D&D (2024) Dragon Delves Cover Revealed

At MagicCon: Chicago this last weekend, WotC revealed the cover art for July's Dragon Delves hardcover.

Two covers were revealed--the regular cover by Greg Staples, and the alternative cover by Justine Jones.

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Dragon Delves, coming out July 8th, is an anthology of 10 dragon-themed D&D adventures ranging from levels 1-12. Each adventure features a different type of dragon.

 

[sevenbastard]

The two books with her as solo lead are real stinkers (Shattered Obelisk

It is such a shame they messed up Shattered Obelisk.

You have one of the best adventures of the last 30 years as your base. Then you have untold amounts of digital ink online that was spent by folks explaining ways to expand and enhance it that you can gain inspiration from. But nah just shove some unrelated adventure on the back end of the book and call it a day.

All that said I don't know the corporate direction she was given so hard to say if that was her fault or someone above her, but they squandered the potential.

We will see Lost Mines again. It's too good a module with too big a fan base not to pop up again in 7 to 10 years. Like Keep on the Boarderland or Ravenloft it will keep coming back.

 

[GarrettKP]

Because it's a feel-good stomp-fest, and a GM trying to enhance it to be anything but is going to have their work cut out for them.

WotC is capable of making challenging adventures... But EoR is a paper tiger.

I’m running Eve of Ruin right now and my party got their asses kicked throughout the first dungeon with the rod piece. Idk why people are having issues but I haven’t had them so far.

 

[kapars]

I’m running Eve of Ruin right now and my party got their asses kicked throughout the first dungeon with the rod piece. Idk why people are having issues but I haven’t had them so far.

Using 24’ monsters or 14’ monsters?

 

[GarrettKP]

Using 24’ monsters or 14’ monsters?

Both. We had about three encounters in that area before I got access to the MM2024 and the party survived but struggled. Then Friday we ran the "boss" of that particular section (being veague to avoid spoilers) using a 2024 monster and the party only managed to squeak out a win thanks to a very well timed Divine Intervention Short Rest (Prayer of Healing).

The encounter using the 2024 MM was certainly more challenging, with one player dominated early (by a 2024 MM monster) and both the Wizard and Cleric almost downed before their first turn thanks to an AOE (which came from a Eve of Ruin specific creature). But even the 2014 encounters managed to at least drain resources and force some potion quaffing.

I do suspect that if you ran the full adventure with 2014 monsters and your main complaint was it was too easy, try again with 2024 and you'll have a very different experience.

 

[Cergorach]

As I said on another thread, that alt cover wouldn't look out of place on the wall of a '70s/'80s dorm room.

I think that might not look out of place in my '25 living room, for some odd reason I really, really like that alternate cover...

 

[dave2008]

I find neither of these covers appealing. I hope the adventures are fun (and I hope they will be usable in Eberron, with its more hands-off approach to dragons).

Not my favorite covers for sure, but the standard cover has a very Jeff Easley vibe IMO and I like it well enough.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Huh. I'm surprised many of you don't like those covers. I think both are really great.

 

[dave2008]

Huh. I'm surprised many of you don't like those covers. I think both are really great.

I like the standard, it is just not my favorite. The art direction of the cover makes sense for an anthology, but I prefer a unified art work myself. Also, some of the artistic license taken with the new dragon designs is not hitting for me (though I appreciate the freedom for artist to do it). However, I still like it. As I mentioned before it reminds me a bit of good Jeff Easley.

For the alt-cover: I just don't like the psychedelic style and never have. It is just a me thing.

 

[Doctor Futurity]

Suffice it to say, the fact that Dragon Delves has two uninspiring covers and an uninspiring lead designer makes me less enthusiastic about getting it.

As the Dude said, that's like, your opinion, man. I love that alt cover, far more inspiring and cool than I am used to seeing from many WotC books.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I am far from the only one picking it apart!

Here’s another one for you: D&D 5E - Justin Alexander's review of Shattered Obelisk is pretty scathing

Here’s our very own @MerricB’s review: Review: The Shattered Obelisk - Merric's Musings


I don’t hate it. I even started a thread on how to make it better: D&D 5E - Enhancing Vecna: Eve of Ruin SPOILERS

That said, it has had generally unfavorable reviews for a variety of reasons (mainly, it’s railroady, especially with the main twist, and it’s too easy, with Vecna in particular not being a good enough challenge for the PCs as written).

This is why I say I haven’t been impressed by Amanda Hamon’s track record at WotC so far.

Again, I am hardly the only person complaining about these two adventures.

Suffice it to say, the fact that Dragon Delves has two uninspiring covers and an uninspiring lead designer makes me less enthusiastic about getting it.

Those are largely the same minor nitpicks I don’t care about.

I don’t really find the Eve of Ruin stuff negatives. I will find out with time if it’s too easy. (Though I really don’t agree that Vecna himself is too easy)