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

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The 3e Forgotten Realms campaign book was good for information. Was that too much for you?

I have it here. It's a mine of completely useless information. I must have used about 5% of it. Compared to Tomb of Annihilation, which I have used around 30% of, without ever running the adventure. ToA was the better value for money by far.

 

[Parmandur]

While I liked Greyhawk a lot back in 1e, I found it to be too vague even then. For me the ideal setting book is along the lines of the 3e Forgotten Realms campaign book or the Eberron book. Lots of details included, while still leaving 90%+ of each country undetailed.

It's a good one, but I appreciate the efficiency and wide open nature of the OG Greyhawk. I mean, that is probably also why I'm pretty set with 20-40 pages of regional gazateer material embedded in the big Campaigns.

 

[Parmandur]

I have it here. It's a mine of completely useless information. I must have used about 5% of it. Compared to Tomb of Annihilation, which I have used around 30% of, without ever running the adventure. ToA was the better value for money by far.

Tomb of Annhilation is a high water mark in a lot of ways.

 

[Maxperson]

I have it here. It's a mine of completely useless information. I must have used about 5% of it. Compared to Tomb of Annihilation, which I have used around 30% of, without ever running the adventure. ToA was the better value for money by far.

See, I used it a lot. Lots of useful information. Adventure hooks without the adventures being written. Plots. Names or inns and local important figures, without naming the majority of them. And on and on.

 

[Parmandur]

See, I used it a lot. Lots of useful information. Adventure hooks without the adventures being written. Plots. Names or inns and local important figures, without naming the majority of them. And on and on.

Tomb of Annhilation has that, as well, and actually a lot more than the 2 pages Chult got in the FRCS: as @Paul Farquhar says, he has used 30% of the book without running the big story campaign, and that is plausible to me based on the contents.

 

[Parmandur]

Worth noting, too, that Tomb of Annhilation' area of coverage is about halfway between the size California and Texas, or Spain and France. It is mostly jungle, yes, but the hex crawl section works as a regional Setting book quite well.

 

[Mecheon]

I understand you don't like a fantasy chop-suey culture, mixing things from different sources, but some times this can be intentional, and justified. Players could use the fantasy version as darts against the real version. For example in jianghu story the antagonists could be opium traffikers wearing smokins and bowler hats, as an allegory of the British empire for the colonial age. Or the bad guys are the formians, as a parody of the red revolutionary army, or alien wasps from outer space (I doubt W.A.S.Ps. to be very happy with the idea). We try to be polittically correct, but they are no-Caucasian people who aren't ashamed for their supremacist or xenophobes predjudices against their next neighbours. Then to stop those possible pejorative stereotypes against other communities, then all those groups are within the same land.

Luis, mate. I'm criticising real actually published product Oriental Adventures. It wasn't justified at all. It was "Their only view into this world was what they could find on Japan and they just slapped it over everything". You've just gone off left field for whatever reason I cannot fathom when I was talking more on the internal consistency to it compared to other places in Faerun.

To put in simpler terms: If a book was sold to me as "Explore Fantasy France", then I'd expect it to be Fantasy France, not Fantasy Italy. No, I do not want a Centurion for this Fantasy France book you've sold me, that is significantly out of place and possibly even time, especially if I was expecting a bit more paladins.

Likewise though, I expect internal consistency in lands. If I buy an expansion to "The Land Of Excessive Magic and Fun Times" then I expect add-ons will go into those themes. Game of Thrones sure does draw from mythology and pop-culture, but I wouldn't slap Nephelokokkygia in there (despite that one time in a video game I used it to defeat the aboleths. as you do).

 

[Paul Farquhar]

See, I used it a lot. Lots of useful information.

Lot's of useless information. Before the plague the population of Scardale was 11,099. Who cares? Who counted? Did they have to kill someone every time a baby was born in order to keep that constant?

Adventure hooks without the adventures being written. Plots.

I thought you said you created your own adventures? I create my own plots, even when I use prewritten adventures.

Names or inns and local important figures, without naming the majority of them. And on and on.

Things that change frequently. I make up names as required. They will likely have changed in a few months anyway. I don't need the name of the inn. I need the floor-plan of the inn, with some interesting characters, with proper personalities that the PCs can interact with. That's useful detail.

