Role, which I don't watch, but with as popular as the show is and the hype around the book...I figure I better get it sooner than later as I know players are going to want access and use to its contents.
Obviously based on Matt Mercer and the Critical Role cast's second campaign, it's a fairly traditional D&D setting on a continent with two primary civilizations - the Kryn Dynasty (primarily drow) and the Dwendalian Empire (primarily human). One nice thing about it is that Mercer has taken pains to avoid racial stereotypes in that the drow and other traditionally bad creatures are not necessarily evil. This allows for some much more nuanced adventures involving the politics between the two nations.
If this book is at all similar to the previously released Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, there is some nice historical lore, some new subclasses, monsters, and magic items and a number of good hooks for adventure starts for all character levels.
If this book is at all similar to the previously released Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, there is some nice historical lore, some new subclasses, monsters, and magic items and a number of good hooks for adventure starts for all character levels.
Congrats and thanks on your first post on the forums! The setting as you describe sounds pretty awesome. I am looking forward to uncovering this book more, but don't want to invest time in catching up with Critical Role and what it's all about. I just don't have that kind of free time. I mean...I do in the sense that I participate in these forums, and I'm involved in two campaigns currently, as well as setting up a home-brew adventure for a future run. But, not the sit around on YouTube for 4-5 hours at a time kind of time.
Anyway, the previously released Tal'Dorei book was not licensed under D&D as far as I know and the rights to it fall to the company CR was with back then. What I'm getting at is that it isn't official content. So it may be interesting to see what changes or carries over.
I'll be straight - the Forgotten Realms are a drastically overcomplicated mess to me. Hundreds of gods, hundreds of regions, millenia of lore (or decades of IRL releases comprising millenia of lore, all the same), and nowhere in any of the books are you given remotely enough information on any of it to really come to grips with the setting. If you've already done that, through being steeped in it for years or through having a DM who's created the sort of game that lets you absorb it? Then maybe Exandria will feel superfluous, or even simply off because a lot of Exandria borrows from the ideas and the foundation of the Realms.
If you're one of those people for whom 'the Forgotten Realms' means "basic fantasyland with some whatever going on in the back, let's make it up as you go", because FR and Faerun isn't really a setting for you? Then the Wildemount book is your best friend because everything you need to know is in that book. Like (the 5e version of) Eberron, Wildemount is its own individual setting, with everything both the player and the DM needs to know contained within the book. No being forced to track down forty years of scattered esoteric lore just to try and cobble together one coherent, cohesive game world. No having to say "to hell with it, we're throwing half of Faerun out!" because the setting is so hugely bloated that it conflicts with itself and needs trimming to work.
The Wildemount book is everything you need to play in a rich, dynamic High Fantasy D&D setting where nothing is black and white, good and evil are subjective and player-driven, and the world makes sense. The fact that I've watched a thousand hours of Critical ROle and know the world much better than I do Faerun is honestly almost irrelevant - I don't know anything more about Eberron than is written in the Eberron book, but because the Eberron book assumes that's true, it gives me everything I need to run a game there. And between it and Wildemount, now I never have to run a game in the Forgotten Realms again.
Yurei, Thank you for the well formed answer. I preordered the book based on hype and having discussions with my friends on what they'd like to see and do next. They are stoked for it, so figured why not? I know nothing about Critical Role other than what it is and who Matt Mercer is. I don't follow any of the campaigns or shows. So, I feel like I need a history lesson and I'm already stressing over having to learn yet another world when FR feels so.....impossible to completely cover. Thank you for touching that subject. This gives me greater ease at getting this book and I hope I can get some study in to give this world some justice once we start in on it.
So, there is very little setting content and drow can be good. That's the selling point? Is that all?
That's worth about $1.25 to me.
Yurei and Crisp gave a rather good insight on what type of setting to expect based on their knowledge and experience with Critical Role and the previous book (that wasn't DND official). There is another article on the homepage of Beyond on "the Not so Dangerous Cults of Wildemount". Maybe read that? It will give some clues as to the setting as well. On a whole, this book is meant to give you a source into running a campaign in a new world. I guess I'm wondering if you realized it was a Sourcebook rather than an Adventure?
