Five Things the Subpar ONE D&D Cover Art Tells us About WotC!
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"It doesn't pass the cool test" really does say it all doesn't it. And that's the most damning thing you possibly *could* say about a cover for a D&D product, but it's true.
agreed and this is why i am move to dagger heart/ DC20 to replace the new version of dnd when ome to playing new conecnt
@@brightlights2489it hilarious that you think Daggerheart will be any different
A company with an inclusivity team is like a 3rd grader with a behavioral correction officer.
dont play dnd anymore move over to dagger heart in fact i am running a dagger heart ERP sever
@@brightlights2489 Thanks for the recommendation, but I don't think Critical Role is much better. They are very preachy about what they think is right or wrong at the table, most infamously with Candela Obscura. If DH doesn't preach ethics or treat players like they are 5 year old's, then maybe I'll check it out.
@@SkywalkerOne1977meanwhile you’re watching a video about a man telling you what is right or wrong about D&D covers. 🤷🏻♂️
@@TheTerrainWizard No, he's giving his opinion on some art. He's not telling me I can't like it. CR specifically said "This is wrong" and shamed those who disagree. There is a difference.
10:34 I've noticed that with all the new books. It looks like the beholder is just a mural painted on a wall behind them. That's why they are ignoring it, and why it's way too big. Same for the dragon in the background of the Player's Handbook. It looks like they just took a bunch of art assets and haphazardly layered them on top of each other. Nobody is actually "there"
Meanwhile the old art looks like everyone is in the same room interacting with each other. 1:38 Two adventurers were searching a treasure chest in a cave with a pool of green water, when a dragon emerges from the pool to attack them. Everyone is in the same room reacting to one another.
see the thing is wiards hates peopel with disballitys compair to Dagger heart wich is only in early aess but is makeing the game acessabel for peopel with disbalits to play however tehy want but yeah i do suggste moving to play dagger heart or DC20 when the new rules for dnd 5th edation come out since this new version is not a edatio its just a rule update
Notice that when the inclusivity of mediocrity reaches a certain point, the diversity of quality art, writing, and design vanishes...
DEI approved that design!
"Somehow Socialist Realism returned."
How dare you assume that the beholder is the "bad guy"! That beholder is clearly a party member allowing the wizard to cast their spell. These are three adventurers are fighting an unseen off-cover enemy...
Statistically, the white male reading the thing.
I think your analysis is pretty spot on through the whole video.
I think it’s pretty clear that Wotc’s D&D is the “establishment”. It no longer has the rebellious almost esoteric sword and sorcery vibe it once had. Now it’s too safe. Takes no risks and has no heart.
Ironically, it removed alignments and now has no soul, either.
yep agree and thats why i am moving on to Dagger heart/ DC20 in fact i am already running a dagger eart sever wich mixs ERP with dagger heart in fact i am running the very 1st erp Dagger heart sever with our own oringal lore and hisotry
@brightlights2489 bro, wtf... it's one thing to run an erp server, but it's another thing entirely to mention it several times in the same comment section where no one asked even once
The art being bad is a non factor in my decision to not buy these books.
5e is a marvel movie with a fantasy paint job, the fan base that 5e has cultivated is utterly atrocious, and the company behind the books has told me repeatedly they don't want my money.
The worst curse I've ever heard: "may your hobby go mainstream."
I agree and until now never compared it to marvel that is a good way to describe what I don't like about it.
Just responding that I've met quite a few folks that enjoy 5th edition that aren't atrocious. That being said, yeah, WotC has done far too much damage and wrecked the goodwill it might or might not have had.
RIP to Battletech, and WARHAMMER as well...
Exactly this. Wotc can forget about Dragonlance and I would dance a jig. My Dragonlance will always be TSR. Zero interest in any wotc products.
Hollywood can keep its dirty hooves off my Dragonlance while they're at it. They only twist properties and alienate lifelong fans.
I'm worried for my fellow Grognards of the Greyhawk Fandom. I wish them strength as the Wotczi's come for Oerth.
