D&D (2024) 2024 Player's Handbook Reveal #1: "Everything You Need To Know!"

Each day this week, Wizards of the Coast will be releasing a new live-streamed preview video based on the upcoming Player's Handbook. The first is entitled Everything You Need To Know and you can watch it live below (or, if you missed it, you should be able to watch it from the start afterwards). The video focuses on weapon mastery and character origins.

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There will be new videos on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday this week, focusing on the Fighter, the Paladin, and the Barbarian, with (presumably) more in the coming weeks.

 

[MNblockhead]

Some people are simply unhappy with any depictions of fantasy that don’t like a heavy metal album cover.

We take this break from our normally scheduled hard-core debate over whether art is sufficiently edgy to appreciate that there are many ways to be hardcore.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Point well taken!

That said, a silly diversion (how I took the cartoons anyway in my teens) is not the same thing as setting baseline expectations for the tone of the game for new players…at least that is not how I took it.

So my hope is for balance. I think that will be the case? and people will take the home life stuff as home life and the adventuring stuff as the dangerous/dark endeavor it is!

now I am sure someone will say who are you to say adventuring isn’t silly fun?! Who says it’s dark? Why would you hit this goodly orc with a morning star when he just wants to be your tailor?!

No one I guess, I am just one data point…

So far they did stuff to get me excited and happy. And then some other stuff. So…excited to see the final product!

The thing is though... it is pretty clear that these are just the arts from the Species section. None of the class art is showing these sort of home life pictures.

I just don't understand how two pictures from a specific section of the book, depicting exactly what they said they would depict, is somehow now being turned into a sign that all of the art is going to look like this... when we have seen a lot of the other art and it doesn't look like this.

 

[Hussar]

The thing is though... it is pretty clear that these are just the arts from the Species section. None of the class art is showing these sort of home life pictures.

I just don't understand how two pictures from a specific section of the book, depicting exactly what they said they would depict, is somehow now being turned into a sign that all of the art is going to look like this... when we have seen a lot of the other art and it doesn't look like this.

You're doing this wrong.

You must take every single example of something you don't like in the game as evidence that the game is now being ruined for "true" fans and WotC is abandoning fandom.

This is the way.

 

[Vaalingrade]

You're doing this wrong.

You must take every single example of something you don't like in the game as evidence that the game is now being ruined for "true" fans and WotC is abandoning fandom.

This is the way.

Don't forget to tenuously link it to popular culture in some way too.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

The thing is though... it is pretty clear that these are just the arts from the Species section. None of the class art is showing these sort of home life pictures.

I just don't understand how two pictures from a specific section of the book, depicting exactly what they said they would depict, is somehow now being turned into a sign that all of the art is going to look like this... when we have seen a lot of the other art and it doesn't look like this.

Reread what I wrote.

I made no definitive statement about how it “all” would be.

I did say I hope cutesy does not set the tone for baseline expectations for races…er…species. Boy these discussions make me feel left out.

If it’s not someone tearing the whole thing down and ruining my enthusiasm, it’s someone else taking exception with anything but uniformly glowing praise. Ones a downer, the other is cloying.

I have said I hope it’s balanced and so far I like some and not the other.

I do not like the depiction of the orcs at all. The art is good, the theme is not my taste. Same with dwarves giving eachother baked goods.

I understand you don’t understand how someone might think that is a bad sign. That’s ok. But it’s not in isolation.

I really like Tasha’s overall and its changes which will be in the phb. But some of its art seemed dopey to me so the pieces I don’t like a lot here are not in isolation.

Love the covers! as I said and some of the other art too.

I am not sure what the whole will be like.

But also read upthread. Several folks mentioned and discussed twee cute comfortable fantasy and others saying it’s becoming more popular. My hope is that this does not become a big player in the official D&D books.

Will it? I don’t know. Maybe?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

It has happened in.... I'd say 4 games in the last 8 years I can think of quickly.

You had apprentices and sidekicks or you raised monsters? You combined them. I've seen the second on plenty, and former pretty much never.

And if you're going to keep making up words to violently shove into my mouth, what's the point lol? I obviously didn't say anything about "death metal covers" so don't pretend I did! That's just really sad and flabby argumentation that show you don't actually have a point.

But it does work as PART of a campaign.

Does it? It's literally the endgame for the couple describe, not "part of a campaign", unless you just mean the end/epilogue of a campaign, in which case, sure that sort of thing has been the end of campaigns since time immemoriam. Coffee bars are just update on taverns!

Right, I'm not sure what your definition of Twee is, other than insulting whatever art it is you don't like. But I can say, it sounds like cutesy... and there may have been a handful of those pictures.

