D&D General Does The D&D Movie Poster Feature Pathfinder Artwork?

The Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves movie poster was previewed today. It was created by an artist called Bosslogic, and features an ampersand containing various pieces of D&D monster art. The poster was on display at San Diego Comic Con as part of the official D&D movie promotional event. However, one part of the poster appears to be Pathfinder's depiction of an intellect devourer. Is...

The Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves movie poster was previewed today. It was created by an artist called Bosslogic, and features an ampersand containing various pieces of D&D monster art. The poster was on display at San Diego Comic Con as part of the official D&D movie promotional event.

However, one part of the poster appears to be Pathfinder's depiction of an intellect devourer. Is this the same art piece?

poster.jpeg


paizo_devourer.png

Paizo's Pathfinder 2 Bestiary (thanks to @Ir'revrykal for the pic)

It certainly looks like the same piece of art.

Now, the intellect devourer is a D&D monster which appeared way back in 1976, and has appeared in every edition of D&D since. Why does Pathfinder have artwork of one? Well, the creature was first released as Open Gaming Content 20 years ago under the Open Gaming License. Since then, other companies have used the monster, or created their own versions of it -- including Paizo in the Pathfinder RPG. The name and the stat blocks (including the Pathfinder version) are free to use.

The art? Not so much. Art commissioned by Paizo to illustrate its Bestiaries is not Open Gaming Content. While art can be OGC (nowhere in the OGL is the actual subject matter defined -- you can make any of your work OGC and available for use by others, from sheet music to 3D spaceship models), companies rarely designate it as so, and Paizo's intellect devourer art is no exception.


However, the 'open gaming license' tangent is a red herring. It's unlikely that Paramount was thinking in terms of open source TTRPG game rules when it made the poster, and this poster is not released using the OGL, so its terms are not relevant to it. More likely, somebody just assumed that that piece of art was created by WotC, not Paizo. The 'OGL' part of this conversation simply explains why Paizo has a version of the creature too, and why Paizo therefore commissioned art for their version.

For comparison, here is the D&D 5E version of the intellect devourer—presumably the piece of art that should have been used.

C21BED96-2003-456D-9664-40E94A3F20D1.jpeg

It's not the first time mistakes like this have happened. Back in 2018 Old Spice released a D&D class called The Gentleman... except that it was actually a Pathfinder class!


When it comes down to it, this is almost certainly just a simple mistake--a contracted artist, not as versed in TTRPGs as many people reading this, simply didn't realise that other companies could or had made their own versions of the creature, and used the one which fitted the space. Nothing to get upset about, and the companies will likely have a quick phone call and the matter will be settled.
 

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Jer

Legend
Supporter
Here is the poster they are going with.
That's quite nice.

The other one looks more like a mock up for a possible poster than an actual poster. Is there any word on where it was posted? (because angle of the image here looks like someone did a really good job taking a picture of a poster, rather than being an original image).
 




DND_Reborn

The High Aldwin
I don't think Wizards had anything to do with the production of the poster. Any dispute over the art is with Paramount and eOne.
Maybe not, but I would be a bit surprised if that was the case. I know many "owners" have some input and rights when it comes to how things go with the film. 🤷‍♂️
 

Jer

Legend
Supporter
Maybe not, but I would be a bit surprised if that was the case. I know many "owners" have some input and rights when it comes to how things go with the film. 🤷‍♂️
That's what eOne is there for. eOne is Hasbro's film and TV arm, so they're the owners who are supposed to be doing oversight.

And they've said that Wizards has been involved in the movie side with helping to make sure that the monsters were done correctly in the movie - both visually and how they act - but I doubt anyone from Wizards is reviewing the artwork on posters. (But the person whose job it was to clear the rights on the images for movie posters is probably going to be having a bad day tomorrow if they're not already having one.)
 

Rabulias

the Incomparably Shrewd and Clever
The other one looks more like a mock up for a possible poster than an actual poster. Is there any word on where it was posted? (because angle of the image here looks like someone did a really good job taking a picture of a poster, rather than being an original image).
It was a photo of a poster at the ComicCon Tavern Experience this past weekend, so it's official, but maybe like a "limited edition cover" teaser poster used only at the Tavern Experience, and the gold ampersand one is the real, more visible teaser poster?

Here is a link to The Hollywood Reporter tweet that posted the picture:

 



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