D&D 5E Upcoming D&D Tidbits: Phandelver, Book of Many Things, Venger, & More!

D&D Beyond has shared some more tidbits of information about upcoming products, including this summer's new Phandelver campaign, and information about Vecna, Planescape, and spring's Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants, and more.

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Here are the highlights:

• In the 2024 Vecna adventure, you will visit various worlds.
• Art by Brian Valezer and Kent Davis from fall 2023's Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants was shared (see below), along with art from the Phandelver campaign by José Manzanedo. There was additional art from Planescape and more which you can see in the video.
• The new Phandelver book will include the existing adventure Lost Mines of Phandelver in the first half and then continue on to higher levels from there.
• They're reimagining Planescape for today's audience--honouring the roots then expanding.
• More cards are being added to the Deck of Many Things in winter 2023's Book of Many Things. A new product type--a deck of cards and an accompanying book. The book digs into the history of the deck and its cosmic place as a force of chaos. It contains player and DM content.
• Venger, the villain from the 1980s D&D cartoon who will be featuring in an upcoming storyline and WotC's Chris Perkins might have hinted he is actually a Red Wizard--'a redder Red Wizard' was the phrase used.
• Many of the various bad guys in the League of Malevolence appeared in the D&D cartoon series -- Kelek, Warduke, etc.

Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants (art by Brian Valezer)

Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants (art by Kent Davis)

Phandelver Campaign (art by José Manzanedo)

Book of Many Things (art by Craig J. Spearing)​

 

[R_J_K75]

Worth noting that the new Starter Set is being positioned as forwards compatible, and WotC it will remain the Starter Set on shelves after the new Core books hit.

Ive never found the starter sets of much use, so perhaps staggering them until the actual game is out will work better

 

[R_J_K75]

No, the new Starter Set came out last year, but will remain in print for the foreseeable future past the introduction of the new Core books, per Crawford.

Seems posts are coming through randomly, but got ya

 

[sevenbastard]

Worth noting that the new Starter Set is being positioned as forwards compatible, and WotC it will remain the Starter Set on shelves after the new Core books hit.

I thought the adventure in the new one was about a 5 compared to Lost Mines being an 8.

Hopefully they reconsider once the eddtion comes out. Lost Mines was this generations Caves of Chaos.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Huh, remembered it being 32pages, but it's been a while.

Of course, a significant chunk of that page count us for Magic Items from the DMG and Monsters from the MM, which they won't reprint in this hardcover, so more like 45-48 pages of this full text: probably around a quarter or less.

Hmm. Unless they add some really space-consuming general campaign stuff, that's a good sign that it could get well into T3 play then for this one, instead of petering out around level 10 - 11. Dragonlance, for example, takes 53 pages from the start of actual adventure part of the book to get to level 5, and 67 to reach level 6. And with Vecna lurking in the background, I could definitely see it happening...

 

[mamba]

Sure, bit the main point there is the expansion, and giving people who have heard stories, like from the Advebture Zone, to get the full experience.

I have no problem with the expansion / adventure, I just would have preferred it to not start with the Lost Mines. That would have given me even more new / expanded material, and I can mix in LM if I want to

 

[MonsterEnvy]

A few years ago Lost Mines was on Amazon for $6.99 in a post Christmas sale. I bought 4 extra copies just to stock up.



Yeah, unfortunately it's not, but Perkins isn't the most reliable guy. He told us Dragon Heist was a heist and the Icewind Dale adventure was like The Thing.

It’s probably a hit, merch sales may be quite high.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

redder then venger



Its actually "Whose Redder then Venger?" and the context is they were doing an adventure with the Red Wizards of Thay, looked over saw Venger and realized shares a world view and a sense of fashion with them, and so what was I think a Red Wizard of Thay/Vecna multiversal adventure for D&D's 50th, became a RWT/Vecna/D&D Cartoon/DADHAT/League of Malvelence multiverse story.

This naughty word is going to get weird next year, but at least it should be alot less destructive then March of the Machine was for MtG.

Red Wizards and Cartoon stuff are explicitly a different thing than the Vecna adventure.

 

[mamba]

It’s probably a hit, merch sales may be quite high.

I wouldn't give too much credence to Perkins here

 

[Eyes of Nine]

OG Phandelver great module. Have run for 3 different groups, one of whom wanted to continue after.

Once my party hit L5, they wanted to continue. So I did this: (Phandelver spoilers)

Spoiler

They decided to long rest instead of pushing on to capture the Black Spider, so I've made him a bigger threat, and also escaped the Lost Mine. He's also now an acolyte of Lolth. Who also took Nundro the dwarf and has demanded the Demonomicon of Iggwlz to get him back.

The characters will need to get to The Lost Caverns of Tharizdun (1d module) to find the Demonomicon. However, when they were in Neverwinter trying to figure out what to do, the halfling was cursed by the "Argent Key" a powerful artifact, but one which also happens to allow a high level priestess of Lolth to listen in and also to temporarily direct the cursed one in whatever way she wants. To remove the curse, they need to go to a specific temple of Chauntea and bathe the halfling in the Chauntean holy water. I'm using the Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan for my temple. I gave them the option of going to Goldenfields instead; but if they went to Goldenfields, they wouldn't get to the Spine of the World and Tharizdun in time...

All of which could have been avoided if they just had more adventure after Phandelver!!! [/spoiler]

 

[Parmandur]

I thought the adventure in the new one was about a 5 compared to Lost Mines being an 8.

Hopefully they reconsider once the eddtion comes out. Lost Mines was this generations Caves of Chaos.

That's why they are putting it in a big book. I haven't heard that the new module is much to write home about, but it's the rules presentation that was behind the changeover.