D&D General Does The D&D Movie Poster Feature Pathfinder Artwork?

The Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves movie poster was previewed today. It was created by an artist called Bosslogic, and features an ampersand containing various pieces of D&D monster art. The poster was on display at San Diego Comic Con as part of the official D&D movie promotional event. However, one part of the poster appears to be Pathfinder's depiction of an intellect devourer. Is...

The Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves movie poster was previewed today. It was created by an artist called Bosslogic, and features an ampersand containing various pieces of D&D monster art. The poster was on display at San Diego Comic Con as part of the official D&D movie promotional event.

However, one part of the poster appears to be Pathfinder's depiction of an intellect devourer. Is this the same art piece?

poster.jpeg


paizo_devourer.png

Paizo's Pathfinder 2 Bestiary (thanks to @Ir'revrykal for the pic)

It certainly looks like the same piece of art.

Now, the intellect devourer is a D&D monster which appeared way back in 1976, and has appeared in every edition of D&D since. Why does Pathfinder have artwork of one? Well, the creature was first released as Open Gaming Content 20 years ago under the Open Gaming License. Since then, other companies have used the monster, or created their own versions of it -- including Paizo in the Pathfinder RPG. The name and the stat blocks (including the Pathfinder version) are free to use.

The art? Not so much. Art commissioned by Paizo to illustrate its Bestiaries is not Open Gaming Content. While art can be OGC (nowhere in the OGL is the actual subject matter defined -- you can make any of your work OGC and available for use by others, from sheet music to 3D spaceship models), companies rarely designate it as so, and Paizo's intellect devourer art is no exception.


However, the 'open gaming license' tangent is a red herring. It's unlikely that Paramount was thinking in terms of open source TTRPG game rules when it made the poster, and this poster is not released using the OGL, so its terms are not relevant to it. More likely, somebody just assumed that that piece of art was created by WotC, not Paizo. The 'OGL' part of this conversation simply explains why Paizo has a version of the creature too, and why Paizo therefore commissioned art for their version.

For comparison, here is the D&D 5E version of the intellect devourer—presumably the piece of art that should have been used.

C21BED96-2003-456D-9664-40E94A3F20D1.jpeg

It's not the first time mistakes like this have happened. Back in 2018 Old Spice released a D&D class called The Gentleman... except that it was actually a Pathfinder class!


When it comes down to it, this is almost certainly just a simple mistake--a contracted artist, not as versed in TTRPGs as many people reading this, simply didn't realise that other companies could or had made their own versions of the creature, and used the one which fitted the space. Nothing to get upset about, and the companies will likely have a quick phone call and the matter will be settled.
 

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Mistwell

Crusty Old Meatwad (he/him)
I spoke with a contact of mine at the largest movie poster company here in LA, and they checked and it's not their poster and the database they use for posters doesn't have this poster listed yet. So it's theoretically possible this is a mock-up poster and not the real thing. Or, it just hasn't been listed yet in the database and is with a different company.
 

Salthorae

Imperial Mountain Dew Taster
I mean the pathfinder version certainly looks WAY cooler than the D&D version

Has there been any statements from either eOne/WotC/Paizo on this yet?

Could there be any realm where the art was licensed for this poster specifically because it looked good and they didn't think everyone in the freaking world would (online anyway) jump on it right away?
 

Hm, the comment I included with the tweet I shared went missing. Anyway, the image from the 5E MM is facing right and the PRPG 2E one is facing left, same as the poster. I am guessing the person who made the poster saw the MM image would not fit the space or their vision for the poster, so they just Googled other images and grabbed the Paizo one, maybe without even realizing it belonged to another company.
 

Morrus

Well, that was fun
Staff member
Could there be any realm where the art was licensed for this poster specifically because it looked good and they didn't think everyone in the freaking world would (online anyway) jump on it right away?
I mean, I guess it could happen, but for the amount of money licensing something that would be, why would Paizo bother? And why would you do that when you had your own perfect cromulent versions?

Nah, it was just a mistake.
 

Morrus

Well, that was fun
Staff member
I spoke with a contact of mine at the largest movie poster company here in LA, and they checked and it's not their poster and the database they use for posters doesn't have this poster listed yet. So it's theoretically possible this is a mock-up poster and not the real thing. Or, it just hasn't been listed yet in the database and is with a different company.
It was on display at SDCC.
 

Mistwell

Crusty Old Meatwad (he/him)
It was on display at SDCC.
They can print mock-ups. 🤷 All she said was it hadn't been uploaded to the behind-the-scenes database of movie posters yet. Which doesn't necessarily mean it is or is not "official" yet. It could have been sent to print and be the official poster just not been uploaded yet.
 

Morrus

Well, that was fun
Staff member
They can print mock-ups. 🤷 All she said was it hadn't been uploaded to the behind-the-scenes database of movie posters yet. Which doesn't necessarily mean it is or is not "official" yet. It could have been sent to print and be the official poster just not been uploaded yet.
I guess you might use the term 'mockup' differently to me, but once it's physically deployed in public in an advertising capacity, it's 'official' as I understand the term. But, eh. Semantics.
 

Jer

Legend
Supporter
I spoke with a contact of mine at the largest movie poster company here in LA, and they checked and it's not their poster and the database they use for posters doesn't have this poster listed yet. So it's theoretically possible this is a mock-up poster and not the real thing. Or, it just hasn't been listed yet in the database and is with a different company.
On Twitter someone said it was a poster made by "BossLogic". I'm to understand that he's some kind of Photoshop remix artist?

I've never been a hip individual, but some days I feel even less hip than my usual baseline.
 

darjr

I crit!

huh? I wonder if it was a "Hey cool artist, make us a poster just for Comic Con" cause I haven't seen it anywhere else, before or since.

The other poster is everywhere. I don't think WotC or eOne could be fast enough to coordinate a switch like that so fast right in the middle of their comic con panel and trailer release.
 

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