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.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I wouldn't mind having such a thing, but I can't bring myself to spend money on stuff like this.

If your library has a copy of Art & Arcana, it's worth checking out.

 

[Micah Sweet]

If your library has a copy of Art & Arcana, it's worth checking out.

Oh I have the book (it was a gift), but I generally don't pay extra for fancy versions of things.

 

[michaeljpastor]

A retcon is a change or addition to the past. If the First World legend is true, it is a retcon. In this case it is a retcon that, if true, reduces the value of every existing setting in its own right by connected them to "pure", original version of which all existing settings are fractured copies.

And literally everything produced by a game company can be ignored by your own table. Follow that logic, and you shouldn't say anything negative about any content ever, because you can just ignore it. There's nothing wrong with criticizing something you don't like, as long as you don't push for it not to exist or personally attack the creators.

If it's new/an addition, it's actually called a "patch."

 

[Quickleaf]

Sorry for German subtitles! The screen caps are from the recent D&D announcement, specifically the section about Planescape. Art looks like Diterlizzi's newer slightly more cartoonish style!

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

Confirmed by DiTerlizzi himself via Twitter.

 

[Incenjucar]

I suddenly care about the direct.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

I suddenly care about the direct.

Didn't show too much, but we got official titles and some artwork for what's coming this year plus teasers for upcoming projects for the next few years in a Perkins/Crawford-led segment toward the end.

 

[Incenjucar]

Didn't show too much, but we got official titles and some artwork for what's coming this year plus teasers for upcoming projects for the next few years in a Perkins/Crawford-led segment toward the end.

Ultimately the biggest draw to 0E for me is the chance that it revitalizes Planescape - a setting I feel is actually even better for today's audience than the one it was created for - so it's exciting seeing them actually put some effort into it after the mediocre treatment in the last few editions.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Ultimately the biggest draw to 0E for me is the chance that it revitalizes Planescape - a setting I feel is actually even better for today's audience than the one it was created for - so it's exciting seeing them actually put some effort into it after the mediocre treatment in the last few editions.

I mean, you can't treat Planescape worse than 4E and 3E did, but will this revitalize it?

Having DiTerlizzi art is a huge good sign, for sure, because it illustrates at least basic understanding of Planescape and what made it cool. Especially as that colour palette is super-Planescape-y, which suggests to me the visual design in the books will be at least on-point.

But if they do the same format as Spelljammer, it's not going to revitalize anything at all! 64 pages of rules & setting gives room for nothing (esp. given they'll likely have multiple races, tons of feats, spells, etc.), 64 pages of monsters, and 64 pages of "maybe run it once" adventure is not how you "revitalize" a setting. If they're divided up differently - i.e. 64 pages setting, 64 pages rules & maybe v.short adventure, 64 bestiary we might see a small chance of them actually doing something cool. And if they don't stick to the idiotic 64-page approach (but I think they will as it has to be cheaper to keep doing it), but go longer with the setting part, I think there's a chance.

However, until I hear specifically otherwise, all information says this is going to be the Spelljammer format - so at best we'll have a pretty-but-worthless product for collectors, that doesn't actually present a playable setting, doesn't "do justice" to Planescape or Sigil, and so on. So my hopes remain low despite this welcome news.

EDIT - To be clear I am 100% Tsundere about this. Like, I am utterly praying that this is a great product and all my attitude and negativity is shown to be completely dumb. I wanna look like dumbest least-Cassandra person on the planet. Because I love this piece. I love how his art style developed. But I'm so doubtful.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

I mean, you can't treat Planescape worse than 4E and 3E did, but will this revitalize it?

Absolute worst case scenario, this will still open up Planescape on DMsGuild, meaning that 3rd Party creatives can get their hands on Sigil in the same way they have all the other settings WotC has opened up there and give it the treatment it "deserves" by whatever metric they feel appropriate.

I would certainly prefer the official 5e Planescape release to also be good, but that's a win in and of itself.