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]

3.0 lasted 3 years before they had to violently reet it due to failing sales, and 3.5 lasted only 5 years before being completely thrown out the window.

I have never heard that 3.0 was changed to 3.5 due to failing sales. Where did that come from?

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

Of course they don't. But the content has become more bland and safe IMO, so the fact that so many people seem to like it tells me that yes, bland and safe is what a lot of people seem to want now.

IDK, I didn’t find soul coins particularly “safe” it seems like you are trying to paint a picture that is just not accurate. Or only accurate from a narrow opinion.

On top of that, you are claiming that people like bland things which seems rather rude and condescending. Just because you don’t like something doesn’t make it safe, boring, or bland.

 

[Parmandur]

IDK, I didn’t find soul coins particularly “safe” it seems like you are trying to paint a picture that is just not accurate. Or only accurate from a narrow opinion.

On top of that, you are claiming that people like bland things which seems rather rude and condescending. Just because you don’t like something doesn’t make it safe, boring, or bland.

Yeah, whenever I see claims that recent WotC material has shied away from anything edgy.or controversial I have to wonder if the books have actually been read by the one making such a claim.

 

[JEB]

For what it is worth, the book that seems to mark the changing point for you is Ravenloft...which is the first post-Mearls product, when you factor in the design cycle. So you were in tune with Mearl approach but not so much the pot-Mearls approach.

His other significant failings aside, Mearls did seem to be better at pleasing a certain segment of veteran fans (those with an attachment to the game's history and lore).

 

[JEB]

Yeah, whenever I see claims that recent WotC material has shied away from anything edgy.or controversial I have to wonder if the books have actually been read by the one making such a claim.

Kyle Brink's recent admission that Dark Sun would be too problematic to tackle now admittedly adds fuel to that fire.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

I'd be cool with that. Seriously though, all of the fans some of the time should be possible. They did it during the 3e era.

No they didn’t - I skipped that whole edition. It didn’t please me one bit

 

[Parmandur]

I have never heard that 3.0 was changed to 3.5 due to failing sales. Where did that come from?

Monte Cook came clean about that: 3.5 reprinted what a 4E was aimed to be, UT got rushed due to collapsing sales.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

For example, Eberron: Rising from the Last War seemed to do just fine, and that had hundreds of pages of lore that some players surely didn't care about. By contrast, one criticism of Spelljammer was its lacking approach to lore.

Actually, what I wanted from spelljammer was more mechanics, not more lore.

 

[JEB]

Actually, what I wanted from spelljammer was more mechanics, not more lore.

Yep, that was another common criticism. They were equal-opportunity disappointers, apparently...

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

Yep, that was another common criticism. They were equal-opportunity disappointers, apparently...

Sure, different people want different things. I was fine with the lore content, but I wanted new ship combat rules, ship boarding rules, travel rules for space, colossal monsters, etc.