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:

 

[Warpiglet-7]

I can understand not vibing with given art: but, man, sometimes it gets weird.

Art is subjective but the power of belief is incredible. If I am invested in X genuinely sucking…I can convince myself it sucks despite what is in front of me.

There are so many examples of this law, psychology, politics…whatever.

There are also rose colored glasses people like to slip on as well…

For my part I am going to take whatever I want from the new edition and enjoy it but I am very committed to not wholesale crapping on the fun of others. Even in an online environment…it’s not fun for anyone.

Expressing preference is fair game I would hope. Oh well. I will get the DMG…not running to get the players. The MM will depends and will wait and see. In the meantime they are soaking me with my miniatures purchases

Self inflicted, all of it!

 

[Parmandur]

yeah, I’d say the same, she is absolutely not looking or pointing in the direction of the dragonborn

Best I can do just on my phone, but the finger and her line of sight clearly meet-up at his face:

 

[mikeburke]

Best I can do just on my phone, but the finger and her line of sight clearly meet-up at his face:
View attachment 381759

This is fast becoming the 2024 D&D version of The Dress.

Excellent!

 

[Parmandur]

This is fast becoming the 2024 D&D version of The Dress.

Excellent!

That is clearly blue and black, but that's neither here nor there.

 

[Belen]

Anyway I understand that art is entirely subjective, but people outright hating on the new stuff which looks great to me I can barely understand.

I do not like it. It looks too cartoony to me. Some is ok but I am not a fan of the current style.

Luckily, I do not buy books for the art.

I am not going to hate on it but I do not enjoy it and it would not be art that made me want to try the game.

 

[mamba]

Best I can do just on my phone

I guess we disagree about the positioning in the third dimension... If the Dragonborn is looking at the halfling, the halfling is not looking at the dragonborn because their faces are not facing each other. As I wrote earlier, the halfling would have to look much further to the left. Where is the Dragonborn looking in your interpretation?

So here is my interpretation of where everyone is looking (the Dragonborn is not even looking at the halfling, or at most they are with one eye....)

And the positioning in 3d, with the gray rectangle being the building behind them, maybe more to the bottom right corner for the human and halfling, but you get the idea

 

[Parmandur]

I guess we disagree about the positioning in the third dimension... If the Dragonborn is looking at the halfling, the halfling is not looking at the dragonborn because their faces are not facing each other. As I wrote earlier, the halfling would have to look much further to the left. Where is the Dragonborn looking in your interpretation?

So here is my interpretation of where everyone is looking (the Dragonborn is not even looking at the halfling, or at most they are with one eye....)

View attachment 381771

And the positioning in 3d, with the gray rectangle being the building behind them, maybe more to the bottom right corner for the human and halfling, but you get the idea

View attachment 381772

Except...those lines don't match up, you have the degrees way off for the Halfling and the Human...? You have the lines jagging way right of the natural three dimensional lines.

 

[Chaosmancer]

I do not like it. It looks too cartoony to me. Some is ok but I am not a fan of the current style.

Luckily, I do not buy books for the art.

I am not going to hate on it but I do not enjoy it and it would not be art that made me want to try the game.

Can I take a quick tanget to say how much I UTTERLY DESPISE the fact that "cartoon" is still used a pejorative about quality?

Our entire flipping culture has been shaped by "cartoons". There are entire college courses studying animation and the works of Warner Bros, Disney, and Hanna-Barbera. The animation industry is a 400 BILLION dollar industry. To put that into proper perspective, the Film Industry, you know, Hollywood? It is valued around $285 Billion. Video Game industry is about $184 Billion, the PC industry is 291 Billion.

And yet people STILL go on about how "Well, it looks like a cartoon, so therefore it cannot have any serious quality or value to it, because Cartoons are cheap products made for children by people with no skill, unlike REAL entertainment" just like they did back in the flippin' 50's

Does that mean you need to love a cartoon style (whatever that is since there are literally hundreds of different styles of animation)? No, obviously not. But it is just so irritating to see this ubiquity of using "cartoon" as an insult to the quality of art.

 

[Chaosmancer]

I guess we disagree about the positioning in the third dimension... If the Dragonborn is looking at the halfling, the halfling is not looking at the dragonborn because their faces are not facing each other. As I wrote earlier, the halfling would have to look much further to the left. Where is the Dragonborn looking in your interpretation?

So here is my interpretation of where everyone is looking (the Dragonborn is not even looking at the halfling, or at most they are with one eye....)

View attachment 381771

And the positioning in 3d, with the gray rectangle being the building behind them, maybe more to the bottom right corner for the human and halfling, but you get the idea

View attachment 381772

If you have your red line following the halflings finger instead of their knuckle, it goes directly into the Dragonborn's chin.

Part of your issue, looking at the abstract model, is that you have them next to each other and the halfling pointing away from themselves. But the halfling is behind (maybe just a step) the Dragonborn, and both of them are turning. The halfling isn't pointing straight away from their body, but across their body (you can see the twist in their shoulder and curve of their elbow) which then would match the eyeline as going towards the Dragonborn.

I also don't get why you think the Dragonborn isn't looking at the Halfling, when their snout it clearly pointed at their chest.

 

[mamba]

Except...those lines don't match up, you have the degrees way off for the Halfling and the Human...? You have the lines jagging way right of the natural three dimensional lines.

as I said, the 3d lines should probably be more to the bottom right corner. The main point was they look past the dragonborn, and the halfling is not at all facing / looking at them