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

 

[Maxperson]

What you find useful isn't what most people find useful.

You also don't get to say what most people find useful. You get to do you.

You can't complain because a company doesn't cater to a small number of obsessives.

I'm not.

When will that happen? There are around a hundred population centres detailed in the book. So the chance of the PCs visiting one is around 1%.

I've been running the Realms since the 1980's. 95% of my campaigns are centered there. You'd be amazed at just how many places the players have visited over the decades. Even with the places that they haven't, 1) It's probable that one day they will and it's good to have the information available, and 2) Not one place in that book hasn't been visited by some group at some time. I'm not the only FR DM.

But of course, you can't do that, because the book is written for 3rd edition and therefore is useless for 5e?

I've already answered why I want it for 5e.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I can understand the level of offense by fault of cultural misconceptions, because we suffered one:

Mission Impossible II. In the film, Tom Cruise lives a unique experience: Holy Week in Seville, the Fallas in Valencia, and San Fermines in Pamplona, all together in the same scene. (In fact, not only do these festivals take place in different cities, they also happen at different times during the year.) Anthony Hopkins (Swanbeck in the film) himself is amazed and puzzled at such a spectacle: "Festivals are a pain in the ass. Honoring their saints by setting them on fire. Let's you know what they think of saints, doesn't it?” We Spaniards were even more perplexed at these tremendous cultural misconceptions. (For the record, saints are not burned in any of the three separate festivals untruthfully mixed together here.).

---

But it is different when in a fantasy land several cultures are mixed together. For example a fictional Spain in a D&D world/wildspace with mythologic elements from Portugal, France and Italy. And in adittion of these, creatures based in the folklore from Philipines and Equatorial Guinea, lands from other continents but sharing historial links with Spain. Are you OK about this?

The future Disney movie is inspired freely in Spain, but here no Christian girl's name is Aisha, Fatima or Miriam, maybe. And what's the matter about this?

If I say it may be justified it is because I am afraid somebody could express his prejudices against groups from the real life into their fictional equivalent. How to use a soft example? A English writter could give a romantic image about the pirates, but a Spaniard would tell these did horrible things, for example to attack coast villages to catch slaves. And today there is a mutual distrust among the main powers of Far-East Asia. If you try to be polite with one, then others will be not so friendly with you.

 

[dave2008]

The 3e Forgotten Realms campaign book was good for information. Was that too much for you?

I skipped 2e and 3e so I am not familiar with that particular product.

 

[dave2008]

While I liked Greyhawk a lot back in 1e, I found it to be too vague even then. For me the ideal setting book is along the lines of the 3e Forgotten Realms campaign book or the Eberron book. Lots of details included, while still leaving 90%+ of each country undetailed.

That sound fine to me. However, the bold bit, in my mind, conflicts with your early representation of wanting the "whole world." If 90% is undetailed you don't have the whole world IMO. So can you clarify what you are looking for?

And to be clear I absolutely understand that that WotC is not providing you want and I am not trying to convince you otherwise.

EDIT: I just looked at the ToC online and there appear to be whole areas of the world with 0 detail (as in not even in the ToC) in that book as well. I could be mistaken as FR lore is not my thing!

EDIT 2: I didn't look closely enough. There large swaths smashed into one page!

 

[Maxperson]

That sound fine to me. However, the bold bit, in my mind, conflicts with your early representation of wanting the "whole world." If 90% is undetailed you don't have the whole world IMO. So can you clarify what you are looking for?

By whole world I mean that the vast majority of it is touched upon. If you can find it, take a look at the 3e Forgotten Realms Campaign book. That will give you an understanding of what I'm asking for.

EDIT: I just looked at the ToC online and there appear to be whole areas of the world with 0 detail (as in not even in the ToC) in that book as well. I could be mistaken as FR lore is not my thing!

Yes and no. What they've done is when they come up with a new setting like Al Qadim or Maztica, they sort of stick it in an empty spot in the ocean somewhere, so they don't really appear in the book, but are a "part" of the setting.

 

[dave2008]

By whole world I mean that the vast majority of it is touched upon. If you can find it, take a look at the 3e Forgotten Realms Campaign book. That will give you an understanding of what I'm asking for.

I found it online, but haven't look into it much yet.

Yes and no. What they've done is when they come up with a new setting like Al Qadim or Maztica, they sort of stick it in an empty spot in the ocean somewhere, so they don't really appear in the book, but are a "part" of the setting.

Didn't those both come out in 2e though?

 

[Maxperson]

I found it online, but haven't look into it much yet.

Didn't those both come out in 2e though?

Yes. They got shoved into the world, during 2e I think. 3e didn't really put them in other than as comments. Same with 5e. They're mentioned, but that's it. Since they're completely different settings, I don't mind them not being detailed.

 

[Parmandur]

That sound fine to me. However, the bold bit, in my mind, conflicts with your early representation of wanting the "whole world." If 90% is undetailed you don't have the whole world IMO. So can you clarify what you are looking for?

And to be clear I absolutely understand that that WotC is not providing you want and I am not trying to convince you otherwise.

EDIT: I just looked at the ToC online and there appear to be whole areas of the world with 0 detail (as in not even in the ToC) in that book as well. I could be mistaken as FR lore is not my thing!

EDIT 2: I didn't look closely enough. There large swaths smashed into one page!

View attachment 286984

To make the comparison a little more clear, chapter 4 of the FRCS is 133 pages, and SCAG takes an area that is covered by ~33 of those pages and covers it in 59 pages. An area that is about 5 million square miles, compared to the about 27 million square miles of Faerûn covered by the FRCS (yes, juat Faerûn,without Kara Tur and the other places, is significantly larger than all of Eurasia).

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Has any product given you the “whole world?” I mean even FR has unexplored areas. What setting has given us the whole world?

Heck, we have been playing games in the same setting for 30 years and have explored only a small fraction of our world and only a tiny fraction of the multiverse. If we had to detail the whole setting we would spend all of our time writing and not playing!

Eberron is as close as it gets, I think.

If someone makes a fantasy China, I expect it to be a fantasy China. Not "We've made Samurai, Bushi and Yakuza all classes, trust me, it’s totally China".

Regardless, a low-fantasy land has no business being tacked on at the other side of one of the highest fantasy settings out there. I'd expect like 90% of the posters on this board could come up with a Kara-Tur equivilent more thematically suitable for how Faerun is set up than Kara-Tur ever was simply due to wanting it to fit with how Faerun is actually presented, and the 10% left over would back down because they admit to not knowing enough about Faerun to give it an honest shot

What doesn’t work with the rest of FR, as someone who has never read anything Kara-Tur? Are the gods incompatible or something?

 

[Parmandur]

What doesn’t work with the rest of FR, as someone who has never read anything Kara-Tur? Are the gods incompatible or something?

It wasn't conceived as part of the Forgotten Realms, and it was a retcon after both Oriental Adventures and the FR came out to decide to merge them. And this was given the usual care and consideration of TSR managerial marketing decisions. So, yeah, different cosmological which I believe get a big ol' dose of Handwavium radiation poisoning.

It's like Star Wars stuff just started showing up in the MCU, because Disney thought it would make money. Not coherent worldvuilding.