D&D 5E Planescape, Bigby, Phandelver and the Deck of Many Things: Covers & Details Revealed!

The covers of the upcoming D&D books — including Planescape, Glory of the Giants, and the Deck of Many Things have been revealed.

• August 15th -- Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants ($59.95)
• August 15th -- The Practically Complete Guide to Dragons ($39.95)
• September 19th -- Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk ($59.95)
• October 16th -- Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse ($TBA)
• November 14th -- Book of Many Things ($TBA)

Coming August 15th with two variants. Lore about giants, 76 stat blocks, feats, and a giant subclass.

3 hardcovers in a boxed set-- 96 page guide to Sigil, 64-page bestiary, and 96-page adventure, along with a poster map and DM screen. Coming October 16th.

224-page adventure for levels 1-12, poster map, 16 new monsters. Coming September 19th.

66 illustrated cards, 192-page book with lore, character options, magic items, and monsters, 80-page card reference guide, all in a slipcase. Coming November 14th.​

These Are Dungeons & Dragons' New Products For 2023

New books for the fantasy role-playing game include Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants, and a look at the legendary Deck of Many Things.

themessenger.com

 

[Parmandur]

Those are for the adventure, though, not for the FR setting. And I'm not forking over $40-$50 for some pages in an adventure. I strongly doubt many people are. Those buying those adventures are buying them to run.

It's really not all that hard a distinction between Setting and Adventure, other than scale: and 320 page books like Icewind Dale can get a lot of Setting info in their page count. Just because you have not checked out the big campaign books for Setting info, doesn't mean that they don't exist. If anyone really wants info on Icewidn Dale, the book Icewind Dale will hook them up.

 

[Incenjucar]

Given that a large proportion of D&D players are not out of school, that isn't an issue for WotC.

Then they leave school and the decay sets in. They also have to know and care that the materiel is even there. Your average tween D&D player doesn't know about Red Steel.

As an example of my point, you could search for the numbers:

https://www.geekwire.com/2023/dungeons-dragons-in-2023-wizards-of-the-coast-reveals-planescape-revival-and-more/

"The player population for D&D is cross-generational, with the bulk of respondents (48%) identifying as millennials, vs. 19% from Generation X and 33% from Generation Z (born between 1997 and 2012)."

So, again, I don't think the free content online is the issue here.

--

Edit: Everyone can use search, people just develop really strange mental blocks about it.

 

[Maxperson]

Not really, it just means that any 5E product has to do something not available to people already through older products or Google (the WptC team recently said Google Image search is their real competion).

That's an abject failure of the edition to make a setting. I mean, I could go to World of Warcraft for a setting. Does that mean 5e is successful at making a setting because I can get it elsewhere? That's just silly.

5e fails at setting if I have to go anywhere but 5e to get a decent one.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

So, again, I don't think the free content online is the issue here.

Sure it is. Even if you accept that some people are duffers who can't access it, people are going to say "WotC, why are you reprinting free stuff available online rather than creating new content?"

Your average tween D&D player doesn't know about Red Steel.

Irrelevant. They don't care about Red Steel. Nostalgia is worthless to anyone too young to remember it.

 

[Incenjucar]

Has WotC ever made a public statement about why they don't do more than a single setting splat with adventure filler these days?

I assume there is some kind of threshold at which point they would double back and expand on things, but I can't guess how high it would be.

 

[Maxperson]

Has WotC ever made a public statement about why they don't do more than a single setting splat with adventure filler these days?

I assume there is some kind of threshold at which point they would double back and expand on things, but I can't guess how high it would be.

Their largest and most popular setting hasn't had a setting expansion in the 8 years since the Sword Coast was released. If there is a threshold, we may not live long enough to see it.

 

[Incenjucar]

It may simply be that rent-seeking is so much more profitable than book sales that anything they can't easily charge a recurring fee for lacks the ROI required to dwell on it.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Their largest and most popular setting hasn't had a setting expansion in the 8 years since the Sword Coast was released. If there is a threshold, we may not live long enough to see it.

This is both correct and wrong. What WotC has recognised is:

a) setting lore is edition neutral;
b) you don't need vast amounts of lore to play D&D. The old setting books where written to be read, not played in. The place where you need to have the detailed descriptions is in the adventures that are going to use them.

So the 5e "setting books" are about the mechanics of running the game in a setting, lore is peripheral. VGR is a good example. This is a book about running a horror game in D&D. The lore is exemplar material and idea seeds. So really, there is nothing more to say apart from in adventures that make use of a location. So there is never any reason for an additional setting book.

In addition, they are trying to avoid a situation where you must have dozens of refrence books in order to run the game. WotC have quite rightly realised this was a con trick to sell books.

 

[Incenjucar]

Given the Spelljammer set's mechanics gaps, the settings book are more a pamphlet inviting you to figure it out for yourself.

 

[Parmandur]

Their largest and most popular setting hasn't had a setting expansion in the 8 years since the Sword Coast was released. If there is a threshold, we may not live long enough to see it.

They've put out quite a few books with extensive Forgotten Realms Setting info, region by region. That you personally don't want to buy Princes of the Apocalypse doesn't negate the extensive Setting details on the Desarin Valley, an area larger than Oregon or the United Kingdom, a d in enough detail for an old 2E paperback book. They just don't split the info out from big Campaign books, and that seems to be working for marketing purposes. Doesn't mean the info doesn't exist.