 

[Maxperson]

Lot's of useless information.

You don't get to tell me that I didn't find it useful. I found that information to be incredibly useful. Useless to you =/= useless in general.

Before the plague the population of Scardale was 11,099. Who cares? Who counted? Did they have to kill someone every time a baby was born in order to keep that constant?

Scaredale cares. Scaredale counted. And that lore can easily come up if/when the PCs visit Scaredale.

I thought you said you created your own adventures? I create my own plots, even when I use prewritten adventures.

I do create my own adventures. That doesn't mean that I don't often draw upon inspiration from a blurb in one of the regions that is interesting.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

You don't get to tell me that I didn't find it useful. I found that information to be incredibly useful. Useless to you =/= useless in general.

What you find useful isn't what most people find useful. You can't complain because a company doesn't cater to a small number of obsessives.

Scaredale cares. Scaredale counted. And that lore can easily come up if/when the PCs visit Scaredale.

When will that happen? There are a couple of hundred population centres detailed in the book. So the chance of the PCs visiting one is less than 1%.

I do create my own adventures. That doesn't mean that I don't often draw upon inspiration from a blurb in one of the regions that is interesting.

But of course, you can't do that, because the book is written for 3rd edition and therefore is useless for 5e?

 

[Maxperson]

What you find useful isn't what most people find useful.

You also don't get to say what most people find useful. You get to do you.

You can't complain because a company doesn't cater to a small number of obsessives.

I'm not.

When will that happen? There are around a hundred population centres detailed in the book. So the chance of the PCs visiting one is around 1%.

I've been running the Realms since the 1980's. 95% of my campaigns are centered there. You'd be amazed at just how many places the players have visited over the decades. Even with the places that they haven't, 1) It's probable that one day they will and it's good to have the information available, and 2) Not one place in that book hasn't been visited by some group at some time. I'm not the only FR DM.

But of course, you can't do that, because the book is written for 3rd edition and therefore is useless for 5e?

I've already answered why I want it for 5e.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I can understand the level of offense by fault of cultural misconceptions, because we suffered one:

Mission Impossible II. In the film, Tom Cruise lives a unique experience: Holy Week in Seville, the Fallas in Valencia, and San Fermines in Pamplona, all together in the same scene. (In fact, not only do these festivals take place in different cities, they also happen at different times during the year.) Anthony Hopkins (Swanbeck in the film) himself is amazed and puzzled at such a spectacle: "Festivals are a pain in the ass. Honoring their saints by setting them on fire. Let's you know what they think of saints, doesn't it?” We Spaniards were even more perplexed at these tremendous cultural misconceptions. (For the record, saints are not burned in any of the three separate festivals untruthfully mixed together here.).

---

But it is different when in a fantasy land several cultures are mixed together. For example a fictional Spain in a D&D world/wildspace with mythologic elements from Portugal, France and Italy. And in adittion of these, creatures based in the folklore from Philipines and Equatorial Guinea, lands from other continents but sharing historial links with Spain. Are you OK about this?

The future Disney movie is inspired freely in Spain, but here no Christian girl's name is Aisha, Fatima or Miriam, maybe. And what's the matter about this?

If I say it may be justified it is because I am afraid somebody could express his prejudices against groups from the real life into their fictional equivalent. How to use a soft example? A English writter could give a romantic image about the pirates, but a Spaniard would tell these did horrible things, for example to attack coast villages to catch slaves. And today there is a mutual distrust among the main powers of Far-East Asia. If you try to be polite with one, then others will be not so friendly with you.

 

[dave2008]

The 3e Forgotten Realms campaign book was good for information. Was that too much for you?

I skipped 2e and 3e so I am not familiar with that particular product.

 

[dave2008]

While I liked Greyhawk a lot back in 1e, I found it to be too vague even then. For me the ideal setting book is along the lines of the 3e Forgotten Realms campaign book or the Eberron book. Lots of details included, while still leaving 90%+ of each country undetailed.

That sound fine to me. However, the bold bit, in my mind, conflicts with your early representation of wanting the "whole world." If 90% is undetailed you don't have the whole world IMO. So can you clarify what you are looking for?

And to be clear I absolutely understand that that WotC is not providing you want and I am not trying to convince you otherwise.

