D&D General Forgotten Realms cover to "Guide to the Dalelands" revealed, book delayed

Andvari · Tuesday at 10:30 AM

It's a shame WOTC stopped doing quality hand-painted cover art like during the Basic/AD&D days with Elmore, Easley, Caldwell etc. I'm sure there are talented artists around who could do it, so it must be a case of wanting to saving money or time.

Parmandur · Tuesday at 12:53 PM

Andvari said:
It's a shame WOTC stopped doing quality hand-painted cover art like during the Basic/AD&D days with Elmore, Easley, Caldwell etc. I'm sure there are talented artists around who could do it, so it must be a case of wanting to saving money or time.

They...have done a lot of handpainted covers in the past decade? Specifically Tyler Jacobson covers. They also put out a ton of Magic cards that are canvas paintings.

This is from one of the Forgotten Realms Magic cards, but on this page you can see him posing with one of his paintings on canvas, similar to the Core book civers:

Tiamat card art, from Forgotten Realms, worth more than $43,000 at auction

The auction, which started today, has several bids and its currently value is $43,000!

mtg.cardsrealm.com

Whizbang Dustyboots · Tuesday at 6:07 PM

Andvari said:
It's a shame WOTC stopped doing quality hand-painted cover art like during the Basic/AD&D days with Elmore, Easley, Caldwell etc. I'm sure there are talented artists around who could do it, so it must be a case of wanting to saving money or time.

The number of artists doing purely physical media art, especially in the fantasy genre, is a lot smaller nowadays than you might think.

TheSword · Tuesday at 7:50 PM

Misanthrope Prime said:
I say this literally; what is the appeal of the Dalelands? It seems to be the blandest part of the otherwise really interesting forgotten realms, yet I go to other D&D forums and people are like "FINALLY a RETURN to the DALELANDS! I've been waiting since highschool for this!" and I just like... don't see it?

I like it so much I made a thread about it. These would be my reasons:

Rich lore
War with the Zhentarim
Elven tensions and Myth Drannor
Intrigue and politics
Small scale heroism - villages and towns no kings.
Lots of great dungeon locations

Lots there to make it a more interesting area than much of the city state led sword coast. The small scale in particular makes it a great location to adventure in as PCs can make a real difference to whole communities in a plausible way.

Unfortunately none of these things are conveyed by the art work that started the thread which is pretty sad. It seems better designed for a kids book about adventuring. Rather than a deeply detailed and vibrant area to explore. It makes the riders look naive and clueless. Also why is the bandit smiling? Why would you smile when you’re about to risk your life against mounted spearmen! Madness

D&D General Thread 'Reasons I Love the Dalelands as a Campaign Location'

Sep 7, 2025

With 5.5e Adventures in the Forgotten Realms set to release in just a few months, I was thrilled to learn that the Dalelands will be one of the five featured regions. It feels like coming full circle—one of the first D&D products I ever bought was the AD&D Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, and the first adventure I ran was Beneath the Twisted Tower. Shadowdale was richly detailed, with a labyrinth of adventure sites beneath it. Fifteen years later, I revisited the same location in Shadowdale: Scouring of the Land, flipping the narrative and exploring familiar...