Different strokes for different folks, but their input got me PUMPED for this book. Plus, all my friends and the groups I play with are anxious for it - moreso than any previous release I've seen. So...for me, this was more of a situation where I feel easily convinced it's worthwhile. Maybe not for everyone, and that's okay. Is it for me? I don't really know and won't until I actually start putting it to use. Regardless, I'm excited and that's enough for me.
Exandria is not a drastic departure from Faerun in terms of genre. It's not like Eberron or Spelljammer or the like, where the fundamental assumptions are all thrown out and they rebuild something wildly different from the pieces. This book is less about subverting genre expectations and more about providing an alternative geopolitical/regional setting for those who want one.
If you're comfortable running games in Faerun, you're not concerned with "setting" as a regional/geopolitical groundwork, and/or you have no interest in Critical Role, the book will likely feel weak to you. There's no "It's D&D except ***" tagline for Wildemount, no neat, simple buzzword someone can invoke to charge you up for the book. The best I can say is that Exandria is a more focused, more cohesive, and easier to comprehend High Fantasy realm than the Forgotten Realms are, and Wildemount in particular is an excellent place for exploring games and themes that don't fit well in the Forgotten Realms due to its spectrum-of-grey morality and the tensions of its various groups.
Strife and tension in Wildemount are driven by people, not by ancient death cults, slumbering Old Ones, lost artifacts of soul-wrenching, evil, or any of the other crazy shit that happens elsewhere. Even though all of those things are present, the world is built in such a way that they're held in delicate equilibrium until people **** it up. It's a more grounded world, and that helps it to shine more as a place where stories happen.
At least, in my eyes. You asked me to sell you on it, but frankly what you do with your money is on you. Wildemount is not a genre shift, it's a tonal shift, as well as an opportunity for people who're sick of not knowing what the hell is going on in the Forgotten Realms to wash their hands of the entire dumb thing and start with a fresh, clean world they can sink their teeth into and understand. If that doesn't appeal? Don't get the book. Doesn't bother me none, won't bother Mercer none. Not everything can be for everybody.
Mercer is on record in his interview with Todd Kenreck that he and Wizards both designed this book specifically with the goal of making it just as accessible for someone who's never seen a single episode of the show as it is for a dyed-in-the-wool Critter. It's a three hundred page supertome specifically because they filled it with all the ancillary information anyone could ever need. Between the four different, complete level 1-3 Starter Adventures presented in the book and its Hero Chronicle system designed to guide players in making characters with ties to the world (which can also be used by DMs to tie their NPCs to the world, or for them to understand what the world is by seeing how characters can tie into it), the book should be very straightforward for people with little familiarity with Critical Role to pick up.
Heh, obviously it's easier if you've absorbed Critterdom for a while to boot, but even then - catching up on three years of Campaign 2 is so much easier than catching up on forty years of whatever the figgety-**** is going on with the Forgotten Realms.
I just finished watching that interview! It is honestly a relief to know that I shouldn't have to have foreknowledge prior to cracking this book open. Most of my campaigns honestly to regard the Forgotten Realms as a more or less setting with the lore and backstories of different places largely ignored for sake of consistency. There is simply too much to cover and keep up with. I've not been into D&D for decades as some have been and it feels like I'm always playing catch up when new concepts come around. So, this book gets more exciting the more I look into it as it's hopeful everyone starting in on this can begin with equal footing more or less. Critters will definitely have advantage here, but it's also not appearing to be a huge loss that couldn't be discovered with this book alone. So, yeah, I'm pumped. I'm sold and I'm grateful you responded to this thread.
That said, you've shared a lot of information about the contents within the book I haven't seen anywhere else. It definitely makes me feel as though I know more about what I'm getting and it's greatly appreciated. All the more reason to be excited!
