D&D: Wildemount’s Heroic Chronicle Gets Your Characters Into The Game – And The World
Do you want to roleplay your character to the fullest? Tie your background right into the world with Wildemount’s new Heroic Chronicle system.
Want to dig deep into your character and figure out who they are and what their place in the world is before your first session? The new Heroic Chronicle introduced in Critcal Role’s Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount is a toolset aimed at helping players learn about the world, laying out the setting in a way that’s player focused, and aimed at story first. This system of plots and prompts and questions is designed to help players root around in the background of their characters and figure out new hooks, things like family members, goals, wants–all before the game even begins. Here’s James Haeck, one of the writers on the Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount talking about it with D&D Beyond.
The Heroic Chronicle isn’t just about the backstory and nitty gritty details though. It’s a way to check back in with characters as the game goes along, coming up with not just in-character goals, but out of character moments you’d like to see happen to your character, giving both players and DMs tools to help hit those big character moments. Whether you’re looking at the “prophecy system” an optional ruleset that sounds like it helps lay out story beats for the characters, tied in towards some overall larger goal that both player and character find satisfying.
It all sounds a little Powered by the Apocalypse-y. Which is not a bad thing–in fact, I think that most D&D tables could benefit from the more fluid narrative agency that comes about naturally as a result of the conversation between players and GMs in that system. Where it’s not so much the players doing one thing and then waiting to find out how the DM interprets it, but that players and DM both find together what makes the story more interesting. It’s hard to explain but, if you want an example, listen to Friends at the Table, who have some of the best back and forth you can find in terms of that.
At any rate, we’ll have to wait and see what the full system is like when the Wildemount book drops in a few short weeks, so check back for more info!
Happy Adventuring!
