D&D 5E Lore & Legends Is An Official Visual Guide to D&D 5th Edition

Coming in October from the authors of Dungeons and Dragons Art & Arcana: A Visual History is a new illustrated guide--this time to D&D 5th Edition, including artwork, interviews, and more. Lore & Legends is by Michael Witwer, Kyle Newman, Jon Peterson, and Sam Witwer, and is an officially licensed D&D book.

The 400+ page book is scheduled for release on October 3rd.

An illustrated guide to Dungeons & Dragons’ beloved fifth edition told through interviews, artwork, and visual ephemera from the designers, storytellers, and artists who bring it to life.

When the reimagined fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons debuted in the summer of 2014, tabletop roleplaying games were on the brink of obsolescence. But within a few short years, D&D found greater success than it had ever enjoyed before, even surpassing its 1980s golden age. How did an analog game nearly a half century old become a star in a digital world? For the first time, Lore & Legends reveals the incredible ongoing story of Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition from the perspective of the designers, artists, and players who bring it to life. This comprehensive visual guide illuminates contemporary D&D—its development, evolution, cultural relevance, and popularity—through exclusive interviews and more than 900 pieces of artwork, photography, and advertising curated and analyzed by the authors of the bestselling and Hugo Award–nominated Dungeons & Dragons Art & Arcana.

 

[darjr]

@Morrus

This is cool. I loved Art and Arcana!

Though I’m not sure this can be as full telling if the history, it being so close still.

So close! Started ten years ago!

 

[eyeheartawk]

I liked Art & Arcana alot. But this is a retrospective look at an edition we're...still in?

 

[darjr]

I liked Art & Arcana alot. But this is a retrospective look at an edition we're...still in?

It could still be awesome. I wonder if it points to a significant change in art?

It’s also making me feel old, sorta.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I liked Art & Arcana alot. But this is a retrospective look at an edition we're...still in?

Yeah, it gives me pause as well, but Penguin Random House -- a company that understands monetization -- wants to have a shiny new book on book store displays when the 50th anniversary hype train gets going.

They could either update Art & Arcana, which would be a big ask, as this would balloon the price of that book even higher, or do it as a separate volume. My guess is these two books get merged into a "special edition" with a few extra pages of art in a few years.

 

[Parmandur]

It could still be awesome. I wonder if it points to a significant change in art?

It’s also making me feel old, sorta.

Yeah, it gives me pause as well, but Penguin Random House -- a company that understands monetization -- wants to have a shiny new book on book store displays when the 50th anniversary hype train gets going.

They could either update Art & Arcana, which would be a big ask, as this would balloon the price of that book even higher, or do it as a separate volume. My guess is these two books get merged into a "special edition" with a few extra pages of art in a few years.

I think there are two factors:

1.) A&A released in October 2018, primed for the 45th anniversary the next year, so this is for the 50th Anniversary over the next year, as a great gift at bookstores.

2.) A&A had over 700 pieces of artwork and photos covering ~40 years of D&D (there was a little smattering of 5E stuff near the end, but they said in the book that it would require a whole other volume, so they were already thinking this one out). According to Penguin's description, this volume has over 900 pieces of art and photos. Nine hundred. That's a hundred pieces per year covered!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

So. Many. Giant. Headed. Halflings.

 

[Burnside]

I really like Art & Arcana, but tbh I'd be much more interested in an unauthorized version of this particular story. I'm concerned this will basically be a pleasant hagiography.

The fact that we're still in 5E doesn't bother me. We're coming up on ten years and it has been a huge and eventful ten years. A retrospective isn't out of order.

 

[darjr]

I really like Art & Arcana, but tbh I'd be much more interested in an unauthorized version of this particular story. I'm concerned this will basically be a pleasant hagiography.

The fact that we're still in 5E doesn't bother me. We're coming up on ten years and it has been a huge and eventful ten years. A retrospective isn't out of order.

I almost guarantee someone is working on that book.

 

[Parmandur]

I really like Art & Arcana, but tbh I'd be much more interested in an unauthorized version of this particular story. I'm concerned this will basically be a pleasant hagiography.

The fact that we're still in 5E doesn't bother me. We're coming up on ten years and it has been a huge and eventful ten years. A retrospective isn't out of order.

I trust the writers to not make it dishonest, but they might not get quite the same brutal honesty from current employees, for sure.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I almost guarantee someone is working on that book.

Ben Riggs has entered the chat

 

[Burnside]

I trust the writers to not make it dishonest, but they might not get quite the same brutal honesty from current employees, for sure.

I just want a chapter explaining what exactly went wrong with Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, and why it's like that. You know, help me to understand.

 

[Parmandur]

I just want a chapter explaining what exactly went wrong with Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, and why it's like that. You know, help me to understand.

You know, we might actually get that, but not phrased quite that way. A behind the scene peak.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I just want a chapter explaining what exactly went wrong with Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, and why it's like that. You know, help me to understand.

If you haven't read it, Art & Arcana is pretty frank with all that stuff even through 4E. Fingers crossed the new book will be similarly frank.

 

[Burnside]

You know, we might actually get that, but not phrased quite that way. A behind the scene peak.

I mean I'm sure we'll get a fair take on "Here's why Lost Mine of Phandelver is so great". I'm not sure we'll get "Descent into Avernus made a lot more sense before the marketing folks forced us to jam Baldur's Gate into it."

 

[Parmandur]

I mean I'm sure we'll get a fair take on "Here's why Lost Mine of Phandelver is so great". I'm not sure we'll get "Descent into Avernus made a lot more sense before the marketing folks forced us to jam Baldur's Gate into it."

I think we will get some juicy stories alont thise lines without judgements per se, though probavly more tame than some of the gnarly 70's & 80's stuff from A&A.

On the other hand, Chris Perkins just posted a video talking about how the DMG was rushed, so we might get some surprising stuff here.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm not sure we'll get "Descent into Avernus made a lot more sense before the marketing folks forced us to jam Baldur's Gate into it."

We'll see. A&A definitely did the equivalent. It's unsparing on the business reasons behind 3.5 and 4E, for instance.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

On the other hand, Chris Perkins just posted a video talking about how the DMG was rushed, so we might get some surprising stuff here.

I wonder if he was the source of a lot of A&A's frankness.

 

[Burnside]

Basically, I want the version of this written by retired, unfiltered Chris Perkins 20 years from now.

"Wait, wait, this this the best part! So then I walk into Fields' office and Jeremy is sitting there like a deer in headlights and I go, I go 'what? what is it now?' and O'Hara is like 'We're gonna hire the Pinkertons to destroy the OGL.' I'm like, 'We are?' You know? You - you guys think I'm kidding, but I'm not. Ah, it was a magical time!"

 

[Nikosandros]

Scheduled to be released on the US in both hardcover and digitally on Oct. 3. (No idea about international distribution, sorry.)


I'm very excited about this. Art & Arcana is great, both as an art book and as a history of D&D. It doesn't pull any punches about either the TSR or WotC eras. If this is as frank (and that remains to be seen, obviously), this will be a worthy companion book.

It's already available for preorder via Amazon.

It's available for pre-order on Amazon.it, so we're getting international distribution