So, there is very little setting content and drow can be good. That's the selling point? Is that all?
That's worth about $1.25 to me.
By the sounds of comments here, there is going to be more setting information than you can shake a staff at. But there are several short videos talking about different aspects of this book on DDB's YouTube channel if you want more specifics.
I'm just saying that if the selling point is "not as detailed as the Forgotten Realms," then there are a lot of options; Mystarra, Cerillia, Taladas, etc. That's what they used to call in business development "red water." That means that it is a highly competitive market with competitors fighting over limited resources like sharks fighting over chum. I was just hoping that there was something about Wildermount that was distinctive - something that wouldn't require digging through hours of YouTube videos on a potential snipe hunt to find.
Create your own Critical Role campaigns with this sourcebook for the world's greatest roleplaying game!
Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount provides everything you need to play Dungeons & Dragons on the continent of Wildemount (set within the world of Exandria)—a land of war, betrayal, and swashbuckling adventure.
Comprised of four regions, Wildemount provides endless potential for adventure in a land of brewing conflict and incredible magic. Rising tensions boil over into all-out war between the politically dubious Dwendalian Empire and the light-worshiping wastefolk of Xhorhas, supplying a vibrant backdrop for any D&D campaign to explore.
Uncover a trove of new options usable in any D&D game, featuring subclasses, spells, magic items, monsters, and more, rooted in the adventures of Critical Role—such as Vestiges of Divergence and the possibility manipulating magic of dunamancy.
Start a 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.
This book’s contents include the following:
An expansive Wildemount gazetteer.
Descriptions of the major factions of Wildemount.
Player options that include new subclasses, new spells, and a tool to help players deeply integrate their characters into the setting.
New magic items, including weapons that become more powerful to match their wielders.
New creatures native to Wildemount.
Four introductory adventures—one for each unique region of Wildemount.
Largely written and helmed by Matthew Mercer, the Dungeon Master of Critical Role and creator of the world of Exandria, this 304-page book features work by talented designers, writers, and artists from the D&D and Critical Role communities.
Explorer's Guide to Wildemount is an expansive, vivid campaign setting anyone can enjoy regardless of their familiarity with Critical Role, and an open invitation to make the mysteries and dangers of Wildemount your own.
All the official information we have on what is in book is in that video and the half dozen others released the same day by DndBeyond. Anything else is just speculation till we actually have access to the book ourselves.
Yes, I know about gravity and time magic and dunomancy and echoes, but what is the setting like?
Is it post-apocalyptic? Is it steampunk? Is it one giant city run by guilds? I mean, what is the setting like?
All you need to know is that the preorder comes with six COLOURED backgrounds that you can use with the character sheets on Beyond. And you can use them right away!
That said, I purchased the preorder and plan to find the answers to those questions myself. I know it's based on Critical Role, which I don't watch, but with as popular as the show is and the hype around the book...I figure I better get it sooner than later as I know players are going to want access and use to its contents.
Obviously based on Matt Mercer and the Critical Role cast's second campaign, it's a fairly traditional D&D setting on a continent with two primary civilizations - the Kryn Dynasty (primarily drow) and the Dwendalian Empire (primarily human). One nice thing about it is that Mercer has taken pains to avoid racial stereotypes in that the drow and other traditionally bad creatures are not necessarily evil. This allows for some much more nuanced adventures involving the politics between the two nations.
If this book is at all similar to the previously released Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, there is some nice historical lore, some new subclasses, monsters, and magic items and a number of good hooks for adventure starts for all character levels.
Congrats and thanks on your first post on the forums! The setting as you describe sounds pretty awesome. I am looking forward to uncovering this book more, but don't want to invest time in catching up with Critical Role and what it's all about. I just don't have that kind of free time. I mean...I do in the sense that I participate in these forums, and I'm involved in two campaigns currently, as well as setting up a home-brew adventure for a future run. But, not the sit around on YouTube for 4-5 hours at a time kind of time.
