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

 

[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).