D&D (2024) New D&D Edition's Player’s Handbook Cover Reveal

Game Informer has revealed the cover to the 2024 Player’s Handbook.

The cover features a gold dragon behind the old-school D&D characters Strongheart the paladin, Mercion the cleric, Elkhorn the dwarf fighter, and Molliver the thief. Ringlerun the wizard is absent (then again he got his showcase on one of the 1E AD&D Player's Handbooks), but a drow mage appears to have joined the party!

 

[Uta-napishti]

BTW, for those that wonder why D&D doesn't have any "iconic heroes" like the Marvel Universe, you don't understand the RPG medium. RPGs are a factory to produce characters and stories, not a finished story full of recognizable characters. You can't compare a medium where you are selling pre-written pre-baked story and personalities (meaning traditional movies, books etc.) vs a medium where you are collaboratively writing your own stories around your own heroes ( rpgs ). If you have a ton of recognizeable hero characters in an RPG product, you are distorting and constraining what is possible for the players -- if you want a badass main character people will buy merch of, make a movie. Sure sometimes, in RPGs certain NPCs or especially villains resonate over the years, but the whole point with RPGs is there is a giant empty space where the HERO of the story should stand, waiting for YOUR character! Of course D&D hero characters aren't memorable!

 

[zenopus]

XL1 Quest for the Heartstone, apparently a sort of a tie-in module for the action figures. I've not read it, but I might get the PDF just for curiosity (it is not considered a good adventure).

I played through it in a long session (six hours!) at Gary Con in 2023, and it was actually quite fun. I was running Peralay (Melf) and one other pre-gen whose name escapes me at the moment. For anyone interested in seeing the original playable versions of Strongheart, Mercion and others, XL1 is easily available from DT in either PDF or Print.

It ends with a neat multi-level dungeon in the same style as the famous one of Xak Tsaroth in the first Dragonlance module, DL1, which came out around the same time in 1984. I've attached a screenshot of part of this map (warning: spoilers for the adventure).

 

[Remathilis]

BTW, for those that wonder why D&D doesn't have any "iconic heroes" like the Marvel Universe, you don't understand the RPG medium. RPGs are a factory to produce characters and stories, not a finished story full of recognizable characters. You can't compare a medium where you are selling pre-written pre-baked story and personalities (meaning traditional movies, books etc.) vs a medium where you are collaboratively writing your own stories around your own heroes ( rpgs ). If you have a ton of recognizeable hero characters in an RPG product, you are distorting and constraining what is possible for the players -- if you want a badass main character people will buy merch of, make a movie. Sure sometimes, in RPGs certain NPCs or especially villains resonate over the years, but the whole point with RPGs is there is a giant empty space where the HERO of the story should stand, waiting for YOUR character! Of course D&D hero characters aren't memorable!

Still, D&D has plenty of supplemental material like books, video games, movies and such for iconic heroes to develop and the best we got was the Heroes of the Lance (which are highly tied to a specific setting and not generic) and Drizzt and his companions (which I don't feel represent an iconic D&D party). They have tried with the 3e D&D iconics, but didn't commit to the bit enough. So they are opting for the 80s action figures and cartoons. It still is rough that you can tell people that the characters on the PHB have established names and histories and most players would never have heard of them.

 

[mamba]

BTW, for those that wonder why D&D doesn't have any "iconic heroes" like the Marvel Universe, you don't understand the RPG medium.

I agree, but at the same time TSR published a ton of books, they could have managed to have some recognizable characters (Drizzt, Raistlin, …) to garner interest

I believe they want such characters now, but they will need a hugely successful movie to establish them at this point

 

[Parmandur]

I agree, but at the same time TSR published a ton of books, they could have managed to have some recognizable characters (Drizzt, Raistlin, …) to garner interest

I believe they want such characters now, but they will need a hugely successful movie to establish them at this point

The Hame Informer article says that there is a picture in the PHB that has Raistlin and Cameron, at least, and I would lay odds Drizzt will be in this PHB again (as he was in 2014).

 

[mamba]

The Hame Informer article says that there is a picture in the PHB that has Raistlin and Cameron, at least, and I would lay odds Drizzt will be in this PHB again (as he was in 2014).

yes, I expect them to be in the core books, heroes in the PHB, villains like Strahd and Soth in the DMG.

I was thinking beyond the books, recognition and interest on a much larger level, like Luke or Vader from Star Wars or Gandalf from LotR, something that can get an audience interested in a movie. If they had had that, I am not sure they would have gone with unknowns for DADHAT

The closest thing to that they have is imo Dragonlance, but they do not seem to be interested in doing anything with it. No idea if they are correct with that and it has faded into obscurity or whether it still could work

 

[Nikosandros]

I played through it in a long session (six hours!) at Gary Con in 2023, and it was actually quite fun. I was running Peralay (Melf) and one other pre-gen who's name escapes me at the moment. For anyone interested in seeing the original playable versions of Strongheart, Mercion and others, XL1 is easily available from DT in either PDF or Print.

It ends with a neat multi-level dungeon in the same style as the famous one of Xak Tsaroth in the first Dragonlance module, DL1, which came out around the same time in 1984. I've attached a screenshot of part of this map (warning: spoilers for the adventure).

Thanks for the info. After reading this, I'll get the PDF for sure.

 

[Mirrorrorrim]

Wait. When did they add the Aasimar? To the 2024 Players Handbook?

I assume it wont be in there.

The 2024 books will have surprises that were never playtested. They mentioned the Soulknife in a recent video, and we just got confirmation on the Aasimar (which was likely added instead of the Ardling due to overwhelming feedback from the community. They listened.)

 

[DarkCrisis]

If D&D has one iconic character it's Drizzt. He's had far more various products made about him than any other by miles. Books, video games, toys, posters, replica swords, etc etc

 

[Yaarel]

If D&D has one iconic character it's Drizzt. He's had far more various products made about him than any other by miles. Books, video games, toys, posters, replica swords, etc etc

It is funny. D&D grognards seem to actively hate anything that is cool. When vampires are popular, grognards make sure it will never happen in D&D. Wizard culture. Forget it! If it is wildly popular and sure to make lots of money, grognards will kill it. Anime? Riots. Even Drizzt from D&D − was too cool for grognards to stomach.

Heh. Somehow D&D grognards go out of their way to be anticool. At any cost.