Ravenloft: The Horrors Within Announced, Release Date Scheduled for June 2026

[Parmandur]

how efficient TSR were in supplying reference images to artists

"efficient" is not a word associated with anything at TSR, lol. As I understand it, the artists in that era were pretty much on their own, and we're not given very sensible direction.

 

[Kurotowa]

"efficient" is not a word associated with anything at TSR, lol. As I understand it, the artists in that era were pretty much on their own, and we're not given very sensible direction.

Minimal art direction was the standard of the time. Book covers for science fiction and fantasy novels were infamous for having little to no relationship with the actual material. And for how often the artist just recycled what they were familiar with, aka Star Wars or Star Trek, because all they were given to work with was a back of the book sized blurb.

 

[nyvinter]

"efficient" is not a word associated with anything at TSR, lol. As I understand it, the artists in that era were pretty much on their own, and we're not given very sensible direction.

Yeah. Elmore got his sketches for the Red Box refused several times, managed to get a meeting with Gygax — "special people or not, if he wants a cover for his Dungeons & Dragons then I have to see him" — and got a "I want something that reach out and grabs me." Which is useless art direction, so lots of props to Elmore who did the literal thing.

 

[Azzy]

I agree it doesn't look like Soth (and the bat wings are especially odd), but the full version of the picture seems like that scene from Dragons of Spring Dawning where Tanis kills Ariakas and takes the crown of power before Soth can (EDIT: there's some interesting stuff about this over on this Stack Exchange page):

Can I just add that I have never liked Easely's work?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Can I just add that I have never liked Easely's work?

I quite like that image. And I would really like the Crown of Epic Beards.

 

[Artamo]

I agree it doesn't look like Soth (and the bat wings are especially odd), but the full version of the picture seems like that scene from Dragons of Spring Dawning where Tanis kills Ariakas and takes the crown of power before Soth can (EDIT: there's some interesting stuff about this over on this Stack Exchange page):

Wow, you know I remember being mystified as a kid about who the skeletal guy was on the cover. Glad I wasn’t the only one!

 

[Paul Farquhar]

For those who haven't seen it, from DDB article, dated 2nd March:

Upcoming Heroes from Dragonlance​

While Raistlin is the first Champion from the Heroes of the Lance affiliation, he won't be the last! Stay tuned for both Tasslehoff and Laurana joining the game in the coming months.

 

[mamba]

For those who haven't seen it, from DDB article, dated 2nd March:

Champion is an idle clicker term here, as far as D&D is concerned he is called a Hero of the Lance, in your very quote.

The game is called Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms and has 150 champions from the FR, now gaining three from DL. So even if champions were used because of this game, this is not making DL all that likely.

“Collect iconic D&D characters from Forgotten Realms and pair them with your favorites like The Dark Urge, Lae'zel, Shadowheart, Astarion, Karlach, Gale and Wyll!”

“Frequent updates bring new adventures, Champions, and Events to the game from TRPG books like The Wild Beyond the Witchlight, Curse of Strahd, and Waterdeep: Dragon Heist.”

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Champion is an idle clicker term here

Of course. But it shows at least that there remains a continuing view that there is money to be made from the Dragonlance IP in 2026. And it might even be that “Champions” is is an idle in-joke.