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.

 

[Parmandur]

I expect that's true, although I have more faith in the ability of middle schoolers to handle stuff than corporate America. What I have little interest in, however, is a game designed to cater to corporate conceptions of middle schoolers to the detriment of more mature gamers.

As a parent, I've had to tone down WotC material from recent years when running it.

 

[Micah Sweet]

As a parent, I've had to tone down WotC material from recent years when running it.

A personal choice every parent has to make, and not necessarily the same way.

 

[mamba]

I should probably do my best to scrap off WotC entirely.

You definitely should, I have no idea why you haven't already

 

[Parmandur]

A personal choice every parent has to make, and not necessarily the same way.

True, but WotC has to aim to please the widest audience possible. That's not "fear," that's prudence. And it takes the opposite of "laziness" to achieve consistently.

 

[Micah Sweet]

You definitely should, I have no idea why you haven't already

Like I said, 30 years of being a fan of official D&D is hard to break, but they just stopped making stuff for me, rather abruptly, without even changing editions. I'm still in shock really.

 

[Micah Sweet]

True, but WotC has to aim to please the widest audience possible. That's not "fear," that's prudence. And it takes the opposite of "laziness" to achieve consistently.

Do they have to though? Why do they have to? Different people like different things. As has been said, they've put out a fair amount of product. Does everything they make have to appeal to a broad, bland-loving base?

 

[JEB]

Like I said, 30 years of being a fan of official D&D is hard to break, but they just stopped making stuff for me, rather abruptly, without even changing editions. I'm still in shock really.

To be fair, they also stopped focusing on long-time fans with 4E's launch, when they reset the lore for the "Points of Light" approach. They just reversed course for 5E (especially noticeable in the earliest 5E products). Then reversed course again with products like Ravenloft, which went back to rebooting things. Don't blame you for feeling some whiplash!

 

[Parmandur]

Do they have to though? Why do they have to? Different people like different things. As has been said, they've put out a fair amount of product. Does everything they make have to appeal to a broad, bland-loving base?

They put out products for a wide variety of game types. But why would they want to put out. Product that could sell 10,000 copies when they could make one that sells 250,000...?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Sure, but the less lore they provide, the more they are demanding that their players make up in order to have a fun, rich game. It just seems like laziness and fear to me.

Or a different play style than yours.

It's not necessary to imply cowardice or laziness because they prefer a lighter touch than you do. I prefer a lighter touch with such things in my homebrew. Am I a coward for not wanting to write a home version of the Silmarillion before beginning a new campaign?

 

[Micah Sweet]

Or a different play style than yours.

It's not necessary to imply cowardice or laziness because they prefer a lighter touch than you do. I prefer a lighter touch with such things in my homebrew. Am I a coward for not wanting to write a home version of the Silmarillion before beginning a new campaign?

Not if your players want what you're offering, no. You're writing for your group. WotC is supposedly writing for all fans of D&D, and they don't all want lore-light, safe, bland games.