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.

 

[Aldarc]

Did they reveal the alt cover yet?

Vengar snowboarding while drinking Mountain Dew while listening to Xtreme! grunge music.

 

[This Effin’ GM]

Who is the artist, is it Jacobson?

 

[Reef]

This is not finished art. This is brushy concept art. It should not be used as the final product. The previewed Player's Handbook was the same. I hope the alternate DMG cover looks better than this (much like the alternate PHB cover, link below, was more evocative).

https://www.enworld.org/attachments/0_dnd_phb_alt_cvr_full_cvr-jpg-webp.363416/

A brushy art style does not mean it’s not finished. It’s a choice. Lots of great paintings over the centuries have had a brushy art style. In fact, one of the mark of a lot of great masters was knowing what details to focus on, and which to leave vague.

Doesn’t mean you have to like it. But just because you prefer a more polished style, doesn’t mean this is somehow unfinished.

Heck, going with a more artistic style might be a conscious reaction to all the complaints that modern 5e art is too “bright, polished, comic book,etc”.

 

[Parmandur]

A brushy art style does not mean it’s not finished. It’s a choice. Lots of great paintings over the centuries have had a brushy art style. In fact, one of the mark of a lot of great masters was knowing what details to focus on, and which to leave vague.

Doesn’t mean you have to like it. But just because you prefer a more polished style, doesn’t mean this is somehow unfinished.

Heck, going with a more artistic style might be a conscious reaction to all the complaints that modern 5e art is too “bright, polished, comic book,etc”.

Based on the art director's comments here and earlier about the PHB, they are intentionally invoking the painterly style of late 1E/2E cover art.

 

[DarkCrisis]

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.

 

[overgeeked]

Venger and Warduke. Sweet. I’ll take that cover as a poster. Not sure about the book though. Hope there’s a reboot of the cartoon now that Critical Role showed it could be done in modern times.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

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.

They used two of them in 2014 and in Out of the Abyss (they were Greyhawk villains first!). The bench isn't all that deep, although they could put Iuz on a 2024 cover.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

Venger and Warduke. Sweet. I’ll take that cover as a poster. Not sure about the book though. Hope there’s a reboot of the cartoon now that Critical Role showed it could be done in modern times.

I mean I get that.

I am surely getting the DMG but am very iffy about the phb contents…

I like the art just hope contents and changes are palatable.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Heck, going with a more artistic style might be a conscious reaction to all the complaints that modern 5e art is too “bright, polished, comic book,etc

I think it’s more likely a reaction to “this looks like AI art”.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Doesn't anyone else think its time for a new direction for the game?

Wild Beyond the Witchlight says hello.

But more importantly, non-WotC 5E products are frantically trying to get your attention with their often wildly different ideas about settings, adventures, monsters and rules systems.