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.

 

[Zaukrie]

Oh, man, I am the exact opposite at this point. There's a name for books that aren't focused on table play: every other book in the world.

Game books should have utility. Supplemental, stat-free books can be published as separate volumes.

That said, some books stick the landing and to both, like the 3E Draconomicon or Lords of Madness.

But most books have to pick a side and if it's sold as a book for a DM to use in games, it should have maximum game utility.

Ya, there are plenty of OLD RPG books I can use for fluff at this point......alas, WotC isn't sticking the landing on interesting monsters (Fizban's maps and lair actions are great and highly utilitarian, though).

 

[Micah Sweet]

Oh, man, I am the exact opposite at this point. There's a name for books that aren't focused on table play: every other book in the world.

Game books should have utility. Supplemental, stat-free books can be published as separate volumes.

That said, some books stick the landing and do both, like the 3E Draconomicon or Lords of Madness.

But most books have to pick a side and if it's sold as a book for a DM to use in games, it should have maximum game utility.

I want my gamebooks to do both too, but I err on the side of enjoyment and readability. This is why 2e was my favorite edition, and always will be.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Ya, there are plenty of OLD RPG books I can use for fluff at this point......alas, WotC isn't sticking the landing on interesting monsters (Fizban's maps and lair actions are great and highly utilitarian, though).

To my mind, WotC isn't sticking the landing on interesting books.

 

[Von Ether]

Oh, man, I am the exact opposite at this point. There's a name for books that aren't focused on table play: every other book in the world.

Game books should have utility. Supplemental, stat-free books can be published as separate volumes.

That said, some books stick the landing and do both, like the 3E Draconomicon or Lords of Madness.

But most books have to pick a side and if it's sold as a book for a DM to use in games, it should have maximum game utility.

In the D&D movie thread, we were talking about how it might increase the customer base and I was saying how most people prefer non-fiction books (gaming material counts as non-fiction just as much as a mythology text book counts as non-fiction) vs fiction.

I used to complain to a friend about how my self-published short fiction never sold compared to my ttrpg stuff.

They always came back with the same answer, "But of course!"

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I want my gamebooks to do both too, but I err on the side of enjoyment and readability. This is why 2e was my favorite edition, and always will be.

Having suffered through the final days of the original World of Darkness, I view this as a dangerous path.

 

[Micah Sweet]

In the D&D movie thread, we were talking about how it might increase the customer base and I was saying how most people prefer non-fiction books (gaming material counts as non-fiction just as much as a mythology text book counts as non-fiction) vs fiction.

I used to complain to a friend about how my self-published short fiction never sold compared to my ttrpg stuff.

They always came back with the same answer, "But of course!"

Yup. I'm not asking for fiction in the "here's a story I wrote" sense. I'm talking about rich setting detail, false history. That's what 2e delivered.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I found Fizban’s better than the Dracnomicon, probably cause I didn’t care about Dragon Anatomy.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I found Fizban’s better than the Dracnomicon

 

[Demetrios1453]

I mean, Fizban's has a lot of information, both in game rules and lore, on gem dragons, which the 3e Draconomicon completely ignored, something shocking for a book of its size.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I mean, Fizban's has a lot of information, both in game rules and lore, on gem dragons, which the 3e Draconomicon completely ignored, something shocking for a book of its size.

I have both, and admittedly some of the lore in Fizban's works for me (as long as it doesn't mention the First World).