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.

 

[Zaukrie]

Though in terms of lore I think Eberron probably takes the cake, I actually prefer Theros for the game mechanics ideas. Piety and Mythic monsters were great and there is good lore in there too. So for me:
#1 Theros
#2 Eberron

Mirrors my thoughts. Eberron has greet content, Theros has some cool mechanics.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It also seems like it would go well with the folks growing up with Fortnite and Smash Bros. and Monster Prom and VTubers. Imagine a dungeon dating sim set in Sigil!

Mylo is a squirrel-headed humanoid from the Beastlands!

Xch is a sentient chair from Mechanus!

WILL THEY MAKE A LOVE CONNECTION?

 

[Mind of tempest]

It also seems like it would go well with the folks growing up with Fortnite and Smash Bros. and Monster Prom and VTubers. Imagine a dungeon dating sim set in Sigil!

my sister would buy it, I would not.

 

[Faolyn]

Given how many of today's D&D players weren't even alive when Spelljammer was first published, is that a problem with a vocal group of folks on ENWorld, or the issue the wider audience had? It might be one issue, or it might be two separate ones -- I was just reading an article about how Treasure Planet was a big flop; maybe ships in space is just too niche.

Hopefully WotC will do a marketing survey to figure out what happened.

Well, vocal group also on Reddit as well. But I would imagine that a person who had never played the setting before would find the lack of lore very unhelpful. If you're brand-new to the setting, then what do you do in it when you finish the included adventure, or as a side-quest during the adventure?

Then if you get the people who really liked the original SJ buying the books and going "WTF?" at the lack of substance, it's going to put off the people who didn't know the setting but had been interested in it. I know that in the "Spelljammer Confirmed!" meme days on Reddit, there would always be people who hadn't played or read 2e stuff who asked about it, and a lot of older gamers who would then explain the setting in glowing terms. Which would then lead to the new players thinking it sounded awesome.

Also, the books don't have any good ship-to-ship combat rules, which is one of the reasons why the person in my group who was planning on running it has decided not to.

As for Treasure Planet, I just saw one review that suggests it's a combo of Treasure Island adaptations being overdone at the time and the very expensive animation. I never saw the movie (it's very likely that if anyone talks about a movie--any movie--that I haven't seen it), but I'd imagine that a combination of turn-of-the-century 3D and 2D animation might also have been off-putting at the time. Also, it came out at the same time as a Harry Potter film so it had heavy competition.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Though in terms of lore I think Eberron probably takes the cake, I actually prefer Theros for the game mechanics ideas. Piety and Mythic monsters were great and there is good lore in there too. So for me:
#1 Theros
#2 Eberron

I admit there's some real promise in the rules material in Theros (that's why I bought it), but it's still not a great setting book.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Well, vocal group also on Reddit as well. But I would imagine that a person who had never played the setting before would find the lack of lore very unhelpful. If you're brand-new to the setting, then what do you do in it when you finish the included adventure, or as a side-quest during the adventure?

Then if you get the people who really liked the original SJ buying the books and going "WTF?" at the lack of substance, it's going to put off the people who didn't know the setting but had been interested in it. I know that in the "Spelljammer Confirmed!" meme days on Reddit, there would always be people who hadn't played or read 2e stuff who asked about it, and a lot of older gamers who would then explain the setting in glowing terms. Which would then lead to the new players thinking it sounded awesome.

Also, the books don't have any good ship-to-ship combat rules, which is one of the reasons why the person in my group who was planning on running it has decided not to.

As for Treasure Planet, I just saw one review that suggests it's a combo of Treasure Island adaptations being overdone at the time and the very expensive animation. I never saw the movie (it's very likely that if anyone talks about a movie--any movie--that I haven't seen it), but I'd imagine that a combination of turn-of-the-century 3D and 2D animation might also have been off-putting at the time. Also, it came out at the same time as a Harry Potter film so it had heavy competition.

I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. Of course, space fantasy is right up my alley.

 

[dave2008]

I admit there's some real promise in the rules material in Theros (that's why I bought it), but it's still not a great setting book.

Why not, IYO of course.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Explorer's Guide To Wildemount easily has the best setting gazetteer section in all of 5e. The book is up there with Theros and Eberron in terms of great 5e setting books.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Why not, IYO of course.

It's rather scanty, but mostly I'd just rather have had an actual ancient Greece setting than one that has to squeeze Magic conventions into it. I certainly don't hate it. We're not talking about VRGtR here.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Explorer's Guide To Wildemount easily has the best setting gazetteer section in all of 5e. The book is up there with Theros and Eberron in terms of great 5e setting books.

Yeah, Wildemount is pretty good too. It was also not really made by WotC.

 

[humble minion]

I finally bought Theros just the other day (and got the limited edition gameshop-exclusive cover a couple of YEARS after release, which may tell you something about how it sold...) and I'm really enjoying it so far. Definitely one of the best 5th ed WotC setting books, probably only behind Eberron.

