D&D (2024) Comeliness and Representation in Recent DnD Art

[Faolyn]

Fair enough. What parts of the new books are me getting what I want?

Anything you're willing to accept and enjoy. It's entirely up to you.

 

[Scribe]

Fair enough. Not enough for me to pay $50 for either, sadly.

One was a gift, and the Dragon book was before the price hikes, so it wasnt too bad.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

As for ToF, again, there is a reason it was replaced, and at least one of those reasons was the definitive lore/background/history it tried to establish.

I wonder who wrote it actually, since they couldnt seem to run away from it fast enough.

Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes?

Lead Designers: Mike Mearls, Jeremy Crawford
Designers: Adam Lee, Ben Petrisor, Robert J. Schwalb, Matt Sernett, Steve Winter

Don't get much more core than Mearls and Crawford. I felt like they actually tried to run away from Volo's faster though, which has the same issue of trying to establish definitive lore/history, and also as a major bonus managed to evoke some really unfortunate racist ideas without meaning to.

Volo's has:

Lead Designer: Mike Mearls
Lead Rules Developer: Jeremy Crawford
Designers: Adam Lee, Kim Mohan, Christopher Perkins, Sean K Reynolds, Matt Sernett, Chris Sims, Steve Winter

So pretty similar - Mearls and Crawford were undoubtedly behind and completely signed off on the whole "establish definitive lore/history" approach which they they've since backed up from like a Porsche 911 automatic when the turbo kicks in (something one of my friends found out about when he borrowed one once!).

 

[jasper]

As a creator or weaver of chainmail top muffins and bottom muffins, I have no problem with them being depicted in art.
Hey professional artists, have your created standard cake art, and more diverse and inclusive art? Which one sells better to the general public?

 

[Charlaquin]

Do we know how important the amount and quality of art is to the sales of RPG products?

I don’t. I would imagine there are folks on here who do small publishing who have a better idea. But I guarantee you Hazbro-owned WotC wouldn’t be paying for the amount of art they do if they didn’t have solid data saying it makes a net profit.

 

[Charlaquin]

(Geeze that art is confusing... is he flying away from the fire dog with his giant fans?)

I think he’s leaping and turning to face towards it. Basically I think his momentum is in the opposite direction to your interpretation here. Also pretty sure they’re axes.

 

[Charlaquin]

I mean barbarians literally have a class feature to justify fighting wearing only a loincloth,* so I think it is fine depict them doing that.

* (Made out of leather, not chainmail.)

To be fair, I think unarmored defense would still kick in if the loincloth was made of mail.

 

[Alzrius]

I mean barbarians literally have a class feature to justify fighting wearing only a loincloth,* so I think it is fine depict them doing that.

* (Made out of leather, not chainmail.)

That's a thing for any picture of characters who use magical and other non-armor options for defense (and even comfort), where those options are known to the audience. I remember people complaining about the "impracticality" of Seoni's mode of dress in Pathfinder. But she's a sorcerer, and not only is armor not really an option for her, but we know what her game stats are. Just looking in the NPC Codex, we can see that at level 12 she has an AC of 31, whereas at the same level Seelah (a paladin with enchanted full plate and a magic shield) only has an AC of 28.

 

[Vaalingrade]

I mean barbarians literally have a class feature to justify fighting wearing only a loincloth,* so I think it is fine depict them doing that.

* (Made out of leather, not chainmail.)

What about 'made out of a group of goblins who are very dedicated to preserving your dignity?

 

[jayoungr]

If the books truly need a dwarf in nothing but a metal thong and his beard, put it in a scene where there's no reason to expect a need for better gear.

It would make perfect sense to see a dwarf monk or barbarian (un)dressed that way.