Critical Lore - A Review of Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount (D&D)

By Chris Renshaw

At this point in time, it’s hard to separate Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) 5th Edition from one of its biggest sources of growth: the series Critical Role. For the few that do not know what I am talking about: Critical Role is a show where various actors, most of them famous for voiceover work, stream their D&D adventures. The show has millions of fans, who are super excited about the show and the world in which it takes place in.

This is why Matthew Mercer, the Dungeon Master of Critical Role, has teamed up with Wizards of the Coast to create the Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount, an official D&D setting book describing the continent of Wildemount. Wildemount and its accompanying world, Exandria, are the setting in which the current campaign of Critical Role takes place (the first “season” took place on another continent, which was described in a book from Green Ronin.

DISCLAIMER: I have not experienced more than a few minutes of Critical Role, so I am coming at this book from a complete outside perspective. Also, this means that it’s entirely possible that I might get some details wrong, so bare with me if so.

So. Much. Lore.

To be honest, this book was a roller coaster for me. After getting through the first couple of sections, I thought this review would be me blasting the book as one of the worst I’d ever read. The reason for this is probably the same reason that most Critical Role fans would eat this book up: the lore. The first 3 chapters of the book layout the various aspects of Wildemount: all the main players, locations, and the conflicts between those players. A fan of Critical Role probably would enjoy reading more about all the different things that have been talked about throughout the series. For me, an outsider, it was just a LOT to get through.

I like really in-depth settings, don’t get me wrong. The problem is that Wildemount just doesn’t feel that unique to me. Reading through the creation stories, and how all the different factions came to be was really difficult for me to get through. So many of the other settings in D&D, like Eberron, Ravnica, and the upcoming Theros book, have aspects that make them unique and different from the other settings. The biggest aspect of Wildemount that I gathered is the fact that the land has just burst into war. All of the history and stories read like every other stereotypical fantasy setting. 

Clearly, the world is deep and full of various stories. A person who has been introduced to them over the course of years of episodes will probably have no issue reading through and learning more about the pieces they aren’t familiar with. For someone who has no experience with Wildemount, this book is not going to give you a good reason to plan your next adventure in Wildemount.

(Small correction: I did like how in the descriptions of all the various places in Wildemount, there were notes of what types of adventures you could run in each area. Also, I have some thoughts on the Kyrn Dynasty below)

What a twist 

For me, where the book truly shines is the second half of the book: all the new D&D content that players can add to their games. The book includes reprints of races that have appeared in supplements, so if you don’t have every D&D book you will appreciate that. The new spells, however, are probably my favorite bits that the book adds. Oh. My. God. Wildemount introduces “Chronurgy” and “Graviturgy” magic, or the manipulation of time and gravity, respectively. Luckily, the time magic spells aren’t completely game-breaking time-travel-y spells. Instead, they just give you bonuses on spell rolls or allowing you to avoid attacks by changing die rolls made against you. The gravity magic spells are even cooler in my opinion: allowing you to automatically move people when you attack, or make objects immovable.

I consider it a good D&D book when I read through areas and it makes me go “Ooooo I want to play one of those!”. In Eberron it was playing a Warforged creature, here it is these new Graviturgy Magic abilities. But the cool stuff doesn’t stop there: the next section, titled “Heroic Chronicle” is just as good. Honestly, this section needs to be lifted from this book and inserted into the Player’s Handbook. It allows you to create really in depth character backstories, from unique traits about your family to details about where you grew up. Also, it weaves in the existing “Background” mechanics in a great way. The section is full of charts and tables, so if you can’t think of how you want your character to be, you can let your dice decide for you.

The remaining bits

Now we are getting into the “standard” bits of every D&D supplement: starting with a chapter on various sample adventures you can run in Wildemount. Nothing groundbreaking here, but given the way the rest of the book reads, I imagine that these were designed to help get Critical Role fans who aren’t as familiar with D&D into playing the game.

Then, we get into the treasures and bestiary, so as typical I will give some of my favorites here:

ARCANE. CANNON. Two words that are great on their own but sound even more awesome when you put them together. It’s basically a cannon that shoots spells!

Duskcrusher: Basically, it's a Warhammer whose head is made of light that you can summon into existence. Instead of doing Bludgeoning damage, it does radiant damage instead. Could you imagine doing a campaign where there is a zombie blight and this is some ancient artifact you have to find to help rid the kingdom of this plague?

Luxon Beacon: Ok, I teased this earlier, but of all the lore that was presented, the ideas of the Kryn Dynasty were the one exception to my “lack of uniqueness” description. The way that this society is built upon rulers who have been reincarnated several times thanks to these Beacons is really interesting - especially how there’s a side effect of potential madness that is downplayed by the culture. Lots of potential for good adventures involving these ideas.

Vestiges of Divergence: From the amount of detail used to describe these items, I gather that this is a big deal in the world of Critical Role. For the rest of us, these are basically items that are sentient. As you become more “attuned” to them over time, they will reveal newer abilities until they get to their “Exalted” state.

Blood Hunter: Basically the D&D equivalent of a Witcher, these are NPCs who have done some dark things in order to give them the powers of monsters so that they can then turn around and kill those monsters. Probably don’t want to have one of these chasing after your group.

Frost Giant Zombie: Again, two things (Frost Giant & Zombie) that are bad enough on their own, but terrifying when you put them together.

Horizonback Tortoise: They are giant turtles that various people have built homes or siege weapons on in a symbiotic relationship. Really cool idea.

So do I buy it?

Basically, if you have any interest in Critical Role, then yes you should buy this book. I do appreciate the fact that the writers knew that many of their fans are very new to D&D and so this book is very much written in that style. There’s a lot of good information in here that new players will be able to use to make characters in the same world as their favorite Critical Role heroes.

As to the rest of us, I appreciated the extra bits that the book added in the second half enough that I think it is worth considering even if you know zero about Critical Role. For players, it might be worth looking at D&D Beyond and just buying the portions of the book that give you access to the new spells and magic abilities (one of the benefits of that service). Having access to a bunch of new monsters and items is of benefit to a lot of Dungeon Masters as well, so if that describes you, then you should take a look at this book and see if it is worth your money.

Are you a Critical Role fan? Have you bought this book? Am I totally off base? Let me know in the comments below, or on Twitter / Facebook