EDIT: I just looked at the ToC online and there appear to be whole areas of the world with 0 detail (as in not even in the ToC) in that book as well. I could be mistaken as FR lore is not my thing!

EDIT 2: I didn't look closely enough. There large swaths smashed into one page!

 

[Maxperson]

That sound fine to me. However, the bold bit, in my mind, conflicts with your early representation of wanting the "whole world." If 90% is undetailed you don't have the whole world IMO. So can you clarify what you are looking for?

By whole world I mean that the vast majority of it is touched upon. If you can find it, take a look at the 3e Forgotten Realms Campaign book. That will give you an understanding of what I'm asking for.

EDIT: I just looked at the ToC online and there appear to be whole areas of the world with 0 detail (as in not even in the ToC) in that book as well. I could be mistaken as FR lore is not my thing!

Yes and no. What they've done is when they come up with a new setting like Al Qadim or Maztica, they sort of stick it in an empty spot in the ocean somewhere, so they don't really appear in the book, but are a "part" of the setting.

 

[dave2008]

By whole world I mean that the vast majority of it is touched upon. If you can find it, take a look at the 3e Forgotten Realms Campaign book. That will give you an understanding of what I'm asking for.

I found it online, but haven't look into it much yet.

Yes and no. What they've done is when they come up with a new setting like Al Qadim or Maztica, they sort of stick it in an empty spot in the ocean somewhere, so they don't really appear in the book, but are a "part" of the setting.

Didn't those both come out in 2e though?

 

[Maxperson]

I found it online, but haven't look into it much yet.

Didn't those both come out in 2e though?

Yes. They got shoved into the world, during 2e I think. 3e didn't really put them in other than as comments. Same with 5e. They're mentioned, but that's it. Since they're completely different settings, I don't mind them not being detailed.

 

[Parmandur]

That sound fine to me. However, the bold bit, in my mind, conflicts with your early representation of wanting the "whole world." If 90% is undetailed you don't have the whole world IMO. So can you clarify what you are looking for?

And to be clear I absolutely understand that that WotC is not providing you want and I am not trying to convince you otherwise.

EDIT: I just looked at the ToC online and there appear to be whole areas of the world with 0 detail (as in not even in the ToC) in that book as well. I could be mistaken as FR lore is not my thing!

EDIT 2: I didn't look closely enough. There large swaths smashed into one page!

View attachment 286984

To make the comparison a little more clear, chapter 4 of the FRCS is 133 pages, and SCAG takes an area that is covered by ~33 of those pages and covers it in 59 pages. An area that is about 5 million square miles, compared to the about 27 million square miles of Faerûn covered by the FRCS (yes, juat Faerûn,without Kara Tur and the other places, is significantly larger than all of Eurasia).

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Has any product given you the “whole world?” I mean even FR has unexplored areas. What setting has given us the whole world?

Heck, we have been playing games in the same setting for 30 years and have explored only a small fraction of our world and only a tiny fraction of the multiverse. If we had to detail the whole setting we would spend all of our time writing and not playing!

Eberron is as close as it gets, I think.

If someone makes a fantasy China, I expect it to be a fantasy China. Not "We've made Samurai, Bushi and Yakuza all classes, trust me, it’s totally China".

Regardless, a low-fantasy land has no business being tacked on at the other side of one of the highest fantasy settings out there. I'd expect like 90% of the posters on this board could come up with a Kara-Tur equivilent more thematically suitable for how Faerun is set up than Kara-Tur ever was simply due to wanting it to fit with how Faerun is actually presented, and the 10% left over would back down because they admit to not knowing enough about Faerun to give it an honest shot

What doesn’t work with the rest of FR, as someone who has never read anything Kara-Tur? Are the gods incompatible or something?

 

[Parmandur]

What doesn’t work with the rest of FR, as someone who has never read anything Kara-Tur? Are the gods incompatible or something?

It wasn't conceived as part of the Forgotten Realms, and it was a retcon after both Oriental Adventures and the FR came out to decide to merge them. And this was given the usual care and consideration of TSR managerial marketing decisions. So, yeah, different cosmological which I believe get a big ol' dose of Handwavium radiation poisoning.

It's like Star Wars stuff just started showing up in the MCU, because Disney thought it would make money. Not coherent worldvuilding.