Planescape 5 New D&D Books Coming in 2023 -- Including Planescape!

At today's Wizards Presents event, hosts Jimmy Wong, Ginny Di, and Sydnee Goodman announced the 2023 line-up of D&D books, which featured something old, something new, and an expansion of a fan favorite.

The first of the five books, Keys from the Golden Vault, will arrive in winter 2023. At Tuesday's press preview, Chris Perkins, Game Design Architect for D&D, described it as “Ocean’s Eleven meets D&D” and an anthology of short adventures revolving around heists, which can be dropped into existing campaigns.

In Spring 2023, giants get a sourcebook just like their traditional rivals, the dragons, did in Fizban's Treasury of Dragons. Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants will be a deep dive into hill, frost, fire, cloud, and storm giants, plus much more.

Summer 2023 will have two releases. The Book of Many Things is a collection of creatures, locations, and other player-facing goodies related to that most famous D&D magic item, the Deck of Many Things. Then “Phandelver Campaign” will expand the popular Lost Mine of Phandelver from the D&D Starter Set into a full campaign tinged with cosmic horror.

And then last, but certainly not least, in Fall 2023, WotC revives another classic D&D setting – Planescape. Just like Spelljammer: Adventures in Space, Planescape will be presented as a three-book set containing a setting guide, bestiary, and adventure campaign in a slipcase. Despite the Spelljammer comparison they did not confirm whether it would also contain a DM screen.

More information on these five titles will be released when we get closer to them in date.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

I have to imagine the Lady of Pain is a lock in for at least one, but - bets on the others? It’d be funny to see the Nameless One get one with no further explanation.

Wouldn't surprise me if Shemeshka gets one...

 

[Weiley31]

I have to imagine the Lady of Pain is a lock in for at least one, but - bets on the others? It’d be funny to see the Nameless One get one with no further explanation.

Well, he WAS a Subclass in the one of the previous released UAs. So that maybe the closest we get, but it would be neat if we got a spiritual successor/updated version of the Planescape: Torment's ad with the Nameless One's face.

 

[Parmandur]

I have to imagine the Lady of Pain is a lock in for at least one, but - bets on the others? It’d be funny to see the Nameless One get one with no further explanation.

Setting Guide: Lady if Pain
Monster book: Shemeska (calling back to Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes)
Adventure: Modron

 

[Henadic Theologian]

If Planescape is like Spelljammer you'll have a book with races, feats, spells, a tiny bit if very basic setting lore, a small gazeteer on Sigil Rock of Bral got, but instead of Spelljammers, faction write ups.

The beastiary will be the best part.

Small adventure, very rail roady.

Barely any exploration of you know, Planes.

BUT the art of physical, material quality will be absolutely top tier, 10/10 stuff, it'll just be bitterly disappointing if you wanted an actual setting beyond Sigil.

 

[Pauper]

So I was excited to hear Planescape makes a return, having never played the original, but totally loved the computer game form childhood.

I honestly wonder how much of the love for Planescape as a setting is based, not on direct experience with Zeb Cook's original setting, but folks who played the CRPG or played a tabletop campaign inspired by the CRPG after the year 2000?
The data presented on setting sales (in threads related to the Slaying the Dragon book by Ben Riggs) suggests Planescape actually sold fairly poorly, as TSR settings go, and the video game was released in December 1999, over a year after WotC released the last Planescape TTRPG product, Faction War.
I suspect if WotC perceives the love of Planescape being love for the CRPG rather than for the original TTRPG, I think that would significantly alter the focus of what they choose to publish in the box set, with 'younger' fans being pleased and older 'grognards' being disappointed.
--
Pauper

 

[Micah Sweet]

I honestly wonder how much of the love for Planescape as a setting is based, not on direct experience with Zeb Cook's original setting, but folks who played the CRPG or played a tabletop campaign inspired by the CRPG after the year 2000?
The data presented on setting sales (in threads related to the Slaying the Dragon book by Ben Riggs) suggests Planescape actually sold fairly poorly, as TSR settings go, and the video game was released in December 1999, over a year after WotC released the last Planescape TTRPG product, Faction War.
I suspect if WotC perceives the love of Planescape being love for the CRPG rather than for the original TTRPG, I think that would significantly alter the focus of what they choose to publish in the box set, with 'younger' fans being pleased and older 'grognards' being disappointed.
--
Pauper

My love is based on the original 2e setting, and it's antecedents in 1e. Can't speak for anyone else.

 

[Demetrios1453]

I have to imagine the Lady of Pain is a lock in for at least one, but - bets on the others? It’d be funny to see the Nameless One get one with no further explanation.

Since Hydro74's designs tend to be geometric, a modron would seem to be a reasonable choice...

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

I honestly wonder how much of the love for Planescape as a setting is based, not on direct experience with Zeb Cook's original setting, but folks who played the CRPG or played a tabletop campaign inspired by the CRPG after the year 2000?
The data presented on setting sales (in threads related to the Slaying the Dragon book by Ben Riggs) suggests Planescape actually sold fairly poorly, as TSR settings go, and the video game was released in December 1999, over a year after WotC released the last Planescape TTRPG product, Faction War.
I suspect if WotC perceives the love of Planescape being love for the CRPG rather than for the original TTRPG, I think that would significantly alter the focus of what they choose to publish in the box set, with 'younger' fans being pleased and older 'grognards' being disappointed.
--
Pauper

Not everyone was around when 2E Planescape was still in print.

Speaking for myself, I'm a massive Planescape fan, but I only got into D&D with 3E and it took several years after that - and stumbling upon Shemeska's Planescape Story Hour - to fall in love with the setting. I've filled out my bookcase since then, especially since Planescape started getting PoD over on DM's Guild, but I was never in a position to add to its sales figures back in the day.

That being said, PS: Torment is still fantastic.

 

[Demetrios1453]

If Planescape is like Spelljammer you'll have a book with races, feats, spells, a tiny bit if very basic setting lore, a small gazeteer on Sigil Rock of Bral got, but instead of Spelljammers, faction write ups.

The beastiary will be the best part.

Small adventure, very rail roady.

Barely any exploration of you know, Planes.

BUT the art of physical, material quality will be absolutely top tier, 10/10 stuff, it'll just be bitterly disappointing if you wanted an actual setting beyond Sigil.

As I've said elsewhere, as the main, almost universal, complaint with Spelljammer was not what was in it, but that too much was left out. I'm pretty sure they are aware of those complaints, and they have probably 8 months or so before the product needs to finalized, so if they were planning on 64 pages for each book, they have time to change that. Even beyond that, Spelljammer is a setting that you can get away with fairly minimal info as long as ships and travel rules are there (although they probably skimped a bit too much). Planescape is a much richer and more developed setting, so I suspect they were already planning for a larger page count anyway.

 

[Guest 7034872]

[...] Planescape is a much richer and more developed setting, so I suspect they were already planning for a larger page count anyway.

I really hope so. Spelljammer is looking like a bit of a let-down, which surprised me; I love Planescape too much to watch something similar happen without throwing a few plates and saucers around.

And yes, my love is based entirely on the setting books. I don't play video games.