'Dungeons & Dragons Releases New Artwork For The Upcoming Player's Handbook

Video Games

May 16

Dungeons & Dragons art — Image Source: Gameinformer

Dungeons & Dragons is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and to commemorate this “golden” jubilee Wizards of the Coast will rerelease the core rules of the famous pen-and-paper RPG in three stunning new books: Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, and Monster Manual.

All three books will be backward compatible with the fifth edition of the game, while at the same time paving the way into the future of the hugely popular game. The Player’s Handbook, which will be released first deals with the game’s heroes, while the Dungeon Master’s Guide focuses on the villains.

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“A lot of our chapter openers are famous heroes,” says Wizards of the Coast art director Josh Herman. “Whereas the Dungeon Master’s Guide is all about villains. The cover is all about the villains and the sort of threats that the DM gets to play up. And in that art, you get to see a lot of our famous locations and some of our famous villains in its chapter openers. So, it's sort of like the opposite side of the coin; we want to present all of the facets of the game in a way that hopefully people can understand.”

Each book has 384 pages, comes with a red spine and the seal of the 50th anniversary on the back, and includes many beautifully drawn pictures.

Special attention was given to presenting the characters and creatures in various settings and environments to give players a sense of the variety of the game and the opportunities they have in choosing and applying their characters in various situations.

“We want to show off all the different ways that players can play just like you can choose any type of character, and we want to create a broad gamut for you to pick from.”, explains Hemann.

D&D character art — Image Source: Gameinformer

Another emphasis was given to creating cohesive visual language within each book and across all three of them. So, for example, the chapter for each class starts with a picture on the left page and the corresponding lead data on the right page.

In some cases, the writers and designers went back to concepts and ideas that were five decades old and refined and rejuvenated them to honor the great past of the game, while giving it a fresh and modern look.

Preorders for the Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, and Monster Manual start on June 18 and each book will be priced at $49.99.

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