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

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I congratulate the artists for the pictures showed in those covers. There is "glamour", somethint turning on your imagination.

The giants need a good story, something style "Game of Thrones" but with more superpowers.

 

[ersatzphil]

Planescape
I think I'll get the DiTerlizzi alt cover set for Planescape, if this is anything to go by:

Honestly, I suspect this is the DM screen for the slipcase set - which means more DiTerlizzi art for the set.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

I guess I'm going to be disappointed if Bigby's Book doesn't have a Cantrip called Bigby's Backhand otherwise known as Bigby's Bitchslap or Bigby's Slapping Hand.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I had been trying to keep all my books matching, but I've been given the alt covers for Fizban's, Candlekeep, and the Golden Vault already, and I just love, love, love that art DiTerlizzi shared online (see my post above). If that's what features on the alt cover set (or similar) then I will not be able to resist.

The dimensions of that art suggest it's a screen to me. I would assume the alternate slipcase will have a similar vibe, though.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I guess I'm going to be disappointed if Bigby's Book doesn't have a Cantrip called Bigby's Backhand otherwise known as Bigby's Bitchslap or Bigby's Slapping Hand.

Bigby's Single Digit

 

[Zaukrie]

Bigby's Single Digit

Bard cantrip for sure

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

Bigby's Single Digit

Order of the Stick used a variation on that once: Bugsby's Expressive Single Digit!

624 This Happens to Telemarketers All the Time - Giant in the Playground Games

 

[Fifinjir]

I just hope “Sigil and the Outlands” will actually have some Outlands in it.

 

[Quickleaf]

With Vecna coming next year along with 5.5e, that description of the Fortune's Wheel adventure involving a "a plot to undermine the rules of reality" has eeries undertones of Die Vecna Die! released as meta-plot transition from AD&D to 3e.

And everybody knows how much Planescape fans loved Die Vecna Die! which wasn't contentious at all.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Original Setting
64 pages on the planes
96 pages on the Sigil and the Outlands
30ish pages for players.

Total: 180ish pages of setting and covered all of the planes

New Boxed Set
96 pages on Sigil and the Outlans

Total: Around half the setting material of the original boxed set, not more.

I would have liked to see a 200-250ish page setting book that gave us the entire setting. Planescape is one of my favorite settings. The Sword Coast Adventure Guide has shown us that once WotC has released a sliver of a setting, they don't finish it up.

Edit: I missed that you were talking about the adventure adding more. It will probably add a bit, but still fall way short of the original amount of setting material.

Agree 110%, its a mix of too short page count with the adventure eating a huge amount of space.

Note WotC stop putting adventures into setting products, its coming at major expense of the setting. Even 4e knew not to do this.

 

[Zaukrie]

Agree 110%, its a mix of too short page count with the adventure eating a huge amount of space.

Note WotC stop putting adventures into setting products, its coming at major expense of the setting. Even 4e knew not to do this.

I disagree. While I love reading the settings, the amount of detail rarely matters. Plus, I can read a lot free on line, or buy dmsguild products. But the adventure, assuming it's good, is always useful.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

The old books had a much larger font and pretty obtrusive art everywhere. We will probably get more details in the new book than the old one.

 

[BovineofWar]

I think a lot of us are just burnt out that WotC doesn't do good world building* anymore. Spelljammer was a huge let down, no matter how good the tie in adventure is, it doesn't make up for the fact that the campaign setting is missing the setting.

My thought remains if WotC is going to be bad at world building, just don't do it. A 296 page Spelljammer or Planescape adventure would given a better setting introduction then a 64 page booklet in a slip case. Even though Forgotten Realms had the anemic Sword Coast Adventure's guide, FR is likely better developed through the various adventures than the 'campaign setting'.

So high hopes for Planescape, but concerned that 96 pages isn't a lot, especially since it is quite unlikely that they will ever release more follow up Planescape books. Hopefully a new manual of the planes, maybe, someday?

*with the exception of Eberron, &c. Keith Baker doesn't get enough credit or WotC contracts for that matter.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

The price is now $82cad on amazon.ca

If there us not a huge sale between now and its release WotC can go to the Abyss, there will be very few products I buy from them going forward.

