New Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide Art and Details Revealed

The marketing cycle for the 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide is underway. Wizards of the Coast has released the first video and accompanying article previewing the 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide. Wizards has already told fans what's actually in the new 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide, so there's not much in terms of actual new details. The video/article revealed that the Bastion system got another look from designers after its initial Unearthed Arcana playtest, that there will be a DM's Toolkit for everything from "alignment to traps," now arranged in alphabetical order, and that there will be 400 "new and improved" magic items.

The 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide will also be the home of rules for crafting magic items and a new Greyhawk campaign setting guide, with a focus on showcasing how Greyhawk can be customized or be used as a model for homemade campaign settings. Finally, the Dungeon Master's Guide will contain a lore glossary and a full chapter about D&D cosmology, the latter of which helps to drive home the idea of the D&D multiverse.


While much of this information was already known, the video and article did show off a LOT of new art, some of which can be found below:

 

[ezo]

Thay art is terrible simply because that is most definitely  not how you strap an arm into a shield! The point side is supposed to be down, and holding your arm where it would be twisted with the hand towards the bottom would be awkward bordering on impossible. If he's wearing the shield point side up on purpose, then he's a fool and going against several millenia of basic shield use knowledge. I've always liked the mood the picture is trying to convey, but that terrible shield positioning just takes me right out of it every time.

I've always imagined he swung his shield up to block or something and the barbed devil grabbed it...?

Or he's so confident he's opening up his defenses to encourage them to come to be slaughtered?

 

[KYRON45]

Thay art is terrible simply because that is most definitely  not how you strap an arm into a shield! The point side is supposed to be down, and holding your arm where it would be twisted with the hand towards the bottom would be awkward bordering on impossible. If he's wearing the shield point side up on purpose, then he's a fool and going against several millenia of basic shield use knowledge. I've always liked the mood the picture is trying to convey, but that terrible shield positioning just takes me right out of it every time.

Maybe the artist just thought it looked cool and isn't an expert on Human/Devil warfare.

 

[Parmandur]

Maybe the artist just thought it looked cool and isn't an expert on Human/Devil warfare.

No, we don't treat art or artists with charity here.

It was probsvly drawn by AI, look at the lack of color.

 

[beta-ray]

i like most of the pieces, some of them are not to my tastes. It's kind of a shame that words like "terrible" get thrown around so casually. Yeah, of course the pieces can be criticized, but it's… well I just find it a shame.

 

[Parmandur]

i like most of the pieces, some of them are not to my tastes. It's kind of a shame that words like "terrible" get thrown around so casually. Yeah, of course the pieces can be criticized, but it's… well I just find it a shame.

The art is great, full stop. These new core books are the best D&D art has ever been, folks be trippin'.

 

[Oofta]

Thay art is terrible simply because that is most definitely  not how you strap an arm into a shield! The point side is supposed to be down, and holding your arm where it would be twisted with the hand towards the bottom would be awkward bordering on impossible. If he's wearing the shield point side up on purpose, then he's a fool and going against several millenia of basic shield use knowledge. I've always liked the mood the picture is trying to convey, but that terrible shield positioning just takes me right out of it every time.

Oh, great. Another part of my childhood destroyed before my eyes! Thanks a lot!

Actually now that you mention it also always that bothered me was the bug ... thing on the bottom seems to have his right arm going through a spike? And no left arm from shortly below the shoulder? Maybe? Always enjoyed the scene in a way but the details. Ugh.

 

[jayoungr]

They really are leaning heavy into the cartoon. Too bad for them that I have zero nostalgia for it--the only episode I've ever seen is this brilliant reworking:

 

[marimbaguy715]

I just do not understand the comments hating on the art, I think it looks fantastic. My favorite has to be Kent Davis's landscape with the redesigned bronze dragon flying above - I immediately recognized his art style, he did some fantastic work for Call of the Netherdeep as well. I think he does a really great job at evoking a grand sense of adventure.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Thay art is terrible simply because that is most definitely  not how you strap an arm into a shield! The point side is supposed to be down, and holding your arm where it would be twisted with the hand towards the bottom would be awkward bordering on impossible. If he's wearing the shield point side up on purpose, then he's a fool and going against several millenia of basic shield use knowledge. I've always liked the mood the picture is trying to convey, but that terrible shield positioning just takes me right out of it every time.

The old art was basically friends and family drawing pictures.

 

[The Soloist]

If you open the castle and docks picture in a new tab and zoom in, you can see the grain of the canvas on the left-side tower and in other areas. Definitely hand-painted.