The 'Wonderland'-Inspired Faces of the RAGE OF DEMONS

Take a peek at some of the art from D&D's upcoming Rage of Demons storyline. This art is by Richard Whitters, who is the art director for D&D and used to work as a concept artist for Magic: the Gathering. WotC's Chris Perkins has indicated that one of the influences on Rage of Demons was Alice in Wonderland, and I think the influence is clear when you look at the characters below.

OUGALOP, kuo-toa cave cricket catcher extraordinaire.

YUK YUK and SPIDERBAIT, goblin adrenaline junkies.

THE SOCIETY OF BRILLIANCE, the Mensa of the Underdark.

GLABBAGOOL, awakened gelatinous cube.

RUMPADUMP and STOOL, myconid followers.

PRINCE DERENDIL, a quaggoth who thinks he's elven royalty.

TOPSY and TURVY, svirfneblin wererat siblings.

THE PUDDING KING, svirfneblin devotee (i.e., flunky) of Juiblex the Faceless Lord.

D&D's "Legion of Doom." What a wonderful bunch of malcontents.
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[jamesjhaeck]

All of this art looks like the concept art that was commissioned for Princes and to guide the PHB art in early development. To people worried about the art being this over the top and sketchy, I doubt this is indicative of the final product. My guess is that it's just to inspire the "mood" for the final interior pieces.

 

[HobbitFan]

You know what it may be is that the Underdark "friendlies" you encounter in the adventure and games will be "dark whimsy" themed to underline how the Underdark is different.
That seems one way of the adventure have dark whimsy and ultimate evil in one package.

 

[Hussar]

I have to admit, I'd LOVE to see some weird come back into D&D. I miss the early days of Otus art and the like where D&D was just ... well... weird. Sometimes silly, sometimes downright scary, but, always weird. Not all the time. That's cool. But, D&D lost its sense of humour for years, and I'd love to see some of that come back.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

I have to admit, I'd LOVE to see some weird come back into D&D. I miss the early days of Otus art and the like where D&D was just ... well... weird. Sometimes silly, sometimes downright scary, but, always weird. Not all the time. That's cool. But, D&D lost its sense of humour for years, and I'd love to see some of that come back.

Yeah. I always find that attempts to make storytelling (in any medium) feel more believable by making all of the elements "serious" eventually lose something. Overly-serious isn't believable. Real life has humor and silliness in it.

 

[Rejuvenator]

Heh. To me, PS humanizing the fiends was one of the setting's biggest missteps. There are plenty of evils that can be humanized, but the fiends shouldn't be. Ever. They are literally evil incarnate.

Agreed... If evil incarnate is more evil than Hitler (Godwin!), and the media generally doesn't "humanize" Hitler, I wouldn't play a serious game of D&D that humanizes fiends.

But we're getting off-topic.

Oops Well, then to tie it back, a Wonderland pocket dimension where everyone is mad as a hatter and the usual conventions go out the window sounds fun to me for the odd game.

 

[Jeff Albertson]

I have to admit, I'd LOVE to see some weird come back into D&D. I miss the early days of Otus art and the like where D&D was just ... well... weird. Sometimes silly, sometimes downright scary, but, always weird. Not all the time. That's cool. But, D&D lost its sense of humour for years, and I'd love to see some of that come back.

I agree, at some point D&D started taking itself far too seriously, I would like a return of some whimsy.

 

[Curmudjinn]

It wasn't long ago when the Alice in Wonderland rumor dropped and nerdrage commenced with some even declaring they give up on the future of 5e and WotC.
Now, it seems to be nearly as anticipated as the core books. With Green Ronin(that's ro-neen) behind the curtain; I can't see this being anything but great.

Cross your fingers for Cubicle 7 writing a future horror-based release.

 

[Parmandur]

You know what it may be is that the Underdark "friendlies" you encounter in the adventure and games will be "dark whimsy" themed to underline how the Underdark is different.

That seems one way of the adventure have dark whimsy and ultimate evil in one package.

I agree; the clever part of what they've shown so far is using the Abyss as a foil to make Underdark nasties "enemy of my enemy" strange bedfellows for the PCs.

 

[transtemporal]

Who do we think they are?

You'd expect Demogorgon and Pazuzu to make an appearance surely. How about Lloth? Or she on everyones shitlist?

 

[MonsterEnvy]

You'd expect Demogorgon and Pazuzu to make an appearance surely. How about Lloth? Or she on everyones shitlist?

He was talking about the Demon Lords in the picture.