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)​

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Weird thought: the time from the release of Loat Mines to this will be over 9 years (2014-2023). The time from the release of T1 Village of Hommlett (1979) to the release of T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil (1985) was just 6 years.

Hopefully we don't get scaaary elemental hedgehogs this time around. (Honestly, some of the dopiest monsters ever.)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

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.

Yeah, it seems pretty unambiguous to me that Venger is going to be a Red Wizard. I'm hoping they explain his weird hat, which seems like it would be giving him a neck cramp.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Honoring the roots of Planescape and then expanding has me wondering what kind of expansion and where the naughty word are they going to get room to expand Planescape in a 96 page Gazeteer while respecting its root?

Throughing some guesses out there but the most obvious one is mixing in Eberron Cosmology and Radiant Citadel & its settings into the mix.

Other than noting that the Radiant Citadel is out there in the Deep Ethereal, I don't think so. The rest of its settings appear to be locations on the prime material plane. (Or whatever we're calling it now.)

Possibly also discussing Astral Dominions of the Gods in the Astral Sea? Placing D&D Theros, Ravnica, and Arcivous into the 5e/RD&D Great Wheel? Domains of Delight mention? Discussing the World Axis survivirs like the Feywild, Shadowfell, and Elemental Chaos? Adding more none Western cultural influences?

I think the Spelljammer tweaks to the Astral are going to be part of Planescape, which I'm sure will cause zero drama.

 

[R_J_K75]

You won't, because it's out of print.

Out of print doesn't mean its unavailable. I just checked Amazon, and Ebay and its on both sites for sale. Sure I could find it on even more sites if cared to check, which I don't.

 

[jerryrice4949]

We did just hear about how Hasbro yelled at WotC for leaving money on the table and saw them freaking out about perceived competition from much smaller players in the market.

If it wasn't the primary motivation, it was certainly something they were happy to tell those folks to get them to stop throwing coffee cups around the conference room.

This is beyond a stretch. All the 3PP Deck of Many Things together over the last decade probably didn’t even generate 20-30k in profit.

 

[Parmandur]

Out of print doesn't mean its unavailable. I just checked Amazon, and Ebay and its on both sites for sale. Sure I could find it on even more sites if cared to check, which I don't.

Or free for everyone on Beyond.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

This is beyond a stretch. All the 3PP Deck of Many Things together over the last decade probably didn’t even generate 20-30k in profit.

It's probably just a nice bonus for the relevant folks inside Hasbro/WotC, but they quite recently appeared to have lost their minds over third party publishers making a similarly small amount of money.

 

[Burnside]

Didn't even occur to me that people would be upset that a beloved, decade-old, out-of-print adventure would get a reprint included in a hardcover campaign book with otherwise new material.

I own the original starter set with LMoP, and own it on DNDBeyond, AND own it on Roll20, and I'd honestly be disappointed if it WASN'T included in this book.

 

[Parmandur]

Didn't even occur to me that people would be upset that a beloved, decade-old, out-of-print adventure would get a reprint included in a hardcover campaign book with otherwise new material.

I own the original starter set with LMoP, and own it on DNDBeyond, AND own it on Roll20, and I'd honestly be disappointed if it WASN'T included in this book.

Yeah, it preserves an excellent experience for newer players, and makes it easy to run together even for people who've need through it before.

 

[DataDwarf]

I am disappointed about the Phandelver book including a reprint of the lost mines. It will likely make up a third to half of the book. It's great for new players that don't already own it, but for anyone else that already does, it is paying for the same content twice. For me, that is a deal breaker.