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.

 

[Reynard]

So, retiring. Retiring from adventuring.

But not retiring from playing.

Then maybe they're not "inherent in D&D" if most people don't play with them.

Look, if people don't follow the game as it is designed over time, I don't know what to tell you. Literally up until 4E and 5E, there was an explicit intent that you didn't just keep going into random holes and punching things in the face once you reached superhuman levels. You gained followers and built strongholds and commanded domains. It's built into the overall design from the beginning. If you remove it without rep0lacing it, of course the game gets unmanageable and boring and nonsensical.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

But not retiring from playing.

But you're still forced out of playing the game the way the rest of the party can because of your race. Because Gygax didn't like non-human adventurers. That's dumb. That's bad game design.

Look, if people don't follow the game as it is designed over time, I don't know what to tell you. Literally up until 4E and 5E, there was an explicit intent that you didn't just keep going into random holes and punching things in the face once you reached superhuman levels. You gained followers and built strongholds and commanded domains. It's built into the overall design from the beginning. If you remove it without rep0lacing it, of course the game gets unmanageable and boring and nonsensical.

Except it was replaced. D&D isn't just about going into dungeons, killing things, and taking their stuff. The scope of the game has evolved way past that.

 

[Reynard]

But you're still forced out of playing the game the way the rest of the party can because of your race. Because Gygax didn't like non-human adventurers. That's dumb. That's bad game design.

So non human characters can start expanding into that non-adventuring space sooner. What's the problem?

Except it was replaced. D&D isn't just about going into dungeons, killing things, and taking their stuff. The scope of the game has evolved way past that.

That's right. They can go into other nations and kill people and take their stuff. or travel the planes and kill things and take their stuff. When you extend adventuring to level 20 all you are doing is stopping the intentional evolution of the game built into from the beginning.

People wondewr why folks never bother to play past 11th level anymore, and the answer is simple: because fighting for treasure is boring after that point. There needs to be new challenges and a different focus. Gygax and the rest of the TSR era design crew knew this, and built it into the game.

The game is meant ot evolve, and always has been. You being mad that it isn't the same game at 14th level is you not getting it.

 

[Faolyn]

You aren't forced to retire. But maybe the game changes. Maybe the story isn't about exploring ruins or mapping vast wilderness anymore. Maybe the game is about carving out a kingdom, building a legacy, raising an army. these are all things inherent in D&D that have been lost and ignored in the modern era.

So, you mean, retire.

Unless all the human PCs decide to stop with you and not gain any XP?

Maybe those things have been lost in the modern era because very few people actually wanted to engage in them back then.

Edit: Ninja'd by Levistius.

 

[Faolyn]

But not retiring from playing.

Look, if people don't follow the game as it is designed over time, I don't know what to tell you. Literally up until 4E and 5E, there was an explicit intent that you didn't just keep going into random holes and punching things in the face once you reached superhuman levels. You gained followers and built strongholds and commanded domains. It's built into the overall design from the beginning. If you remove it without rep0lacing it, of course the game gets unmanageable and boring and nonsensical.

That certainly wasn't part of 3x (remember the Epic Level book?) and I seriously doubt it was a major part of 2e either, especially when they opened up the planes with the Outer Planes MCA and later Planescape. Which means it hasn't been part of D&D for the majority of D&D's existence.

Heck, even Basic D&D had Immortals rules, which involved getting to 36th level, not creating a castle.

Edit:

So non human characters can start expanding into that non-adventuring space sooner. What's the problem?

Why should non-human characters have to do that? Why can't non-human characters keep adventuring?

There is no reason besides Gygax said so, and that is not an acceptable reason for most people.

 

[Remathilis]

So non human characters can start expanding into that non-adventuring space sooner. What's the problem?

I'm sure all the other players won't mind while I spend time each session role-playing out my dwarf's tavern ownership.

Honestly, BECMI was far better at this than AD&D. After demihumans hit max level, they could continue to gain attack ranks, which improved their to-hit and also gained special abilities like resistance to spells. Also, since each race was a class, they also improved their saves faster than a human, meaning they had great saves far sooner than a human would. It wasn't perfect, but it attempted to give demihumans something to look forward to beyond name level.

 

[Reynard]

Yes. BECMI did it best. But it was in every edition of D&D at least up to 3rd (i didn't play 4ae so maybe it was there too). Doing standard adventuring stuff was intended to become lass of a focus as the PCs gained higher levels. There were other challenges to explore. It was built into the game from 0E, with followers and fortresses construction.

It wasn't that high level PCs were prohibited from adventuring, it was just assumed most of their time would be dedicated to other things because of responsibilities. Bt like old Arthur or Conan or Eric, sometimes those adventures would demand attention. The difference in all those cases is, of course, a recognition of the protagonist's mortality.

If you have fun playing 15th level characters going on the same adventures they did at 5thlevel: congratulations. But that's not what we're talking about. We are talking about higher leve PCs wanting to do something great.

 

[Remathilis]

That certainly wasn't part of 3x (remember the Epic Level book?) and I seriously doubt it was a major part of 2e either, especially when they opened up the planes with the Outer Planes MCA and later Planescape. Which means it hasn't been part of D&D for the majority of D&D's existence.

Heck, even Basic D&D had Immortals rules, which involved getting to 36th level, not creating a castle.

Edit:


Why should non-human characters have to do that? Why can't non-human characters keep adventuring?

There is no reason besides Gygax said so, and that is not an acceptable reason for most people.

It was less of a factor in 2e also because 2e raised the level limits.

A 1e dwarf was capped at 9th level, and that's if they had a 18 strength. In 2e, it was 15th level, with the optional rule to gain up to +3 additional levels for a high prime requisite (18th for our 18 strength dwarf).

Just a quick comparison, assuming 18 prime requisite. 1e vs 2e.

Dwarf fighter 9 vs 15
Elf fighter 7 vs 12
Halfling fighter 6 vs 9

Elf wizard 11 vs 15
Gnome wizard 7 vs 15

Dwarf cleric 8* vs 10
Half-Elf cleric 5 vs 14

Half-elf ranger 8 vs 16

Now there are some downgrades, to be fair...

Halfling thief Unlimited vs 15
Half-elf druid unlimited vs 9

And with the optional rule, you can add up to +3 more to the 2e side. For most races, level limits were a formality I'm 2e.

* Dwarf cleric, or any cleric but a human or half-human was not allowed in 1e officially until Unearthed Arcana.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

So non human characters can HAVE TO start expanding into that non-adventuring space sooner. What's the problem?

There. Fixed your statement. "Can" is wrong. "Have to" is correct. Level caps force your character to either lag behind the others or be forced to stop playing the way they are because of your race choice. That's just bad. It's bad game design.

That's right. They can go into other nations and kill people and take their stuff. or travel the planes and kill things and take their stuff. When you extend adventuring to level 20 all you are doing is stopping the intentional evolution of the game built into from the beginning.

People wondewr why folks never bother to play past 11th level anymore, and the answer is simple: because fighting for treasure is boring after that point. There needs to be new challenges and a different focus. Gygax and the rest of the TSR era design crew knew this, and built it into the game.

The game is meant ot evolve, and always has been. You being mad that it isn't the same game at 14th level is you not getting it.

I have never had a problem with high-level play in my 5e campaigns. At least, not as much as people like to pretend/say it's a problem at their tables. And my adventures are more than "go to places and kill people". Not all adventures involve killing. That's changed in D&D, too.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Choosing to retire from adventuring is cool.

Being forced to stop because of some arbitrary limit that whose only reason is "Gygax wanted humans to be in charge" is not cool.

Fair enough. Doesn't bother me.