New ‘Planescape’ Icons Of the Realm Are Ready For Pre-Order From WizKids
by Anton Kromoff
Welcome to the table,
Today is a good day.
A little history, because as of the time I’m writing this, the newest 5th edition boxset of Planescape has just arrived on my desk and I’m looking over the Icons of the Realms Planescape: Adventures In the Multiverse Limited Edition Boxed Set that my good friends at WizKids have sent me.
David “Zeb” Cook grew up on a farm in Iowa. He played a lot of tabletop war games when he was younger, but that was mostly because there were not really any TTRPGs back then. So one day, Zeb responded to an ad in the iconic Dragon magazine for a game designer position at TSR, the company formed by Gary Gygax and Don Kaye to publish and sell Dungeons & Dragons. After Zeb wrote a sample module section and completed the designer test that the company then used, Zeb became the third full-time game designer hired by the company.
Lawrence Schick, who was head of design and development for TSR at the time, brought Zeb on board during this magical time when TSR was seeing massive growth and really stretching out into the public pop culture space. Zeb would go on to become the Senior Designer at TSR and most of his work is foundational to the hobby as a whole.
In the same way people speak of the legacy of Gygax and Greenwood, Zeb Cook is another trailblazer in the world of TTRPG and we, those who roll dice and enjoy the lore and the game, have him to thank for a lot of things we hold near and dear. One of the most notable things being the Planescape setting.
My friends over at WizKids have put up for pre-order a new Icons of the Realms set that goes perfectly with the new Planescape book and it is for sure one of the cooler offerings they have done recently.
This limited edition set really lets you elevate your Planescape campaign in a lot of cool ways. R04M the Modron really stands out as one of the most rad little automatons I have seen in pre-painted sculpt form in recent years. I have always liked these little guys, going back to my middle school days doodling them into the margins of my science class notebooks as I would flip through my friend’s classic Planescape books.
The set contains three medium-sized creatures and two large-sized creatures. Each mini has a paint scheme unique to this box, with Shemeshka’s Bodyguard being a miniature exclusive to this boxed set.
This box also comes with a cool little Doomguard Rot Blade whose sword is crackling with strange energies. The Bariaur Wanderer really captures the half-goat half-humanoid wanderers of the upper planes as it holds its spear aloft.
The Warden Archon is super cool to me. As a kid I always saw these as the noble or knightly versions of the Werebears that would cause chaos and destruction through villages in the outskirts or the mist-shrouded hills around Castle Ravenloft. This new incarnation blows me away, though. It really looks like some agent of a holy city now in its gleaming armor and holy vestments.
Finally, the sculpt on Shemeshka’s Bodyguard is so perfect. From the face tendrils to the textures on the leather vest. The piping on the cloth bits of its jacket and pants and the strange elephant-like toes, this is such an odd mini and it could work so well at the table and the photos of it do not do it justice. It really is such a cool little miniature.
The paint schemes in this box are unique to this set and the only way to get Shemeshka’s Bodyguard is by scoring yourself this particular limited edition collection, so if you want to add some extra spice to your D&D nights as your party explores the planes above and below you are going to want to pre-order this at the link before they sell out.
Until next time, Also as of note because it is super important Tony DiTerlizzi was selected to be the sole artist for Planescape when Zeb was working on it and thus became the first freelance artist in TSR’s history to fully illustrate a complete line of AD&D products for several consecutive years. His style and artistic vibes defined the setting and Planescape would not be what it is without his contributions.