#TSRLives #KrynnIsTSR #GreyhawkIsGygax
sorry but wizards is doing what black rok wih all cmpany have to obey now all so i suggst moving to either dagger heart or to DC20
I doubt we'll see the epic realism of Elmore, Easley, Caldwell, or Parkinson ever again. Like everything else, WotC is farming it out to a bunch of hacks.
well i suggsted moving to dagger heart and to DC20
@@brightlights2489 I've just gone back to AD&D. It's always cheap, available, and play tested over 4 decades. I'm not about to sacrifice playability for prettier art.
Wotc beloeves in black girl magic
wizatds can go and fuck themselfs if any thing i am moving to dagger heart and to DC20 and its the same reason why i havent even borught a new vierdo game this ear
Let me take a wild guess, you’re voting for a convicted felon in November. .
@@TheTerrainWizard Let me guess... you wandered into the wrong comments section, and imagine that you're stunning and brave by trolling. PLONK.
The MAIN thing is, nobody was asking for a 6th Edition. 💩
its not a ew edation it just a rule update all so i suggsted moveing to dagger heart or to DC20 insted of this new version of dd or even try plaing VTM wich is consider to the 2nd best ttrpg of all night wit pathfier under vtm
Not true at all. Many of us are happy for a rules update. Can't wait for improved fests myself.
@@brightlights2489 so PF2E is really good on VTT? I bet it would be. Something to track all the moving parts. I do like the action economy.
@@brightlights2489 from what I have read, the changes to the way characters work and advance, the changes to the monsters won't be compatible without some fiddling, especially the new character rules. A totally different game from 5E. That's okay because they gave away 5E with the CC and OGL combined. Now one thing is, if the ONED&D VTT turns out to be so awesome that everyone flocks to it, which it could be, then 6E will be the king, that is unless WOTC says or does something completely stupid (er) again.
I haven't bought any DND books since 3rd edition. Skipped 4th and 5th and soon to be this one. I do have a lot of other TTRPG's that I bought their place :) Hell I've been working on my own alternate OSR ruleset for my own world campaign. It's a mix of B/X with Ad&D 1st edition like Dragonslayer :) Wotc is not needed at our table anymore and haven't been for quite some time.
Same! Your remix of B/X sounds awesome! I mainly use 1st, but B/X rules come up enough in my games that I borrow them plenty. Had one character ascend godhood and I was like - oh crap, what do I do now? I opened the Immortals Rules book and BLAM! Had tons of ideas and fun godly adventures came from all of it.
most peopel are moveing to dagger heart and to DC20 in fact i am running the very st Dagger heart erp sever wich as its own lore and hisotry already in the works
@@brightlights2489 I'm happy for those people, but my group that have been together since 1983 are not going that route :)
Mr Welch had the destruction of the Radiant Citadel as part of the history of Mystara by Alphatia and Thyatia post 'Master' war, I think it was.
Thundarr was absolutely the gamer's cartoon series. Awesome fantasy, cool weapons, fascinating ruins, Jack Kirby, Alex Toth...it had it all!
Wouldn't be suprised if it was done with AI...
Young teen me also thought the 80s cartoon was lame - but at least it had a ginger in it.
Those new covers are so uninspired. Covers from past editions not only inspired gamers they also helped to sell the book. Erol Otus's 1981 Basic cover showed you what it was like to brave the subterranean caves for fortune and glory. The female mage is about to hurl an eldritch green sphere at the vicious dragon. And her warrior companion is taking aim with his spear. What is the story of these two adventurers? Where are the rest of their party? Did they die by the poison breath of the wyrm. Inquiring minds want to know?
Tells an immediate story that is 100% about the game!
A giant vulture holding an armored man high in the sky would get your inspiration going for a Monster Manual book.
It's awesome how this came out once the Monster Manual dropped!
Sold my 5e core and sourcebooks a few years back after getting sick of WOTCs stupidity. No regrets at all, so many other better systems out there with a much greater emphasis on roleplaying in a fantasy world instead of the etherial god tier characters they keep pushing on us.
