D&D (2024) New D&D Edition's Player’s Handbook Cover Reveal

Game Informer has revealed the cover to the 2024 Player’s Handbook.

The cover features a gold dragon behind the old-school D&D characters Strongheart the paladin, Mercion the cleric, Elkhorn the dwarf fighter, and Molliver the thief. Ringlerun the wizard is absent (then again he got his showcase on one of the 1E AD&D Player's Handbooks), but a drow mage appears to have joined the party!

 

[Distracted DM]

Or ... people just like what they like and express their opinion. I'm not a big fan of vampires (or werewolves) as a power-up and an all wizard school is a bit limiting to me. But if it works for you, great!

Hmm ... then again assuming some other posters weren't just trolling ... the whole concept that the company is going out of their way to sell less by driving off buyers is just odd. Seriously? Do people really think that the old timers are the market segment any company really cares about? When they broke down the demographics and didn't even include an age category for anyone over 40(?) I would have thought it was fairly obvious.

Now get off my lawn!

I think some folk can forget that not everyone on the internet is the same person. You see a bunch of people hating on "new blue" on a subreddit/forum/etc, saying that they miss "classic blue." Then when they bring back classic blue, a bunch of folk in the forums hate on that! But those probably aren't the same people that were hating new blue.
Or maybe they did a terrible job with the returned classic blue and it's justifiably disliked

 

[Distracted DM]

I think they knocked it out of the park with that cover. It's a fantastic painting.
Is this the first time a PHB shows an adventuring party facing off against a dragon?

Wait, I thought the dragon was watching them, not fighting them. It's a gold dragon specifically- sure they party CAN come up against a gold dragon, but if they're confronting a dozen kobolds and THEN an adult gold dragon? ... Probably trouble.

I guess the dragon is also/instead kind of looking at the viewer? 4th-wall breaking? Donno.

 

[Distracted DM]

It gets an awful lot of discussion for something boring!

Bad art passes unnoticed, good art triggers discussion.

It's art, there are few things as subjective- calling it good or bad is going to be an opinion.
I think any art on the cover of the new PHB would trigger discussion.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The expression on the dragon's face suggests a benevolent smile. It's also reaching out with a claw as if to move a piece. I would suggest it symbolically represents the DM.

This are is clearly meant to hark back to several early D&D covers which show a party of adventurers facing off against a dragon. The winged helmet is a retro touch. But there are clearly deliberate differences: the dragon is gold* rather than the usual red, and appears non-hostile; the party are facing outward, rather than inward.


*also representing a golden (50 year) anniversary.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It's art, there are few things as subjective- calling it good or bad is going to be an opinion.
I think any art on the cover of the new PHB would trigger discussion.

This point was about the internal wizard art, not the cover art. Which seems to have triggered far more discussion than the cover itself. Which suggests the wizard art is better than the cover, at least by a certain measure. I agree with your point about the subjectivity, but if you did want an objective measure, then the amount of discussion is surely as good as any?

 

[mamba]

It gets an awful lot of discussion for something boring!

Bad art passes unnoticed, good art triggers discussion.

by that logic anything where a lot of people say they do not like it is actually good…

It is technically competent, but of all the pieces we have seen, I like it the least

 

[Paul Farquhar]

by that logic anything where a lot of people say they do not like it is actually good…

It is technically competent, but of all the pieces we have seen, I like it the least

I expect you have seen (or at least had in front of your eyes) a lot of pieces that you didn't feel any need to comment on at all, and you have pretty much forgotten about.

 

[Older Beholder]

Wait, I thought the dragon was watching them, not fighting them. It's a gold dragon specifically- sure they party CAN come up against a gold dragon, but if they're confronting a dozen kobolds and THEN an adult gold dragon? ... Probably trouble.

I guess the dragon is also/instead kind of looking at the viewer? 4th-wall breaking? Donno.

I read the draconic head at the bottom of the image as a red dragon, but yeah, now that I look at it, it’s another Kobold. I think I saw it first and thought the adventurers were between two dragons, before seeing the Kobolds.

So, first PHB to include an adventuring party and a dragon? I’m still seeing that as a win.

 

[Yaarel]

Since the heroes in the image arent alarmed by the gargantuan Gold Dragon behind them, I assume it is benevolent.

The Gold Dragon raises out its hand to gesture. I would say to spellcast, but without special effects, then to communicate, make a point, warn.

A negotiation between Dragons gone wrong.

 

[Zardnaar]

Kinda boring/generic. Prefer the 2014 cover.

Better than some others though eg 1995 2E, 3.0, 4E imho.