D&D 5E Upcoming D&D Tidbits: Phandelver, Book of Many Things, Venger, & More!

D&D Beyond has shared some more tidbits of information about upcoming products, including this summer's new Phandelver campaign, and information about Vecna, Planescape, and spring's Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants, and more.

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Here are the highlights:

• In the 2024 Vecna adventure, you will visit various worlds.
• Art by Brian Valezer and Kent Davis from fall 2023's Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants was shared (see below), along with art from the Phandelver campaign by José Manzanedo. There was additional art from Planescape and more which you can see in the video.
• The new Phandelver book will include the existing adventure Lost Mines of Phandelver in the first half and then continue on to higher levels from there.
• They're reimagining Planescape for today's audience--honouring the roots then expanding.
• More cards are being added to the Deck of Many Things in winter 2023's Book of Many Things. A new product type--a deck of cards and an accompanying book. The book digs into the history of the deck and its cosmic place as a force of chaos. It contains player and DM content.
• Venger, the villain from the 1980s D&D cartoon who will be featuring in an upcoming storyline and WotC's Chris Perkins might have hinted he is actually a Red Wizard--'a redder Red Wizard' was the phrase used.
• Many of the various bad guys in the League of Malevolence appeared in the D&D cartoon series -- Kelek, Warduke, etc.

Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants (art by Brian Valezer)

Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants (art by Kent Davis)

Phandelver Campaign (art by José Manzanedo)

Book of Many Things (art by Craig J. Spearing)​

 

[Clint_L]

So, that was a delightful video. PR, basically, not much hard news, but I enjoyed it and appreciate the effort.

Perkins alluded to many new cards for the Deck of Many things, and I really hope enough of them are weaker so that, as a DM, I can come up with iterations suitable for different tiers of play. I like the randomizing effect of it as a way of bringing in story hooks, but don't need to see them be as absolute as in the current version.

I am very excited for the new Phandelver material. It is the one pre-written adventure that I sometimes use in its entirety, and I really hope that full-length book maintains the "structured sandbox" style of the starter adventure.

 

[R_J_K75]

I'm not thrilled about getting a reprint of Lost Mines, but I don't begrudge WotC for doing it.

Everyone I know says "Rob, your an...insert derogatory comment", and Im a beer half empty and thats dirt weed kind of guy, so I come off kind of gruff, angry or just PO'd. I'd like to reiterate, I'm not saying that what WotC 5E/1D&D is bad. As Jim Rome says. "Saying something sucks is not a take"! My gripe is that in my opinion the last innovative thing WotC did was Ebeeron, and maybe Nentir Valve. I'd like to see ,ore progression and intervation in the type of products and Im very disappointed that 2024 D&D is an updated 5E. Think I mispoke, the MtGsettings that were ported over to D&D were cool, well Theros at least. Maybe Im just nostalgic but 2E had the best assortment od book types/subject. My point is. not that its bad, but what 5E offers is just not to my liking anymore. but I hold out a little hope.

 

[mamba]

Where can we buy Lost Mines?

Amazon, probably eBay too. Also you get it for free on DDB.

If WotC wanted to keep on selling it, they could have done so too. Really not sure why they took it out of print and are adding it here now instead, seems a left hand / right hand kind of thing to me

 

[Weiley31]

I would expect the Lost Mines of Phandelver rerelease would be an expanded version of the adventure. But now it goes further beyond what we'll see.

 

[mamba]

Note, "half" doesn't sound exactly accurate, because Loat Mines is a short module, proba ly more like a fifth or sixth

it’s 64 pages, levels 1-5, so more like a third than like a fifth or less

 

[mamba]

And with so many people starting in the past 9 years, that's a lot of retro nostalgia built up.

what nostalgia, you could still buy it maybe 6 months ago

 

[MockingBird]

When 5e came out my first group really enjoyed Lost Mines. I was able to easily modify it and run it as written very easily. The group ended up being gifted the Red Brand hideout for their troubles and they made it their base of operations and eventually upgraded it into a keep. For my family group I ran the very first goblin ambush and cave dungeon and then worked in Sunless Citadel. The timing for the Phandelver book couldn't be more perfect since they are based out of the village. I'm excited cause I wasn't entirely sure where I would go after we completed sunless citadel.

 

[R_J_K75]

Amazon, probably eBay too. Also you get it for free on DDB.

If WotC wanted to keep on selling it, they could have done so too. Really not sure why they took it out of print and are adding it here now instead, seems a left hand / right hand kind of thing to me

ICR excatly but I think when the campaign book was announded a I looked for a starter box, and there werent many to be found under an arm and a leg, but dont quote me

 

[mamba]

ICR excatly but I think when the campaign book was announded a I looked for a starter box, and there werent many to be found under an arm and a leg, but dont quote me

After the end of the print run was announced, Amazon was still selling it for months, haven’t checked recently but would expect them to have sold out by now themselves (but not the marketplace).

Chances are the price did go up, it generally does when stuff is rare / out of print. You can get it for free though, so if you really want it, that is the easiest option.

On eBay I find them used starting at $4, new at $15.

 

[Parmandur]

Interesting, I'd think that a starter set would have the same print run as its edition. But come to think of it, each edition has had a few starter sets. I dont recall any of them being that great at teaching the game though. Thats not to say they dont have their place just perhaps need to be presented differently.

Worth noting that the new Starter Set is being positioned as forwards compatible, and WotC it will remain the Starter Set on shelves after the new Core books hit.