The old basic to immortal rules had specific rules for outlining a god campaign, and even in that book it showed that even if or when a character becomes a god, that there was still a pecking order and hierarchy among the immortals, all based on the deeds of a given character. WOTC hierarchy is based on cultural socialists, based on race, gender, and sexuality - not deeds. Honestly, I'm surprised "Diversity Plot Armor" isn't a fear or something in the newer editions.
I don't plan on buying the new WOTC books (stopped when "Tasha's" came out). I plan on buying the new "Reforged" core books for Castles & Crusades. Troll Lord Games gets my RPG bucks now.
Ye the WotC books have lost lot of content when I got he dragon book (cause I love dragons and the 3.5 Draconomicon was exelent) 5e felt like it was filled whit just filler.
3 party books have acsually brought some cases more useful content in one tome that WotC had brought in 2 or 3 combined.
I agree with you. But as Don Draper said in an episode of Mad Men that nostalgia is a very powerful connection with an audience. No doubt that putting Venger and WarDuke on the cover was EXACTLY to make that connection to us older gamers.
Yep, the Kodak wheel episode!
Exactly. And everything Draper said in that pitch is in at least that one with Venger.
Art by a communist committee.
I'm sure the "artist" uesd AI.
its a 50 50 changes on that fact but to be honst move peopel are moving to dagger heart wich is already in open beat and to DC20
I get an ai feel from this art.
I love this episode. Thanks Diversity and Dragons.
This and many other reasons are why I write and draw my own stuff. I’m a Dark Sun DM primarily. When TSR dropped the setting in 96 I was bummed for a while, until I realized that I never had to worry about them putting out something new and cool that completely clashed with the direction my players and I had taken the world in our game. The last 5 years I been putting out free 2e Dark Sun content for the community to use. Some of the projects take a long time, because family and work come first, but I have got quite a little hard of original stuff for that and other settings amassed. I love being able to contribute to my favorite pastime, even if all it is right now is a labor of love. I think most e people should wake up and become a shepherd instead of sheep.
This! Dragonfoot also has community modules that are fan made, and adds much more content than WotC ever did. Good on you, bro for making something cool for a badass setting!
Count yourself lucky that your setting has escaped the eye of Sauron.
My favourite setting is Dragonlance and I hope all thier attempts at messing with it flop financially and they move on to another victim.
Ooooh, inclusivity reviews! Tell me more! That certainly is going to drive tons of sales!
dont buy the new version of dnd move to dagger heart or to DC20 or to vtm
"There was a lot of stuff in there that would never pass our inclusivity reviews."
[slams down Spelljammer 5e book with no ship combat rules]
Let's talk _quality_ review first, shall we?
Hey Double D, I trashed 5e as much as the next guy but after hearing Pundit say he worked on it and that the DMG is actually good, I read it to see if he was right, he was. The books sell the world as low magic and as a modular system for you to pick your own rules out of the rule set to give it a selection of different feels. I personally can’t stand the art, specially the hobbit playing the instrument, it feel like a new age yoga book from the 90s to me but the rules are really interesting. You should consider doing a video on this, on how the world is set as low magic and how the lefties turned it into the over the top fantasy homo erotica that peaked at Baldur’s gate. Anyway, just a thought that might make some good content. Thanks for turning me on to the OSR and Gillespie and Pundit, didn’t know about any of it until TH-cam recommended your channel, sometimes they get it right!
Yeah, the core 5e books definitely give you a very different vibe than the sort of games you hear about. All of that was thrown out of the window with splat book after splat book, though.
Nice summation Double-D. While they say to not judge a book by its cover, that is the first impression…and I long for the days of great fantasy art on the cover and between the covers.
Yeah. It looks like the artist or artists got fed up with being told what to do and just slapped some paint on a canvas and called it good. No heart, no caring about the flow and composition. Just half ar$ed it all to be done with it.
Just my 2 cents.
I think it's funny how the new art piece that shows the cartoon characters leaves out Eric and shows Pesto checking out the carving of Uni....Bobby and Uni were tight, not Presto and Uni. There so dumb.
