D&D (2024) 2024 Player's Handbook Reveal #1: "Everything You Need To Know!"

Each day this week, Wizards of the Coast will be releasing a new live-streamed preview video based on the upcoming Player's Handbook. The first is entitled Everything You Need To Know and you can watch it live below (or, if you missed it, you should be able to watch it from the start afterwards). The video focuses on weapon mastery and character origins.

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There will be new videos on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday this week, focusing on the Fighter, the Paladin, and the Barbarian, with (presumably) more in the coming weeks.

 

[Scribe]

I was about to joke that that is ok, we have AI to generate those images now, but then they probably do not....

Wizards wouldnt even print what the AI allows, note this was the only 1 out of likely hundreds generated for this prompt. The AI absolutely COULD generate what you are talking about, but they intentionally prevent those from being shown because, well we dont dare offend.

 

[mamba]

Wizards wouldnt even print what the AI allows, note this was the only 1 out of likely hundreds generated for this prompt.

I got a proper bikini after removing chainmail, yours has way more clothing…

Next time I try silver mesh bikini or something

 

[Scribe]

I got a proper bikini after removing chainmail, yours has way more clothing…

Next time I try silver mesh bikini or something

Yeah, to be clear I wasnt even trying for anything like that. Thats my 'warlord' template, which I've generated hundreds of tests for, and thats the only one that ever had an exposed midriff.

 

[Micah Sweet]

D&D art has been fairly tame for many years now. I see no reason for that to change. People making a big deal about this are just looking for another outrage to get mad about.

So something you don't like isn't worth complaining about because it's been the way you don't like for a while? Is there an iron-clad statute of limitations on how you're allowed to react to something?

 

[BookTenTiger]

I was about to joke that that is ok, we have AI to generate those images now, but then they probably do not....

EDIT: decided to give it a try and got 'Your image generations are not displayed because we detected unsafe content in the images based on our content policy' when using 'chainmail bikini', once I removed 'chainmail' it was fine

Chainmail bikinis are totally unsafe! Can you imagine the chafing???

 

[Demetrios1453]

Chainmail bikinis are totally unsafe! Can you imagine the chafing???

It didn't seem to bother Alias all that much. Then again, it was magical chainmail, and presumably said magic helped protect against chafing as much as strikes against that big gap in the middle (the authors had to actually state that last bit outright in the sequel novel since so many people made fun of it).

(Amusingly, this conversation starts up just as I'm literally about to fire up Curse of the Azure Bonds to continue my Gold Box playthrough).

 

[Kurotowa]

It didn't seem to bother Alias all that much. Then again, it was magical chainmail, and presumably said magic helped protect against chafing as much as strikes against that big gap in the middle (the authors had to actually state that last bit outright in the sequel novel since so many people made fun of it).

Oh gods, Azure Bonds. I barely remember the details of that series, but I still remember the contortions the story went through to justify that armor.

IIRC a villain was planning to ritually sacrifice the heroine, but for Reasons she had to be in full combat kit for it, so they dressed her in custom made armor with a handy "insert sacrificial dagger into heart HERE" opening. She survived and escaped, of course, but she kept the armor because it had (for some reason) been magically enchanted and was thus better protection than anything else she could get her hands on. Even with the boob window.

Even at a young age and with the generally lower standards of the 90s, part of me was impressed by the lengths they went to find a way to explain it, and part of me said "You could have just not drawn her that way."

 

[Iosue]

The Azure Bonds cover was done by Clyde Caldwell, who was so devoted to the sexy in his D&D artwork, the cover to the sequel included a sexy halfling.

 

[Micah Sweet]

The Azure Bonds cover was done by Clyde Caldwell, who was so devoted to the sexy in his D&D artwork, the cover to the sequel included a sexy halfling.

I miss 2e art.

 

[Aldarc]

You mean like when OSR enthusiasts go on about "kewl powers", "Mos Eisley Cantina", "pushed like a drug" (really, now?) and a whole litany of other negativity about anything that's not in the narrow play style of the 70s. It gets old and that's why (general) you get pushback. And as long as there is this crapping on any playstyle that isn't the same as the 70s, there will like continue to be pushback because people get sick of the constant negativity. It's become so bad that it has made me disavow OSR games altogether (even though I own some OSR titles—as well as my collection of TSR-era products) because there's been enough OSR enthusiasts that behave in the same style as the stereotype of vegans (no actual vegans were harmed in the making of this post).

Also, no one is calling OSR enthusiasts or older players (hell, I'm about to turn 50—I've gotten old), as a whole, sexist or racist (more likely it's just some OSR enthusiasts internalizing critiques about older products' writing and artwork and believing that those critiques apply to themselves). Though there is enough of a problem that it caused some OSR enthusiasts to create a Facebook group without the bigotry that had become too common (and/or passively accepted without moderation) in some other OSR groups—but that's OSR enthusiasts reacting to other OSR enthusiasts, so y'know).

Can I recommend Mausritter? It's NuSR and an Odd-like* game.

* The family of games based on Chris McDowall's Into the Odd.