D&D 5E Planescape, Bigby, Phandelver and the Deck of Many Things: Covers & Details Revealed!

The covers of the upcoming D&D books — including Planescape, Glory of the Giants, and the Deck of Many Things have been revealed.

• August 15th -- Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants ($59.95)
• August 15th -- The Practically Complete Guide to Dragons ($39.95)
• September 19th -- Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk ($59.95)
• October 16th -- Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse ($TBA)
• November 14th -- Book of Many Things ($TBA)

Coming August 15th with two variants. Lore about giants, 76 stat blocks, feats, and a giant subclass.

3 hardcovers in a boxed set-- 96 page guide to Sigil, 64-page bestiary, and 96-page adventure, along with a poster map and DM screen. Coming October 16th.

224-page adventure for levels 1-12, poster map, 16 new monsters. Coming September 19th.

66 illustrated cards, 192-page book with lore, character options, magic items, and monsters, 80-page card reference guide, all in a slipcase. Coming November 14th.​

These Are Dungeons & Dragons' New Products For 2023

New books for the fantasy role-playing game include Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants, and a look at the legendary Deck of Many Things.

themessenger.com

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

My inclination/fear is that Planescape 5e is not going to answer any of the cosmological questions, e.g. Is the Great Wheel still around, or does the World Axis model take precedence? At least anymore than the existing 5e books do.

The Great Wheel is in the 2014 DMG - it's been explicitly brought up as the official cosmology as recently as Keys from the Golden Vault.

They certainly may leave the possibility for alternate cosmologies open, but I don't think the Great Wheel is going anywhere.

 

[BovineofWar]

The Great Wheel is in the 2014 DMG - it's been explicitly brought up as the official cosmology as recently as Keys from the Golden Vault.

They certainly may leave the possibility for alternate cosmologies open, but I don't think the Great Wheel is going anywhere.

Wasn't aware of Golden Vault references! It's been a while, but I thought the DMG had everything, Great Wheel, World Axis, World Tree, etc.?

My point isn't that WotC is going to erase anything, just the new format is here is a bunch of tools/ideas to make your own campaign as opposed to here is everything for this campaign setting pre-established. See Spelljammer or Ravenloft. I don't think we're going to hard lore in the 2e or Pathfinder style.

 

[Maxperson]

Wasn't aware of Golden Vault references! It's been a while, but I thought the DMG had everything, Great Wheel, World Axis, World Tree, etc.?

My point isn't that WotC is going to erase anything, just the new format is here is a bunch of tools/ideas to make your own campaign as opposed to here is everything for this campaign setting pre-established. See Spelljammer or Ravenloft. I don't think we're going to hard lore in the 2e or Pathfinder style.

It does have those alternate cosmologies in it I believe, but they are optional changes to the official Great Wheel. Below is 5e DMG page 44.

"THE GREAT WHEEL
The default cosmological arrangement presented in the Player's Handbook visualizes the planes as a group of concentric wheels, with the Material Plane and its echoes at the center."

 

[Eyes of Nine]

No alt covers for Sigil or Phandelver? Sad.

 

[Vincent55]

That's what I was afraid of. It's not going to be Planescape, it's going to be Sigil and a very small portion of the planes. And I bet Sigil will receive the same few pages that The Rock of Bral got. I will not be bilked out of money for this one like I was for Spelljammer. I'll buy again when they produce an actual quality setting.

I hear you man, i have my stuff from back in the day when they put out all those box sets a wealth of information and materials there. They will never put that kind of thing out again that is for sure. I can use that stuff and run it as if the mechanics are not affecting all the fluff information from it.

 

[Demetrios1453]

No alt covers for Sigil or Phandelver? Sad.

I'm sure they'll be along down the line. Bigby's is next, which is why they have the alt cover for it now.

 

[Demetrios1453]

IGN has a much fuller breakdown of Bigby's in this article:

Everything We Know About D&D's Glory of the Giants Sourcebook - IGN

Here's everything we know about Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants, an upcoming sourcebook for Dungeons & Dragons that will focus on giants.

www.ign.com

The monster list is very interesting. If we're getting the old-school gargantua from 1e/2e, that means we'll be seeing Godzilla-type kaiju.

Lol we've been starved for info on upcoming products, and suddenly a huge info dump on one day. Just like waiting for a bus - none come by forever, and then suddenly a bunch at once!