They’re*
5$ says its "AI Assisted" art and the Jacob guy "phoned" it in.
Wouldn't be the first time they used horrible looking AI art in their books either. I highly doubt any artist would make so many weird mistakes as pointed out in the video, and deformed and missing limbs are a hallmark of AI art.
If they were going to go with the cartoon characters on the DMG, they should have done it with the PHB. They still would have had some diversity to go with their member-berries. The PHB cover is supposed to be iconic characters from the game's history, but it just looks like more DEI MTG checkbox art.
I also think this will fail harder sales wise than 4th ed
Nothing, IMO touches the Art of Easlely and Elmore. The orange spine AD&D and second edition covers are hands down the best.
I mean, I like Rynolds did in 4th edition, but it just doesn't have that Romantic (?) Fantasy Feel that the earlier editions had.
IMO they're not just evocative of D&D, they are definitive fantasy artwork, period.
The more i look at this cover the more it annoys me.
Not only are the adventuerers ignoring the a beholder, but also the Kraken (the one that just grabbed a party member) and the Demi lich flying towards them (which as a spellcaster decided that yes flying into the magical cone of a beholder is a good idea.)
And the Gelatinous Cube, why is it climbing when their are goblins in front of it.
The more I look, the less sense this makes.
Imagine that ugly thing sitting on your bookshelf, every single day staring at ya... I have the Ifreeti cover DMG to stare at me from my bookshelf! Way better! LOL
I just noticed there are no hard outlines in the art, either. It causes your eyes to lazily gloss over each creature, character, or piece of environment for a moment before subconsciously picking out the brightest color and focusing on that.
Why does the dragon on the Player's Handbook artwork look like it has an engorged circle belly? What's going on with the artwork?
I wish I knew!
Holy crap that outro is absolutely fantastic. What's the song playing?
You may want to check over to Greg Gillespie's channel, as I'm not sure.
@@DiversityDragons Will do. Thanks!
It's nice to hear someone else besides me feels that the D&D cartoon from the 80's was lame. We preferred anime's Record of the Lodoss War. It was summarized brilliantly in one sentence, "Someone finally did a D&D cartoon right, and it took the Japanese to do it." Yes, I realize that the animation from the 80's cartoon was Japanese, but the writers were American. Like Lolth being defeated by a baby unicorn...
Ahhhh! yes! I watched Record of Lodoss War around the time I starting playing and DMing AD&D, and that influenced so much of my games!
The new PHB looks frigging awful, but I do like the DMG. I'm okay with SOME memberberries, and Warduke is classic 80's cheese in the best possible way. I'm still not buying any of these, and WotC can go **** themselves.
I played a few times, so I'll chime in. Well, I actually was close to becoming a 3rd edition player in 2002, but chose a Hungarian fantasy RPG in the book store instead, because I didn't have that much money as a teen. :D Even 3rd edition art was odd to me. The halfling looked nothing like Regis from the cover of Streams of Silver, but we can probably thank the Tolkien Estate for that. Most of the races had an oriental look to them. And I remember just shaking my head at the gold dwarf. Many weapons seemed impractical too, as if the 90s never died, especially the shields.
What I noticed over the years is that D&D was getting more diverse per year, with Arabic, Asiatic and Mesoamerican locations added to its worlds, but it was never enough for certain people, and these supplements are considered problematic now, because they were written by White people. But here's my question: would Oriental Adventures automatically be better if they would have added the Filipino cleaning lady's and the Chinese takeout delivery man's names as creative consultants?
Chinese fortune cookie say "When roll 1, fudge and lie."
That OUTRO! The outro on this video was awesome in every way that WOTC D&D is Not... WOTC's bile makes me want to vomit in disgust (I will never give WOTC another cent) but this outro actually makes me want to play D&D!! Great job!
Check out Greg's Dragonslayer RPG at Drivethru! A love letter to early D&D with phenomenal art from some of the original TSR artists.
@@DiversityDragons I will have to check this out.
You can feel the coldness of their hearts towards the franchise and the creators, its history, in the art.