I'm already done with MtG pretty much after recking Theros in MOM, if the greed continues, it looks like there will be very few D&D products I buy. Probably mostly FR & DL novels.

I mean I've been increasingly disguisted over the years with most (but not all WotC products), of their products.

If I buy 5e products after this it'll probably be for Midguard/Southlands 3rd party setting. Just wish they made novels for the setting.

Its becoming clear WotC wants whales for customers the rest of us are unwanted.

 

[Maxperson]

I disagree. While I love reading the settings, the amount of detail rarely matters.

Then you don't need a setting. Just make up whatever details you want and buy adventures. A setting needs details or it isn't much a setting.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I think a lot of us are just burnt out that WotC doesn't do good world building* anymore. Spelljammer was a huge let down, no matter how good the tie in adventure is, it doesn't make up for the fact that the campaign setting is missing the setting.

My thought remains if WotC is going to be bad at world building, just don't do it. A 296 page Spelljammer or Planescape adventure would given a better setting introduction then a 64 page booklet in a slip case. Even though Forgotten Realms had the anemic Sword Coast Adventure's guide, FR is likely better developed through the various adventures than the 'campaign setting'.

So high hopes for Planescape, but concerned that 96 pages isn't a lot, especially since it is quite unlikely that they will ever release more follow up Planescape books. Hopefully a new manual of the planes, maybe, someday?

*with the exception of Eberron, &c. Keith Baker doesn't get enough credit or WotC contracts for that matter.

I don’t agree, Spelljammer was too short I agree, but it’s getting more pages for a reason.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

The price is now $82cad on amazon.ca

If there us not a huge sale between now and its release WotC can go to the Abyss, there will be very few products I buy from them going forward.

I'm already done with MtG pretty much after recking Theros in MOM, if the greed continues, it looks like there will be very few D&D products I buy. Probably mostly FR & DL novels.

I mean I've been increasingly disguisted over the years with most (but not all WotC products), of their products.

If I buy 5e products after this it'll probably be for Midguard/Southlands 3rd party setting. Just wish they made novels for the setting.

Its becoming clear WotC wants whales for customers the rest of us are unwanted.

They already said prices were increasing for the physical releases.

 

[Parmandur]

The price is now $82cad on amazon.ca

If there us not a huge sale between now and its release WotC can go to the Abyss, there will be very few products I buy from them going forward.

I'm already done with MtG pretty much after recking Theros in MOM, if the greed continues, it looks like there will be very few D&D products I buy. Probably mostly FR & DL novels.

I mean I've been increasingly disguisted over the years with most (but not all WotC products), of their products.

If I buy 5e products after this it'll probably be for Midguard/Southlands 3rd party setting. Just wish they made novels for the setting.

Its becoming clear WotC wants whales for customers the rest of us are unwanted.

I mean, the Amazon price will come down fast enough, for sure. $1 USD in 2014 is $1.28 today, so this price increase isn't even keeping pace. Hardly whale material.

 

[mamba]

Its becoming clear WotC wants whales for customers the rest of us are unwanted.

if you think a whale is someone spending 70 bucks on something every two months or so, you are very mistaken.

As to buying the product, if $70 is too much, wait for the $40 sale a few months down the line or buy the $30 digital version ($20 if you wait for that…) - or skip it altogether if you are not interested, no one is expected to (let alone required to) buy every D&D product on the day of release, not that WotC would complain if you did

 

[dead]

I wonder if they’ll advance Sigil’s timeline 100 years to keep up with the Realms. I know it’s the Outer Planes and some folks will say time works differently. Well, yes, it can work differently but throughout 2E the campaign settings and Planescape pretty much ticked along at the same yearly pace. I know different worlds have a slightly different amount of days per year but this was largely hand-waived. (Because most D&D settings are Earth-like analogues with a similar number of days, I've always said that 1 year on Sigil equals “1 year on a D&D world” whether it be Toril, Oerth or Krynn.)

But it would be interesting to hear what has been happening on Sigil and the planes in those 100 years. For example, how did the Spellplague effect things? I understand everything is being reset - ie. we’re going back to the Great Wheel cosmology, we’re going back to Grey-box era Realms (albeit 100 years has advanced) - but it would still be nice to get some brief details.