New Player's Handbook Cover Art!

[Nebulous]

I did this awhile ago. Personally, I think its better than either of the covers they've done so far. Kudos to them for listening and re-commissioning the art though. At least they are willing to listen to their audience and make changes.

This fake cover is 100 times better than the stuff we're getting. I'll still buy the books though. Like others have said, i'm really just not a fan of WAR and sorry to see his work so prominent.

 

[Sir Sebastian Hardin]

I am sure she was meant to be a Halfling.

The green dragon fight would have been a better choice, maybe with less garish colors.
And please saw that horn off the dragon’s nose.

She doesn't seem so short... (well... halflings are not too short now, anyway). And it she IS a halfling, maybe the picture was drawn before WotC decided that all halflings (2/3-lings) use dreadlocks.

 

[Dragonblade]

Actually, those colors work quite well together.

Oh sure, bring a color wheel into it.

I don't know, I just don't like that shade of green with that orange. Something about it just bugs me. I guess I'm just strange.

 

[WyzardWhately]

I really prefer the green dragon cover. Actually, I also really prefer the minis boxed-set cover, if it comes to that. Really, the whole art-style of 4E seems to be moving farther and farther away from my tastes. I, too, prefer Otus and Elmore. A redone, cleaned-up, modern version of one of the 1E covers would have been ideal in my book.

 

[RangerWickett]

Quoting this to show my support. This cover image would be much cooler. I was quite surprised by the point that D&D's never actually had both a dungeon and a dragon on the cover of the PHB before.

 

[JVisgaitis]

I don't know, I just don't like that shade of green with that orange. Something about it just bugs me. I guess I'm just strange.

Keep in mind though that the colors you see on a computer screen are a lot different from what you would get with a printed final. I did have to pump up the saturation a bit as I work on a Mac and gamma settings on a PC are much darker. In any case, those colors could definitely be made to work with only some slight tweaks.

 

[Midknightsun]

Really? I was going to say the opposite. Its a dinosaur/dragonman with a wacky sword and 'hot wizardy chick'. It hits early adolescence in every possible way except explosions and guns. And possibly transforming robots.

Wow, then I am having the longest adolescence in recorded history, cause I like it

Edit: And it would be super cool with explosions and guns

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Really, the whole art-style of 4E seems to be moving farther and farther away from my tastes. I, too, prefer Otus and Elmore. A redone, cleaned-up, modern version of one of the 1E covers would have been ideal in my book.

I take it you accept this would have about zero appeal to the mass-market, particularly people under thirty, who are extremely unlike to "remember" Otus and Elmore particularly clearly, having caught only the tail-end of their work at most (probably in Dragon or the earlier 2E books)? Honestly their work, whilst arguably technically proficient (okay, not arguably for Elmore), is so deeply "retro" and that it's really "un-update-able". A "clean and modern" version of Elmore's stuff, say, would still look deeply retro and uncool to most potential D&D players, and most importantly, it would fail to spark imaginations, because to players who started later, it's redolent of stuff they've seen a thousand times before, of the past, and not in a good way.

I mean, if D&D continues to attempt to appeal to a college-age crowd, it's utterly inevitable that it'll move away from the tastes of older players. Hell, I'm only 29, and it's moved away from mine, with these unattractive, stocky figures (every human male appears to be on steroids in 4E, no matter their profession).

Still, between this cover and the Green Dragon cover? Well, I think the Green Dragon kind of has the edge, because it screams DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS, whereas this screams well, nothing. "Some wierd lizardman and a caster-ish chick" aren't, to my perceptions, a big draw to anyone. Better than dumb-looking 2d-ish Tiefling Wizard and species-unidentified Fighter, I guess.

 

[HeinorNY]

Have a look at the history of D&D corerules covers. I know i left some out

With the exception of the MM's covers, I think that all of them, even with the too old style or just bad drawing, are better than 4E PHB cover because THERE IS SOMETHING ACTUALLY GOING ON on the cover, instead of just two people posing for god knows why.

 

[Ahwe Yahzhe]

Still liking the Character Sheets Art...

So we went from this:

To this:

But a lot of people would like to see this:

Become this (I included my version too, from a couple months ago):
JVisgaitis:

I think the arty-types discussing graphic design and contrasting colors make a good point: I think this version looks better, it just breaks the format standard for the other two core rulebooks.


Remathilis:

LOVE the purple!!!

Ahwe Yahzhe (mine was a strict cut-and-paste job to keep WotC formatting-)

I think a lot of people (like me) like the “Leeroy Jenkins and Two Background Blobs Fighting a Dragon” art because there’s a party fighting a frickin’ dragon on the primary core rulebook!