Wildemount didn't do it for me. It's got a comprehensive gazetteer, and I love the Echo Knight, but both it and Tal'Dorei just read a little bit like you're following around after the CR PCs have already done everything. Content excellent, inspiration lacking, IMO. The opposite of Spelljammer, basically.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I finally bought Theros just the other day (and got the limited edition gameshop-exclusive cover a couple of YEARS after release, which may tell you something about how it sold...) and I'm really enjoying it so far. Definitely one of the best 5th ed WotC setting books, probably only behind Eberron.

Wildemount didn't do it for me. It's got a comprehensive gazetteer, and I love the Echo Knight, but both it and Tal'Dorei just read a little bit like you're following around after the CR PCs have already done everything. Content excellent, inspiration lacking, IMO. The opposite of Spelljammer, basically.

That's funny, because the new Spelljammer product seems neither inspiring nor full of content. The setting itself, absolutely.

 

[humble minion]

Spelljammer: Adventures in Space has also not met sales expectations, and distributors have been left with a lot of unsold inventory from the set. The poor sales of Spelljammer, exacerbated a bit by the Hadozee fiasco, contributed to Ray Winninger's ouster from WotC.

I was no fan of how the Spelljammer release turned out, but this surprises me a lot. I wonder what 'sales expectations' were? The Amazon ratings for SJ are ok, and it was doing reasonably on the bestseller/sales ranking list for a while - were predictions similar to previous setting books and its sales dropped off after reactions started coming in, or maybe WotC simply set their expectations too high, particularly for a product in a new and untested format that's significantly more expensive than their previous similar products?

 

[darjr]

You've made this claim a few times and I just don't see it mate. Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 were bona fide classics that made Bioware what it is today. So making Baldur's Gate 3 made a lot of sense from a brand recognition perspective.

The same can't be said for Planescape: Torment. It's a cult classic that fought against its own game engine to tell a good story, didn't sell that well and ultimately is only known by die-hard fans. I just don't see WotC or Larian being sufficiently interested in this brand to make a new AAA game which are costly and take a long time to make (by its release, BG3 will have just finished its third year of Early Access, and this is presumably with earlier development also taking several years).

From what I understand it didn't sell well at first. However I think since then it's done really well. I think it's "sequel in spirit" did OK on kickstarter too.

 

[darjr]

Huh. I see that the Eberron book had fewer writers and of course included Keith. I wonder if there's a passion gap going on. Hard to write well for a product you aren't in love with. Do we know if any of the Spelljammer writers are actually Spelljammer fans instead of just positive acknowledgers?

That book was a collection of articles that he's written over a few years wasn't it? With some additions and updates?

 

[dave2008]

That's funny, because the new Spelljammer product seems neither inspiring nor full of content. The setting itself, absolutely.

Inspiration is very personal though. I find lots of blank space inspirational, that is why I don't like lore heavy settings. Others, however, find the depth of lore an inspiration. Using spelljammer as an example. I found the whole doomspace very inspirational. It is the first setting I have wanted to adventuring in (besides my own) in a long time. The whole setting is really just an idea, a concept, but that is all I need / want to inspire me. I like to create, so if it is to fleshed out it hinders my creativity.

 

[dave2008]

It's rather scanty,...

I guess we have to agree to disagree here. Everyone has a different reference point I guess.

but mostly I'd just rather have had an actual ancient Greece setting than one that has to squeeze Magic conventions into it.

I am only vaguely familiar with MtG and I wasn't familiar with Theros at all prior to this book. It didn't feel like anything was squeezed into it, I don't really even have the perspective to know what you mean.

I don't think I would want an "ancient Greece" setting, but I might be interested in a mythological Greece setting. To me, Theros seems very much like a D&D version of mythological Greece, which I think would be my personal preference. If I wanted it more "Greek" I would just swap out the gods (with some updates).

 

[Micah Sweet]

Inspiration is very personal though. I find lots of blank space inspirational, that is why I don't like lore heavy settings. Others, however, find the depth of lore an inspiration. Using spelljammer as an example. I found the whole doomspace very inspirational. It is the first setting I have wanted to adventuring in (besides my own) in a long time. The whole setting is really just an idea, a concept, but that is all I need / want to inspire me. I like to create, so if it is to fleshed out it hinders my creativity.

That very cool, and I'm legitimately glad that works for you. For me, inspiration from a concept just isn't worth $70.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I guess we have to agree to disagree here. Everyone has a different reference point I guess.

I am only vaguely familiar with MtG and I wasn't familiar with Theros at all prior to this book. It didn't feel like anything was squeezed into it, I don't really even have the perspective to know what you mean.

I don't think I would want an "ancient Greece" setting, but I might be interested in a mythological Greece setting. To me, Theros seems very much like a D&D version of mythological Greece, which I think would be my personal preference. If I wanted it more "Greek" I would just swap out the gods (with some updates).

History is inspiring to me. That's why I loved all the old books that gamed it up.

 

[dave2008]

That very cool, and I'm legitimately glad that works for you. For me, inspiration from a concept just isn't worth $70.

I don't put a price on inspiration. I mean I have probably hundreds, if not thousands of dollars in D&D and other RPG setting books which failed to inspire me, so $70 seems like a small price to me.

However, I am in a privileged financial position so that probably plays into it. Still, I would think I would always rather pay $70 for something than I would $1000 for lots of nothing.