I can just hear the black female wizard yelling out a long drawn out “shiiiiieeeeet!” as she casts her spell
I like the new DMG cover quite a bit with one issue. There are those two cloth strips on either side of Venger's body and my eye immediately sees them as two skinny arms pointing down instead of me seeing his actual arms right away. An optical effect that's just me or do others see it that way too? I also feel like if you're going to include Venger on the DMG cover, you probably should also somewhere include the Dungeon Master from the cartoon series as an Easter egg somewhere.
ironically the first one, the one at the far left, if left naked and unchanged, unaltered, and unrefined, would have been a more striking and eye catching cover than the one we got, I'd even say more striking than anything they've used so far, and would harken back to the deliberately unclear visuals of the earlier editions, letting your imagination do the rest of the work. Hell, even the one in the middle, left as is, deliberately untidy (the red dragon looks way better for instance) would have also been serviceable. I'm not quite as offended by the presence of black women but I will agree putting such a high proportion of them on the cover to seem diverse is counterintuitively undiverse(I for one would have been happy with silhouettes as I find the cover deciding what adventurers look like for me obnoxiously patronizing, if anything 3e was a right direction as it's cover was like SWORD and let me handle the rest)
this look like AI did it for the arts, the plastic nature of the Paintjob, the way lighting is used, the nonsensical proportions no human'd think of drawing, let alone painting, the entirely incoherent composition, with the Gold dragon looking at the camera, the PCs in the left(of the gold dragon), looking into the void, the kinight looking to the red dragon while the red dragon stares at the rocks...to the fact that the arm on the left looks like the victim of Radioactive fallout and the right arm comes out of nowhere....yeah the artist credit is to chatGPT and the credit for prompt engeneer foes for the "artist".
A cover is the 1st point of advertising, to get someone interested in the book. You know to pick it up. These make it less likely I would even pick them up to browse.
They missed using Dungeon Master from the D&D cartoon on the Dungeon Masters book. Seems another point of not understanding the details. Contrast other games covers an there are oddly pale in comparison.
The DEI hires at Wizards of the Woke wouldn't allow a short blading white man to be called "Master." It was just too much for them.
5:15 I’m a fan of the original D&D cartoon but you are spot on about Thundar.
I liked the 3rd edition “tome” look. Plus the art on the inside was fantastic. Maybe I’m biased because that’s what I grew up playing and I’m not an 80’s kid
A cash grab with pastel colors.
WoTC's failures just makes all that Greg Gillespie has accomplished more impressive
You are 100% correct about the D&D cartoon being a disappointment back when we were kids. While I enjoyed it for what it was, it was very lame and tame like most all of 80s cartoons.
I didn't get to see it as a kid, as my tv had like 3 channels. But I found the cartoon at walmart one day, and bought it for my kids. They love it! For a Hanna Barbara style 80s cartoon it wasn't so bad, when compared to Ninja Turtles, Transformers, and classic GI Joe (we have those as well). But yeah, I enjoy it for what is was also.
Funny how they say, like Jason Tondro, gatekeeping is bad while simultaneously gay-tekeeping the books. Very thought police of them.
I'm sure the commissar of roleplaying games is satisfied with this artwork
I know I know! Magic Users on the Cover are casting a double strength Phantasmal Force Spell
I bet war duke will be even further nerfed in this new version
I like the alternative players guide cover, just because i really want to have a spot of campfire tea with a gold dragon
They should also make the black women look representative for max pandering. Make at least one triple the weight.
You misuse and appropriate the word “woke” from black culture, for your own white political agenda, as you mock black women. 🤔 Woke is black slang. What is your political agenda by misusing the word?
And, I bet you’re voting for a convicted felon in November.
Thundarr! Da Best!
The covers are just too blurry and look more like a concept art draft than a eye-catching cover. Or it's been done using AI.
outland hat?
Oh yes
Spot on!
Is your profile picture God from Monty Python? LOL That's freakin awesome.
something else ive noticed about alot of this modern fantasy work is the lack of clear lines. so much of the artwork is blurry.