Anyway, the previously released Tal'Dorei book was not licensed under D&D as far as I know and the rights to it fall to the company CR was with back then. What I'm getting at is that it isn't official content. So it may be interesting to see what changes or carries over.
Exandria feels like D&D without the baggage.
I'll be straight - the Forgotten Realms are a drastically overcomplicated mess to me. Hundreds of gods, hundreds of regions, millenia of lore (or decades of IRL releases comprising millenia of lore, all the same), and nowhere in any of the books are you given remotely enough information on any of it to really come to grips with the setting. If you've already done that, through being steeped in it for years or through having a DM who's created the sort of game that lets you absorb it? Then maybe Exandria will feel superfluous, or even simply off because a lot of Exandria borrows from the ideas and the foundation of the Realms.
If you're one of those people for whom 'the Forgotten Realms' means "basic fantasyland with some whatever going on in the back, let's make it up as you go", because FR and Faerun isn't really a setting for you? Then the Wildemount book is your best friend because everything you need to know is in that book. Like (the 5e version of) Eberron, Wildemount is its own individual setting, with everything both the player and the DM needs to know contained within the book. No being forced to track down forty years of scattered esoteric lore just to try and cobble together one coherent, cohesive game world. No having to say "to hell with it, we're throwing half of Faerun out!" because the setting is so hugely bloated that it conflicts with itself and needs trimming to work.
The Wildemount book is everything you need to play in a rich, dynamic High Fantasy D&D setting where nothing is black and white, good and evil are subjective and player-driven, and the world makes sense. The fact that I've watched a thousand hours of Critical ROle and know the world much better than I do Faerun is honestly almost irrelevant - I don't know anything more about Eberron than is written in the Eberron book, but because the Eberron book assumes that's true, it gives me everything I need to run a game there. And between it and Wildemount, now I never have to run a game in the Forgotten Realms again.
Yay.
Please do not contact or message me.
Yurei, Thank you for the well formed answer. I preordered the book based on hype and having discussions with my friends on what they'd like to see and do next. They are stoked for it, so figured why not? I know nothing about Critical Role other than what it is and who Matt Mercer is. I don't follow any of the campaigns or shows. So, I feel like I need a history lesson and I'm already stressing over having to learn yet another world when FR feels so.....impossible to completely cover. Thank you for touching that subject. This gives me greater ease at getting this book and I hope I can get some study in to give this world some justice once we start in on it.
So, there is very little setting content and drow can be good. That's the selling point? Is that all?
That's worth about $1.25 to me.
Yurei and Crisp gave a rather good insight on what type of setting to expect based on their knowledge and experience with Critical Role and the previous book (that wasn't DND official). There is another article on the homepage of Beyond on "the Not so Dangerous Cults of Wildemount". Maybe read that? It will give some clues as to the setting as well. On a whole, this book is meant to give you a source into running a campaign in a new world. I guess I'm wondering if you realized it was a Sourcebook rather than an Adventure?
Different strokes for different folks, but their input got me PUMPED for this book. Plus, all my friends and the groups I play with are anxious for it - moreso than any previous release I've seen. So...for me, this was more of a situation where I feel easily convinced it's worthwhile. Maybe not for everyone, and that's okay. Is it for me? I don't really know and won't until I actually start putting it to use. Regardless, I'm excited and that's enough for me.
Exandria is not a drastic departure from Faerun in terms of genre. It's not like Eberron or Spelljammer or the like, where the fundamental assumptions are all thrown out and they rebuild something wildly different from the pieces. This book is less about subverting genre expectations and more about providing an alternative geopolitical/regional setting for those who want one.
If you're comfortable running games in Faerun, you're not concerned with "setting" as a regional/geopolitical groundwork, and/or you have no interest in Critical Role, the book will likely feel weak to you. There's no "It's D&D except ***" tagline for Wildemount, no neat, simple buzzword someone can invoke to charge you up for the book. The best I can say is that Exandria is a more focused, more cohesive, and easier to comprehend High Fantasy realm than the Forgotten Realms are, and Wildemount in particular is an excellent place for exploring games and themes that don't fit well in the Forgotten Realms due to its spectrum-of-grey morality and the tensions of its various groups.
