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.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I wonder if WotC worries more about to reanimate the brand and unlock in DMGuild.

I see my 3.5 books and I feel I have got a jewel in my hands, but when I see my 5ed books, I feel they aren't so good, these haven't got the same spark.

* Only the glitchlings as new PC specie? and what about the bariaurs or other planetouched lineages? for example abyssal genasies.

* How much big is Sigil comparing with cities from sandbox videogames (GTA or Cyberpunk 2077)? I mean today Sigil could be created in a videogame with all its houses, facades and streets.

Yeah. DMsGuild is the only place where we can expect to get good setting detail for Planescape. And more power to it.

All glory to the DMsGuild!

 

[Incenjucar]

Unlocking Planescape would be a pretty big deal, I agree. There's a certain popular 'loth who would no doubt have a guaranteed audience under that banner, and I'd be able to be a lot less vague with all this inner planes stuff I'm working on. It would just be a lot nicer if the official stuff was hard to compete with.

 

[Zaukrie]

I agree the gate towns are under developed.

I expect an adventure, starting in Sigil, and going around the planes. With a lot less lore than the old days, like what we get in the DL book.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

* Only the glitchlings as new PC specie? and what about the bariaurs or other planetouched lineages? for example abyssal genasies.

Glitchlings are either a "stealth" test for Rogue Modrons or effectively replacing them as a PC option (which makes sense, on some level - more customizable body type, not explicitly "kill-on-sight" for all non-rogue Modrons everywhere, etc.), and Bariaurs, if they are in the works, might be close enough to Centaurs, mechanically speaking, that they don't feel the need to playtest them.

As to other forms of Planetouched, I wouldn't be against it. Abyssal Genasi don't make as much sense as they did in 4e where the Abyss was "Elemental" in nature, but I'd be all for Law/Chaos variations on the Tiefling/Aasimar a la Pathfinder's Aphorite and Ganzi, or even some more targeted planetouched like Fey'ri Elves.

 

[Incenjucar]

Biased as I am, I feel that Planescape either needs to also focus a bit more on the Ethereal and Inner Planes than it did in the past, or there needs to be a sibling setting based in the Inner planes that kind of interlocks with Planescape but is able to have a different focus and drift to it.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Planescape has absurdly vast potential with the right people involved, and is easy to shift toward even greater relevance to the younger crowd. It is a city of defiance and diversity, a natural draw to budding and young adults. It's also the most Internet setting there is.

It does feel like it would have been the darling of the Tumblr crowd, once upon a time, especially if one of the characters looked like Benedict Cumberbatch, whose name even sounds like a Planescape character.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

No they weren't listening to Alice in Chains, but there were a couple of Nine Inch Nails references in Planescape.

I'm talking about the music they play in the shops, obviously!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think the problem is that all it is is usable. It has stats and that's it. They barely included any of the Spelljammer lore.

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.

 

[Incenjucar]

It does feel like it would have been the darling of the Tumblr crowd, once upon a time, especially if one of the characters looked like Benedict Cumberbatch, whose name even sounds like a Planescape character.

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!

 

[dave2008]

Eberron from 2019. Nothing they've done since is anywhere close. That's actually my point.

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