I'm still mad at 2nd edition AD&D coming out and toning stuff down. I never bought any D&D stuff past AD&D. I do like the OSR stuff that is out there though.
Still running 1st edition. Troll games reprinting some Greyhawk products is awesome.
I keep popping in to ask you questions because I know you're knowledgeable.
I was looking at Vaesen. Are they a good company, or should I avoid it? I couldn't find any info online.
I like Free League. They kind of buy in to Safety Tools, but other than that they're okay.
@@DiversityDragons Thanks! I might have to pick it up and give it a try!
I second that. I have 2 of their products, Tales from the Loop and Coriolis. I love the Vaeson concept and is next on my list from Free League.
@@theflyinggoat4503 Thanks for the input. I appreciate the second opinion.
Double D has a list that covers the state of different RPG companies on if they are woke or not. Think it's shared on his TH-cam channel.
Great video. I agree with the points raised, especially like the Thundarr reference and the adventurers looking away from the Beholder. So many good points and comments, I'll try to mention something different. Remember when the first Captain Marvel movie made a billion dollars and then the Marvels didn't? This looks eerily reminiscent of that fall as well as the trajectory of comic books, Lucasfilm IPs, Dr. Who (fetishizing a black female child), and any fantasy streaming show. I've never seen a greater aversion to both money and creativity in the same products. I have to think they hate the IP and original creators because it's hard to believe that they could make products this bad unintentionally.
Yup... pretty much sums up my thoughts on the covers... Nice analysis, D&D.
The whole theme should have been the cartoon if they were going to include any of it, PHB the kids, MM being Tiamat etc, DMG having Venger on it as a story element. And link the covers so they form one big battle!
That actually makes sense.
That's infinitely more of a creative conceptualization than anything Wizards of the Coast are capable of! LMAO
I like that idea.
I'm sorry but nothing beats the 'tome' ascetic of 3/3.5 edition. It's timeless.
To answer your final question, the art is a non-factor in my decision as to whether or not to buy these products. I have never been a fan of WotC from my first uncounted with them and the customer base they court. Having to deal with MtG players back in the mid 90s really turn me off to WotC. They always go for quantity over quality. They dumb down the fantasy gaming genre to pull in the largest customer base possible, at least that was what they were doing before 5e. Now they are still pandering to what they think are the masses while becoming very exclusive of their core audience. Now that Black Rock and others are dropping their DEI initiatives, companies like WotC and Disney won’t be able to Borrow their way out of the holes they have been digging for nearly a decade.
Well that’s my round about way of saying I won’t be buying any of these products, not just because of bad cover art, but because I have never bought a WotC produced product and probably never will.
Encounter not uncounted
Rogan always hated Magic players from his experience working in a game store in the 90's
@@DiversityDragons That's where I encountered them too. I worked at a place called The Game Board in East Town Mall in Knoxville TN. The magic players were for the most part obnoxious. There were a couple of good guys among them, but most of them were addicted to finding those rare cards, spending every cent they had on booster packs one at a time. it reminded me a lot of people buying lottery tickets at a gas station. WotC were masterful marketers, but shit game designers.
Compare the new beholder art with something like Eye of the Beholder by Justin Gerard and you can see the lack of character, the lack of whimsy and fantasy, and the lack of adventure as clear as day
Pleased to find that I agree with most of what you're saying. With a channel name like that, I wasn't sure what to expect, but hey I ended up subscribing!
Thank you!
I like all the 5 art. The new ( one) art looks overpowered and Scifi. The creepy feeling of a Kobald cave craw being potentially deadly is replaced by godlike and super shiny.
No mention of the Wayne A. Reynolds art for 4E?
I find him an amazing artist but those particular covers are not my favorite work of his. Though I do like the homage to the Erol Otus covers where the dragon on the DMG is watching the PHB cover characters in a crystal ball. Orcus looks pretty sweet on the MM too.
It's become more and more apparent that if anybody's looking to play fantasy they should be looking at Shadowdark or dragonslayer
its likely AI art
This was my thought when I was deformed and missing limbs, capes posed weirdly and seemingly fading into nothingness, etc. Wouldn't be surprising either, wouldn't be the first time they used AI art.