It's excessively, aggressively cutesy beyond a certain threshold, and you're being a bit of a hypocrite to complain about me using that term, give you throw around terms plenty for stuff you're complaining about. If you don't understand it, maybe ask for an explanation instead of making one up?

And the "kid art" is on you. Twee doesn't have to be "kiddy" in sense of actually appealing to or genuinely intended for children (indeed, it very often isn't). Lots of children don't even like it - see the success of countless artists like Quentin Blake who draw for children but strongly eschew the twee - indeed most better children's artists do - there's nothing "twee" about the Gruffalo, for example. It's well-judged rather than aggressively cutesy.

So far I've seen a bit of cutesy but not excessive art for 5E, a lot of art that's neither cutesy nor edgy (which is fine), and a little bit of outright twee art, and a couple of pieces which are borderline. What I haven't seen yet is anything scary or menacing - the DMG could have been but instead went for using D&D cartoon characters.

I know this seems to be very difficult for you to understand, because you seem to be actively looking to be mad about what I'm saying, but my concern is more about future direction. I don't think it's sensible for D&D to triple-down on being cute. Has it done that? Not yet. But a relatively small change of tack could send it there.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Reread what I wrote.

I made no definitive statement about how it “all” would be.

I did say I hope cutesy does not set the tone for baseline expectations for races…er…species. Boy these discussions make me feel left out.

If it’s not someone tearing the whole thing down and ruining my enthusiasm, it’s someone else taking exception with anything but uniformly glowing praise. Ones a downer, the other is cloying.

I have said I hope it’s balanced and so far I like some and not the other.

I do not like the depiction of the orcs at all. The art is good, the theme is not my taste. Same with dwarves giving eachother baked goods.

I understand you don’t understand how someone might think that is a bad sign. That’s ok. But it’s not in isolation.

I really like Tasha’s overall and its changes which will be in the phb. But some of its art seemed dopey to me so the pieces I don’t like a lot here are not in isolation.

Love the covers! as I said and some of the other art too.

I am not sure what the whole will be like.

But also read upthread. Several folks mentioned and discussed twee cute comfortable fantasy and others saying it’s becoming more popular. My hope is that this does not become a big player in the official D&D books.

Will it? I don’t know. Maybe?

I'm not saying everything has to be glowing praise, but there are some parts of this discussion that frustrate me.

For example, they told us that the Species art would depict groups of elves, goliaths, orcs, dwarves, ect in their homes and cultures. We knew this before the dwarf picture was posted.

We also know there are ten species in the book. So, there will be ten of these art pieces.

WE have also SEEN most of them. Off the top of my head, I can remember the artwork for the Dwarves, The Orcs, The Aasimar, The Humans, the Halflings, The Gnomes, and the Dragonborn. That is seven of the ten art pieces. And most of them are not "cutesy" or "twee" or "disney" or whatever else.

We have also seen somewhere in the neighborhood of 75 other pieces of art, just counting off my head. The majority of which is ALSO not any of those things.


Now, maybe you don't know all of this. Maybe you haven't seen the other videos. But if you haven't, if you don't... then you can just take my word for it that the art direction you are worried about isn't the main art direction. Because, from my perspective, knowing all of this, actually seeing the art that they've been showing in every single video... it isn't an argument that makes sense to be worried about this.

 

[Scribe]

WE have also SEEN most of them. Off the top of my head, I can remember the artwork for the Dwarves, The Orcs, The Aasimar, The Humans, the Halflings, The Gnomes, and the Dragonborn. That is seven of the ten art pieces.

Have they been linked anywhere?

 

[Parmandur]

WE have also SEEN most of them. Off the top of my head, I can remember the artwork for the Dwarves, The Orcs, The Aasimar, The Humans, the Halflings, The Gnomes, and the Dragonborn. That is seven of the ten art pieces.

I've seen the Tiefling, Elf and Goliath pieces, so O think all 10 are floating about.

 

[Parmandur]

And the "kid art" is on you. Twee doesn't have to be "kiddy" in sense of actually appealing to or genuinely intended for children (indeed, it very often isn't). Lots of children don't even like it - see the success of countless artists like Quentin Blake who draw for children but strongly eschew the twee - indeed most better children's artists do - there's nothing "twee" about the Gruffalo, for example. It's well-judged rather than aggressively cutesy.

Might be one of those "two countries separated by a common language" things goijg on here, because I think "Twee" is mostly a British word, and insofar as Ameicans use it might be more pejorative over here.

There is definitely more cozy stuff in this editions art, but that's in style. There have also been a lot of violent action scenes, like the one with raistlin and Friends fighting a Dragon.