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

 

[Parmandur]

Is there actual evidence of that? I’d say people around here generally talk about Strixhaven and Spelljammer as being disappointing, but I don’t believe I’ve seen any sales figures. If the lead time for a first party D&D book is a year plus, it could be some real time for them to react to market conditions.

I'm referring more to stuff like Waterdeep: Dragon Heist or Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus, which while mixed bags for sure, have been selling for years as mixed regional Gazateer and Adventure packages.

 

[Parmandur]

Right, and WotC doesn't deserve my money for crappy settings.

Sure, of course they don't. That they are holding steady with the regional splat embedded in an Adventure campaign model suggests they are fine without your money, if they are hitting a wide enough audience. A wide net doesn't need to catch every fish.

It strikes me, that since you aren't interested in the Adventures, you may actually be discussing this with a knowledge deficit? The gazateer material in the big campaign books isn't a "few pages," unless you consider 2E regional splats to be "a few pages" as well.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I would dare to say the settings published are more like sketches of future projects, something like a pilot episode.

Hasbro wants to sell toys, but today this is not the main goal. Shouldn't be novels a cheaper way to promote the brand? OK, now they are focused into books for children, with colorful pictures.

I am collector, not a true player. I am interested into PC species, classes, and monsters.

I don't play the official settings, but I would rather to create a mash-up version, mixing my favorite elements from different sources.

The rivalry with the 3PPs about adventures and settings may be very fierce. I mean WotC has to sell really good titles or the players will buy the ones published by the others-

* If a setting is too limited "in the space", then WotC aren't going to hurry to publish the updated edition. They are more interested into settings to be unlocked into DMGuild and 2PP were interested to add their own ideas.

* Could be Pelinore unclocked in DMGuild as a wildspace within Spelljammer, as a spin-off?

* They "storylines" seem in my opinion like "mini-settings".

 

[cbwjm]

Then they leave school and the decay sets in. They also have to know and care that the materiel is even there. Your average tween D&D player doesn't know about Red Steel.

As an example of my point, you could search for the numbers:

https://www.geekwire.com/2023/dungeons-dragons-in-2023-wizards-of-the-coast-reveals-planescape-revival-and-more/

"The player population for D&D is cross-generational, with the bulk of respondents (48%) identifying as millennials, vs. 19% from Generation X and 33% from Generation Z (born between 1997 and 2012)."

So, again, I don't think the free content online is the issue here.

--

Edit: Everyone can use search, people just develop really strange mental blocks about it.

An add on to this point, considering all of the questions that get asked on Reddit, it seems a lot of people simply don't know how to google info. I often see questions that can get solved via a google search but many people just jump on reddit to ask instead.

 

[dave2008]

a) You don't need any lore to play D&D, but if you're going to make a setting, you should make it right.

What is "right" is an opinion. You can only know what is "right" for you. WotC is obviously trying to do what is "right" for selling books.

b) They shouldn't be trying to force people to play their adventures to get the lore that they want to use. Lots of us don't play their adventure paths.

They are not. They are providing setting information that is relevant to the adventure. They can't really get that detailed in a setting book or would be talking about a book that is close to a 1,000 pages or more (depending on the setting).

Personally, I don't use their adventures or their settings but I still buy most of the books because they have useful information that I can use in my setting and adventures.

This is a flaw of 5e.

Perhaps a flaw of WotC, not 5e.

Those of us who aren't going to shell out $50 for a few pages of setting since we aren't going to run their adventure are just as deserving of setting lore as those who do.

They obviously don't need those who will not spend the money. If there is a enough people like that, they will probably change what they are doing. So far, that doesn't seem to be the case.

However, we are not "deserving" of setting lore. That just makes you seem entitled in a way...never mind.

I need a dozen adventures right now at $50 each to get the amount of lore(or less) that I could get in a single $50 reference book.

I don't believe this, but If that is the case, why not just buy the $50 reference book? They are still available (most of them at least).

 

[dave2008]

Right, and WotC doesn't deserve my money for crappy settings.

Then why did you buy them in 1e, 2e, 3e, and 4e?

 

[dave2008]

If they were smart, they'd take out the tons of lore you guys say is in these adventures and make a setting book out of it.

They lore in those books is generally too specific for a "setting book" IMO. A setting book should be wide and broad, not so specific. However, the adventure books do have great setting information in them. It is just geared more to what is relevant for the adventure.

 

[Parmandur]

They lore in those books is generally too specific for a "setting book" IMO. A setting book should be wide and broad, not so specific. However, the adventure books do have great setting information in them. It is just geared more to what is relevant for the adventure.

