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.

 

[humble minion]

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.

Having recently done a major shelf re-organisation in which a whole lot of older edition books were relegated to storage crates in the top cupboard of the spare room, I'm valuing stat- and rules-heavy books less than i used to. The material that rewards rereads the most, and retains its usability for longer is the background, setting, and inspirational material, not the numbers and rules. Now that their editions have faded into the past I'm vanishingly unlikely to ever use rules-heavy products like the Complete Fighters Handbook or Monster Manual IV ever again, but the same is not true for Van Richten's Guides and the 3e FRCS, which still merit a spot on the shelf.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

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).

Did like a few of the monsters from Fizban's, like the Hoard Mimic, That Mindflayer Dragon, Moonstone Dragon, Deep Dragon (the stats, not the retconned art which I hated).

Its in the lore I think that Fizban fails. Too many hige retcons, that are too poorly supported. Like if your going to make the First World a thing, at least give us a meaty campaign setting on it at least.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Having recently done a major shelf re-organisation in which a whole lot of older edition books were relegated to storage crates in the top cupboard of the spare room, I'm valuing stat- and rules-heavy books less than i used to. The material that rewards rereads the most, and retains its usability for longer is the background, setting, and inspirational material, not the numbers and rules. Now that their editions have faded into the past I'm vanishingly unlikely to ever use rules-heavy products the Complete Fighters Handbook or Monster Manual IV ever again, but the same is not true for Van Richten's Guides and the 3e FRCS, which still merit a spot on the shelf.

Yeah, I am forced to be unsentimental about previous editions of the game in that regard. I kept the systemless Freeport setting book and dumped all the 3E supplements and adventures that went with it, for instance. But it's still a table-focused book, and not concerned with the history of Freeport's flag or coinage.

If I ever leave 5E/1D&D behind, I'd expect most of those books to get purged, too, other than stuff like Ptolus, which I know I'll continue using (since I've used a version of it since 2006).

But since I'm an active DM for multiple players and multiple groups, my limited space has to be devoted to books that will see use. I have a handful of archival books in a storage box in the garage, but 75% of the stuff is out, accessible and used in play.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Like if your going to make the First World a thing, at least give us a meaty campaign setting on it at least.

I suspect they're building up to it.

 

[Shardstone]

Ive read all the old van richten books and ravenloft domains. I think the new van richtens presents more interesting ideas and more unique gameplay opportunities.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

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).

What’s your issue with the First World?

 

[Micah Sweet]

What’s your issue with the First World?

In a nutshell, I feel its existence reduces the significance of the various D&D settings by essentially saying all of them are fractured copies of some special, "perfect" world that no longer exists. It's a bad retcon to me.

But I've been over this extensively in previous threads, and don't really like ranting about it again.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

In a nutshell, I feel its existence reduces the significance of the various D&D settings by essentially saying all of them are fractured copies of some special, "perfect" world that no longer exists. It's a bad retcon to me.

But I've been over this extensively in previous threads, and don't really like ranting about it again.

First World was never claimed to be perfect.

 

[humble minion]

Yeah, I am forced to be unsentimental about previous editions of the game in that regard. I kept the systemless Freeport setting book and dumped all the 3E supplements and adventures that went with it, for instance. But it's still a table-focused book, and not concerned with the history of Freeport's flag or coinage.

If I ever leave 5E/1D&D behind, I'd expect most of those books to get purged, too, other than stuff like Ptolus, which I know I'll continue using (since I've used a version of it since 2006).

But since I'm an active DM for multiple players and multiple groups, my limited space has to be devoted to books that will see use. I have a handful of archival books in a storage box in the garage, but 75% of the stuff is out, accessible and used in play.

yeah, that's pretty reasonable. If/when I DM again I might end up picking up some more crunch-heavy monster books or adventures for sheer utility, but at the moment I'm purely playing, so all that hasn't got much use to me right now.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

In a nutshell, I feel its existence reduces the significance of the various D&D settings by essentially saying all of them are fractured copies of some special, "perfect" world that no longer exists. It's a bad retcon to me.

But I've been over this extensively in previous threads, and don't really like ranting about it again.

The story is framed as a myth/legend inside the book. You don't have to canonize its existence in your games for dragons to believe in it and to use the story to justify their worldview. The book never says that the First World actually existed.