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 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.

I wouldn't spend $1000 for lots of nothing either, but who knows if we even have the same definitions?

 

[dave2008]

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

OK, not sure what your point is. Personally, I tend to find historical mythology more interesting than actual history, but there are exceptions of course! Also, I would call Theros a good "gamed up" mythological Greece "history," but I am sure you disagree (which I totally understand).

 

[dave2008]

I wouldn't spend $1000 for lots of nothing either, but who knows if we even have the same definitions?

I think we clearly don't. All that nothing, IMO, that I could have spent hundreds/thousands on over the years is a lore / inspirational gold mine to you. It just doesn't inspire me.

 

[teitan]

Seeing the new DLance book and how it’s very light on lore, I feel kind of bad for Planescape because it will get the same barebones treatment when there is a wealth of lore there

Most Planescape lore is now default D&D lore.

 

[teitan]

Thing is though, Torment is the most popuar Planescape out there ever. They're going to lean into that simply because its what folks know. Other stories to tell, yeah, but as far as "Hey here's a character you can meet", folks are gonna care moe to run into Fall-from-Grace or Nordom than anyone from a Planescape book

Torment is a cult game. It’s not well known except mostly by reputation. The characters aren’t iconic like Minsc & Boo except to old D&D fans.

 

[teitan]

There's already a spiritual successor to PS:T. If Lorian makes a true sequel well...I just don't think it'll be good. I'm a firm believer that Obsidian should have made BG 3 (PoE hit the mark far better for that type of game) but that's just my opinion.
I feel like if they don't get Diterlizzi to do the new PS art WotC is making a mistake. To me that art style is what made PS so, I dunno, special. I really hope they hire Diterlizzi to do the art work or at least lean into that style.

WOTC’s biggest mistake in 5e is not giving each world a distinct artistic tone.

 

[teitan]

This Deadline article:

Hasbro’s eOne U-Turn: Behind Toymaker’s Decision To Sell Indie Film & TV Studio And What’s Next For IP Slate

Hasbro's plan to sell eOne's film and TV businesses three years after buying them for $4 billion has raised questions internally and on Wall Street.

deadline.com

Summary:

Hasbro was late November's worst performer in that week's S&P 500. Most analysts are pinning the downturn on Hasbro flooding the market with way too many Magic: The Gathering set releases.

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.

In addition to being a cost-saving move, the Deadline article attributes the move away from an in-house film & TV division with the 2021 death of Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner, who was the main driver of expanding the company beyond toys and games and turning it into a TV and film powerhouse.

Goldner was replaced by Christopher Cocks, who had previously been head of Wizards of the Coast. Cocks doesn’t like the volatile profit margins of film and TV production that are not set like putting a wholesale price on a toy, for example, and could fluctuate.

Weirdly, Cocks DOES want to do in-house video game content, which is actually just as volatile in terms of profit margins as TV and movies.

And yet… WOtC is reprinting Spelljammer. Weird for a product supposedly sitting in distributor warehouses. I think your making a lot of conjecture and projection here.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

WOTC’s biggest mistake in 5e is not giving each world a distinct artistic tone.

I actually prefer 5e's unified art style. It makes the game feel more cohesive, and is less jarring between settings.

 

[Incenjucar]

Each setting could use its own range of palettes to make things a bit more cohesive without requiring different artists.

 

[Scribe]

Each setting could use its own range of palettes to make things a bit more cohesive without requiring different artists.

MtG proves that the artists can be the same, the 'styles' of those artists used again and again, but the art direction is unique to each world.

D&D simply doesnt get the same budget for art.

EDIT: I will maintain however, it can be done, and I believe Spelljammer proves it.