D&D (2024) New Dungeon Master's Guide Cover Features Venger (From the D&D Cartoons)

The cover of the 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide has been unveiled.... in the Mirror, a mainstream newspaper in the UK.

The cover art features villains (as opposed to the heroes on the Player's Handbook cover revealed last week), with skeletons in the foreground, the classic villains Skylla and Warduke in the mid ground, and then Venger from the 1980s Dungeons & Dragons cartoon looming in the background, and right at the back lurks a dracolich.

The DMG will be released November 12th, 2024.

 

[Parmandur]

The majority of the things I've heard about TG: Maverick (and I also saw it) that people liked had to do with references to the previous movie.

I admit that if I was at a store and saw that cover I would be compelled to pick it up. Then as I'm reaching for it, and realizing what it is, I'd probably let out an audible "Oh Wizards, you almost got me!"
Which I figure is what they're going for.

I mean, it just seems like an odd comparison to illustrate your reaction since the critical and crowd consensus is thar Maverick is the better film that elevates the original.

Yes, WotC is looking to get eyeballs with the art. That will probably work fine for them.

 

[J.Quondam]

Fine for what it is, decent looking mooks, lieutenants, and BBEG; but I wish it had less pose and more action.
As fan service, though, it seems a missed opportunity, imo. It might have been neat, for example, to get a reimaging of (what to me is) a pretty iconic image of Venger on his nightmare:

, maybe with Dungeon Master* down below returning fire or something. (Preferably with the requisite Saturday morning "bleerewblweerewblew" sound effect.)



* I mean, wat? No Dungeon Master on the DMG?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The red spine with black (blood?) stripe is better-ish than the original with the reversed colors and kind of evokes the 1E orange spine covers. Still not crazy about the fire/blood/whatever stripe. It feels very much like a middle aged dude trying hard to be metal.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Yeah, this is starting to remind me of the new Top Gun movie. A whole lot of "hey remember that thing" and very little substance.

What constitutes "substance" in an RPG cover?

 

[Kurotowa]

On the one hand, it's obvious that WotC is really trying to beat the drum on their established IP characters. Especially the ones who had some visibility in the 80s, not the 90s novel line characters. But on the other hand... you're not going to nostalgia bait many people with a character as obscure as Scylla. No one was holding out for her return. So that's just a deep cut for the pure sake of saying you're using an existing character, not a new one.

I suppose that for the 50th anniversary they were going to make as many callbacks as they could. Which isn't a bad thing, by itself. Slavish imitation of the past is a bad thing, but they're definitely updating all these old characters a bit. Some people don't like the callbacks, some people don't like the updates, and there's going to be complaints from both ends.

For my part, I have slightly mixed feelings, but I'll willing to wait and see where they go with it.

 

[bmfrosty]

I like it well enough. But they are really leaning into the whole D&D cartoon though with Venger having such a prominent placement. Makes me wonder if there's a reboot in the works.

I'm more of the opinion that they're trying to appeal to the 80's kids that remember the cartoon, or at least having fun referencing that particular D&D.

Just for fun adding a relevant meme.

 

[Zaukrie]

I know I'm the outlier, but nostalgia is largely bad, so call me bored with all this.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

On the one hand, it's obvious that WotC is really trying to beat the drum on their established IP characters. Especially the ones who had some visibility in the 80s, not the 90s novel line characters. But on the other hand... you're not going to nostalgia bait many people with a character as obscure as Scylla. No one was holding out for her return. So that's just a deep cut for the pure sake of saying you're using an existing character, not a new one.

It honestly feels like they're running around trying to get a new animated series off the ground, in which case, all of these covers will be tie-ins to what would hopefully be a big hit.

Otherwise, yeah, this is like slapping super-obscure Masters of the Universe figures only sold in Bhutan on their cover.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The red spine with black (blood?) stripe is better-ish than the original with the reversed colors and kind of evokes the 1E orange spine covers. Still not crazy about the fire/blood/whatever stripe. It feels very much like a middle aged dude trying hard to be metal.

Metal is middle aged dudes.

 

[Reynard]

Does it seem weird to anyone else that they went with the cartoon villains on the cover but are using gryhawk instead of The Realm as the example setting? Aren't there a bunch of GH villains they could have used? Seems like a disjointed art direction decision.