The oddities in the images are to glaring to not notice. It's either AI or the artist is complete trash at the basics of perspectives and such.
I would never have thought that unil that arm...how could Jacobson paint that out? Makes no sense to me.
Agree, great video! keep the good work!
You didn't talk about 4th edition art.
agreed
If the art was too different across books then people would criticize that; however, using the same style is one thing, using essentially the same picture over and over is another. I’ll be honest: it looks mostly AI generated to me. Just switch the tags a little to add in particular characters, change the background, set the colors. While oddly disproportionate limbs can just be the sign of a bad artist, it’s far more likely to be AI these days. Sure, we have concept sketches, but you can feed that into the AI as a template rather than having to color and detail everything yourself. WotC may not even know, since we live in a time of don’t ask don’t tell. As long as they can claim the artist didn’t say they used AI, all is golden. And don’t tell me this is a good artist, so why would they use AI. That’s like asking why people who are good at video games or sports cheat: they want to win.
Another great video. Awesome content and production. Keep it up.
for the cover, buy or make a dustjacket with proper D&D art. for the contents...rewrite them without the bias? :P
WotC uses nostalgia for old gamers but at the same time told the old gamers to fuck off because they going after the younger generation (who don't have the disposable income GenXers have).
It's a non factor. I found my preferred version with Pathfinder 1e. I'm learning old d&d and ad&d from youtubers. I play 5e with a group of friends cause they like to play the newest editions.
I want to add something. It is funny that people are losing their cool over the new artwork, but if you honestly look back on the first several 5th Edition books you will see that forced diversity and unusually strong women are pretty common.
They telegraphed what they were going to do back in 2014, and if you're familiar with Brett Weinstein and Evergreen College, which is in the Pacific Northwest, then it's no surprise that proto-Woke was there are the beginning of 5e.
Thanks for the video, DD! I know I still enjoy 5th edition, as do the folks on my discord server. It really is depressing when the art does tend to fall flat though, or when DEI is getting injected into everything. Love the content, keep up the great work!
Absolutely nailed it
Honestly I am not digging any of the new covers. But I will end up buying all three of these books. The power of the Brand?
Mostly will be curious on what changes they make.
5e..is not a horrible game. And I will use it to introduce new players to the game.
Saving OSR gamee like Dragonslayer for veterans and thise craving a challenge
I would rebuy the OLD AD&D 2e and the Basics boxed set :P... NOTHING from 5e.
The first thing I noticed with the new stuff is that they went all in on the 'realistic' art style, and I really dont like it. You can immediately tell that they arern't concerned with bringing the classic fantasy image to life, they are more concerned with portraying as many 'diverse' characters as they can. As a result, the whole artwork feels sterile. The only cover I find mildly interesting is the DMG, and mostly from the guy in the blue helmet and the skeletons. The PHB feels very messy, which is the last thing you want to convey, and the Monster Manual's cover feels incredibly sterile. It feels like if an ai art generator took the 2014 cover and changed the style to a realistic watercolor, and I think it doesn't look good at all.
Art has no impact on me buying the books. I was never going to buy them anyway.
Are you buying on cover art? Because I don't. That is not why I buy my game books. The reason they are using the same artist is because they don't consider this a new edition. It's got to be different enough to justify the purchase, but similar enough to prevent edition conflict.
You're very perceptive, I'd never have reached your very logical conclusions by myself. At any rate, I've already decided that tasha's book would be the very last volume by wotc, or any other hasbro stooge, I'll ever buy.... I'm waiting on the sidelines for the succession to be tested, or adopted by my group.
I wasn't getting 5.5 anyway because of all the rules and lore changes. The art never factored in the slightest. You can dress a pig up in silk and satin, won't change the fact it's a pig.
Well said brother
You are 100% correct.
My friend wanted to run his first campaign (usually I'm the DM). He had a great idea, but 5th edition combat was so boring that it ruined his game. I can't imagine the 6th edition being any better.
Well said DD!
lol you skipped 4e and the great work by Wayne Reynolds