 

[Zaukrie]

That Phandelver cover......I want this more and more every time we get the tiniest bit of news.

 

[TravDoc42]

IGN has a much fuller breakdown of Bigby's in this article:

Everything We Know About D&D's Glory of the Giants Sourcebook - IGN

Here's everything we know about Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants, an upcoming sourcebook for Dungeons & Dragons that will focus on giants.

www.ign.com

The monster list is very interesting. If we're getting the old-school gargantua from 1e/2e, that means we'll be seeing Godzilla-type kaiju.

Lol we've been starved for info on upcoming products, and suddenly a huge info dump on one day. Just like waiting for a bus - none come by forever, and then suddenly a bunch at once!

If the gargantua do return, I'm gonna be so freaking happy!

Also, giant tick... shudders

 

[Parmandur]

If the gargantua do return, I'm gonna be so freaking happy!

Also, giant tick... shudders

Lots of Kaiju there...

 

[Stormonu]

The only one that interests me is Planescape, and I’ve still got all my 2E books from that time so I’m not sure this is really something I’m willing to bite on - especially after the shipwreck of Spelljammer.

 

[dave2008]

That's what I was afraid of. It's not going to be Planescape, it's going to be Sigil and a very small portion of the planes. And I bet Sigil will receive the same few pages that The Rock of Bral got. I will not be bilked out of money for this one like I was for Spelljammer. I'll buy again when they produce an actual quality setting.

This actually makes me more interested in getting this book. I will take a look before I buy, but this description has me more excited.

 

[Zaukrie]

I mean, there is SO MUCH on Sigil already, I'm in for less on Sigil and more on the Outlands around it. What I really want is great, interesting monsters (not holding my breath, this is WotC) and a fun adventure. Everything else is gravy, given what you can easily find online (or I already own).

 

[dave2008]

My inclination/fear is that Planescape 5e is not going to answer any of the cosmological questions, e.g. Is the Great Wheel still around, or does the World Axis model take precedence? At least anymore than the existing 5e books do.

I prefer they don't try to "answer" that. Leave to groups to figure out. IMO, those ideas of cosmological structure are just ignorant mortals trying to understand the unknowable. Reality is nothing like what the great wheel or world axis describes.

 

[Zaukrie]

I prefer they don't try to "answer" that. Leave to groups to figure out. IMO, those ideas of cosmological structure are just ignorant mortals trying to understand the unknowable. Reality is nothing like what the great wheel or world axis describes.

Plus, and I know this could get me lynched, does it matter for more than .00001% of campaigns? Not likely.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I was a big fan of the 4E-era Practical Guides. I hope we see more of those coming back into print. The Practical Guide to Wizardry, especially, is great flavor for how magic works in D&D. They could combine it with the various hand gestures from whatever their wizard duel card game is, and have a great item for roleplaying wizards in D&D. It wouldn't be a huge amount of work to write another chapter each on sorcery, warlocks and artificers as well.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I was excited about the Book of Many Things, but 272 pages related to the Deck of Many Things, with no option to get the book itself separately, if I wanted to use another set of cards from Etsy or elsewhere, is bananas.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I want a fully-fledged Manual of the Planes as much as anyone, but that would be an entire sourcebook on its own.

It is deeply weird that we haven't gotten a Manual of the Planes update at this point.

 

[Weird Dave]

As I developed the content for my Codex of the Infinite Planes articles (collected here in a cool hardcover at the DMsGuild!), Sigil was one of the no-no areas - I actually had to pull down the original Codex PDF because I had two references to Sigil in the text! I'm selfishly glad they are focusing on Sigil and the Outlands so my Codex product remains relevant - each plane gets about 10K words of content in the complete Codex with a focus on usability at the table, and since Planescape was off the table most of it is brand new content (or adapted from various Manuals of the Planes). Looking forward to the adventure and the aesthetics, hopefully they make Sigil into a viable setting for me to use (the whole "unreliable narrator" viewpoint from most of the 2E Planescape books really turned me off as a DM).

 

[Zaukrie]

I was excited about the Book of Many Things, but 272 pages related to the Deck of Many Things, with no option to get the book itself separately, if I wanted to use another set of cards from Etsy or elsewhere, is bananas.

I'd guess you can get a digital only version on dndbeyond (and copy and paste out, if you want).