Strife and tension in Wildemount are driven by people, not by ancient death cults, slumbering Old Ones, lost artifacts of soul-wrenching, evil, or any of the other crazy shit that happens elsewhere. Even though all of those things are present, the world is built in such a way that they're held in delicate equilibrium until people **** it up. It's a more grounded world, and that helps it to shine more as a place where stories happen.
At least, in my eyes. You asked me to sell you on it, but frankly what you do with your money is on you. Wildemount is not a genre shift, it's a tonal shift, as well as an opportunity for people who're sick of not knowing what the hell is going on in the Forgotten Realms to wash their hands of the entire dumb thing and start with a fresh, clean world they can sink their teeth into and understand. If that doesn't appeal? Don't get the book. Doesn't bother me none, won't bother Mercer none. Not everything can be for everybody.
Please do not contact or message me.
Also, @ManOfValor
Mercer is on record in his interview with Todd Kenreck that he and Wizards both designed this book specifically with the goal of making it just as accessible for someone who's never seen a single episode of the show as it is for a dyed-in-the-wool Critter. It's a three hundred page supertome specifically because they filled it with all the ancillary information anyone could ever need. Between the four different, complete level 1-3 Starter Adventures presented in the book and its Hero Chronicle system designed to guide players in making characters with ties to the world (which can also be used by DMs to tie their NPCs to the world, or for them to understand what the world is by seeing how characters can tie into it), the book should be very straightforward for people with little familiarity with Critical Role to pick up.
Heh, obviously it's easier if you've absorbed Critterdom for a while to boot, but even then - catching up on three years of Campaign 2 is so much easier than catching up on forty years of whatever the figgety-**** is going on with the Forgotten Realms.
Please do not contact or message me.
I just finished watching that interview! It is honestly a relief to know that I shouldn't have to have foreknowledge prior to cracking this book open. Most of my campaigns honestly to regard the Forgotten Realms as a more or less setting with the lore and backstories of different places largely ignored for sake of consistency. There is simply too much to cover and keep up with. I've not been into D&D for decades as some have been and it feels like I'm always playing catch up when new concepts come around. So, this book gets more exciting the more I look into it as it's hopeful everyone starting in on this can begin with equal footing more or less. Critters will definitely have advantage here, but it's also not appearing to be a huge loss that couldn't be discovered with this book alone. So, yeah, I'm pumped. I'm sold and I'm grateful you responded to this thread.
That said, you've shared a lot of information about the contents within the book I haven't seen anywhere else. It definitely makes me feel as though I know more about what I'm getting and it's greatly appreciated. All the more reason to be excited!
By the sounds of comments here, there is going to be more setting information than you can shake a staff at. But there are several short videos talking about different aspects of this book on DDB's YouTube channel if you want more specifics.
I'm just saying that if the selling point is "not as detailed as the Forgotten Realms," then there are a lot of options; Mystarra, Cerillia, Taladas, etc. That's what they used to call in business development "red water." That means that it is a highly competitive market with competitors fighting over limited resources like sharks fighting over chum. I was just hoping that there was something about Wildermount that was distinctive - something that wouldn't require digging through hours of YouTube videos on a potential snipe hunt to find.
Instead of spending hours searching Youtube on a snipe hunt, try clicking the video on the front page of this website.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
From the WotC product page
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
Honestly, if you're not a Critical Role fan it seems to be a nice, approachable setting, but is still a very traditional D&D homebrew world.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
I did that. There's little actual information in that video about the setting.
All the official information we have on what is in book is in that video and the half dozen others released the same day by DndBeyond. Anything else is just speculation till we actually have access to the book ourselves.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
Fluffer nutter...
Matt Mercer is the greatest human ever to walk the planet and we should support everything he does for D&D.
Bidet