D&D 5E February's Keys from the Golden Vault Appears on Amazon

Announced in August, along with the rest of 2023's D&D lineup, Keys from the Golden Vault -- an anthology of adventures with a 'heist' theme -- has appeared on Amazon with a release date of Frebruary 21, 2023. The entry indicates that the book is 208 pages long.

"Greetings, adventurer. You’ve snuck in and found a wondrous treasure! Keys From the Golden Vault is a Dungeons & Dragons adventure anthology with a heist at the center of every tale. Nothing else is yet known about the contents of this tome, but keep an eye on your favorite D&D news sources for your first sneak peek inside."

So far, it only has the now-familiar D&D preview image, so we should expect a cover reveal in the coming weeks.

​

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

One shots in particular, due to time constraints, deserve singular big setpiece battles that sit on the edge of TPK worthy.

Yeah, balance around the players going nova, since the smart ones will walk in with that plan.

 

[Ibrandul]

The Deck of Many Things book I need actual info on, like I know it's got some Player mechanics, but WTF is it otherwise?

I think it might simply be a third grab-bag book along the lines of Xanathar’s and Tasha’s, only this time themed around an artifact rather than an NPC. That’s pretty much what it sounds like from the description, and it makes sense: there’s a very obvious and plausible story you can tell about why it would be called “The Deck of Many Things” if it’s just another odds-and-ends book. Here, I’ll tell it:

It seems the original name for Xanathar’s was “Xanathar’s Guide to Adventurers”: that is, a monster’s guide to adventurers, following an adventurer’s (Volo’s) guide to monsters. But due to the inclusion of non-adventurer-related material, they decided “Everything” was more suitable than “Adventurers,” thus unfortunately ruining the joke. Later they reused the “X’s Y of Everything” naming template for the next grab-bag, Tasha’s. I suspect they were looking around for another NPC to theme the next grab-bag book around when someone noticed that the name of one of D&D’s most famous artifacts already sounded similar to the established naming pattern, and voila.

The good news is this almost certainly means we’ll get a tie-in product of actual Deck of Many Things cards next year, so DMs who haven’t purchased one of the out-of-print decks of yesteryear will finally have the opportunity to ruin their campaigns in style.

 

[jasper]

Nothing on D&D Beyond yet.

 

[bedir than]

I do wonder if this will be a dual format physical-and-pdf deal like they're testing with Dragonlance?

That deal is only if purchased Direct-to-Consumer from DnDBeyond

 

[Reynard]

I think it might simply be a third grab-bag book along the lines of Xanathar’s and Tasha’s,

That actually feels a little weird this close to the 1D&D launch.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

That actually feels a little weird this close to the 1D&D launch.

Not if it's being designed to be compatible.

 

[Reynard]

Not if it's being designed to be compatible.

Sure, except lead time would suggest that can't be certain-- assuming the playtest packets are actually intended to affect the "new edition." Which I don't buy, given the methodology. So you're probably right.

 

[Alby87]

That actually feels a little weird this close to the 1D&D launch.

Not to much: I think (well... hope) that both the Deck of Many Things and Planescape books are high level books: Deck of Many Things can grant people a castle, and I hope that some kind of domain system/warfare rules can be put in. So, Tier 3 adventures. And Planescape, Tier 4 adventures. Those rules and informartions can be so high level respect to base rules, that can be both usable by 5e and One D&D.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The good news is this almost certainly means we’ll get a tie-in product of actual Deck of Many Things cards next year, so DMs who haven’t purchased one of the out-of-print decks of yesteryear will finally have the opportunity to ruin their campaigns in style.

It will be hard for WotC to equal what Etsy creators have produced.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

That actually feels a little weird this close to the 1D&D launch.

Yeah, I'm betting on a wacky Deck of Many Things-themed book with monsters, player locations, spells, lots of magic items, etc., rather than an Everything title.