Just the pure Gazateer information is often quite significant in volume, like Princes of the Apocalypse, 22 pages of straight Desarin Valley Setting info in Chapter 2, or Waterdeep getting a 25 page full Gazateer in chapter 9of Drsgon Jeist.

 

[pukunui]

... or Waterdeep getting a 25 page full Gazateer in chapter 9of Drsgon Jeist.

... which can be purchased separately! Volo’s Waterdeep Enchiridion (5e) - Wizards of the Coast | D&D 5th Edition | Dungeon Masters Guild

Perhaps they could do the same thing for the setting material in the other adventures for people who just want that.

 

[Irlo]

I need the whole world. I don't railroad my players into narrow areas. And again, if I have to go to a prior edition for a setting, 5e has failed at setting.

I’m missing something. Don’t we already have the whole world on our bookshelves already? What would we gain from a full FR update to 5e?

 

[Parmandur]

... which can be purchased separately! Volo’s Waterdeep Enchiridion (5e) - Wizards of the Coast | D&D 5th Edition | Dungeon Masters Guild

Perhaps they could do the same thing for the setting material in the other adventures for people who just want that.

It is a mithril best seller, curious that it was just a one-off experiment: the Baldur's Gate gazateer in DiA isn't less significant in size or scope.

 

[pukunui]

It is a mithril best seller, curious that it was just a one-off experiment: the Baldur's Gate gazateer in DiA isn't less significant in size or scope.

I really appreciated the way they did the Next adventures, Legacy of the Crystal Shard and Murder in Baldur's Gate. Both had separate adventure and setting booklets, the latter of which was edition agnostic. The material in those books has been updated / reprinted in Rime of the Frostmaiden and Descent into Avernus respectively, but it was still a nice way of doing it. The hardcovers are certainly sturdier, but I liked that split approach.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

It is a mithril best seller, curious that it was just a one-off experiment: the Baldur's Gate gazateer in DiA isn't less significant in size or scope.

I think Volo's Waterdeep Enchiridion was released as an Extra Life charity tie-in, so it might just be a matter of already having other products lined up for that role when Descent into Avernus et al released.

Wouldn't be too surprised if they start dropping free "city guide" chapters as preview material for similarly scoped modules on DNDBeyond moving forward though, like they did with Radiant Citadel.

 

[Demetrios1453]

I’m missing something. Don’t we already have the whole world on our bookshelves already? What would we gain from a full FR update to 5e?

About 130 years of history and the results of the world being completely remade - twice!

 

[Maxperson]

Then why did you buy them in 1e, 2e, 3e, and 4e?

1e because I was young and didn't really know what a fleshed out setting looked like. 2e had good settings, so that's why I bought those. 3e had good settings, so that's why I bought those. 4e I didn't spend a dime on as I skipped that edition entirely. 5e has burned me on the few settings that I bought and doesn't look to be changing, so I don't expect to spend another dime on 5e settings.

 

[Maxperson]

They lore in those books is generally too specific for a "setting book" IMO. A setting book should be wide and broad, not so specific. However, the adventure books do have great setting information in them. It is just geared more to what is relevant for the adventure.

Which makes it less than useful for a general setting which is what I've been asking for, so those books are now out the setting equation, leaving us back at 5e not putting out any setting material for the FR since the Sword Coast.

 

[Maxperson]

I’m missing something. Don’t we already have the whole world on our bookshelves already? What would we gain from a full FR update to 5e?

Do we? The vast majority of D&D players started with 5e. I doubt they have the whole world on their bookshelves. And if they've only purchased 5e settings, for the most part they have no world on their bookshelves.

They can't be expected to buy older edition settings to get a good one, and even if they do, that they have to go to another edition for a good setting means that 5e fails at settings.

 

[Incenjucar]

I would certainly love to see nice chunky Monstrous Manual-sized books that basically crammed as much existing setting information into one place to act as the core canon for that setting for the rest of the edition. Then WotC can ignore them for the next decade.

 

[Irlo]

Do we? The vast majority of D&D players started with 5e. I doubt they have the whole world on their bookshelves. And if they've only purchased 5e settings, for the most part they have no world on their bookshelves.

They can't be expected to buy older edition settings to get a good one, and even if they do, that they have to go to another edition for a good setting means that 5e fails at settings.

Got it. I thought you were talking about what you wanted from WotC.

 

[Parmandur]

Which makes it less than useful for a general setting which is what I've been asking for, so those books are now out the setting equation, leaving us back at 5e not putting out any setting material for the FR since the Sword Coast.

No, they have pit out a ton of Setting material, and it has sold well. Just because you, personally, haven't bought doesn't mean it isn't there.