Summary
There’s a lot to talk about in the 2024Dungeons & DragonsPlayer’s Handbook, but even though I’m perfectly free to discuss its contents, there’s still one thing I wish I could share in a different way. Like a lot ofDnDfans, I spent some time over the past couple of years following along with playtests and information leading up to the new core rulebooks. There have been some significant hiccups along the way, especially dealing withlicense changes last year, but with the biggest storms weathered, my overall personal trajectory has been one of increasing optimism.
Although there’s still a bit over a month before the early access release of the newPlayer’s Handbook, the book is starting to make its way out into the world, most notably through3,000 copies distributed at Gen Con 2024. I don’t have one of those, butI do have an official digital copy, and that comes with an awkward caveat that makes it hard for me to show off the aspect that I love the most.
Dungeons & Dragons' Jeremy Crawford Talks 2024 Player’s Handbook In-Depth
Dungeons & Dragons lead designer Jeremy Crawford talks about the upcoming 2024 Player’s Handbook and some key aspects of what it will entail.
I Love The New Art In The 2024 D&D Player’s Handbook
There’s So Much To See This Time Around
At a total count of 384 pages,DnD’s 2024Player’s Handbookcovers tons of new and old rules along with a lot that are somewhere in between. It’s also filled with art, punctuating long blocks of text with even more illustrations than the 2014Player’s Handbookdid. The text is what I’m mostly here for, obviously, butthe art is what’s making me really enjoy my time with the book. On a basic level, there are a lot of smart decisions regarding the placement of illustrations that help to avoid the erratic nature of the approach taken a decade ago.
The most marketable aspect is the inclusion ofan art piece for everyDnDsubclass, something that I absolutely love. Picking out a subclass can be intimidating and disorienting, especially forDnDnewcomers, and having that frame of reference makes it a lot easier to immediately imagine what a subclass could be like. Another section that gets a big leg-up is the chapter on spells, which largely avoids the text-only spreads that frequented the equivalent chapter in 2014.
D&D’s 2024 Player’s Handbook Fixes One Of The Least Useful Subclass Features
Some D&D subclass features get used a lot more often than others, but an adjustment to one in the 2024 Player’s Handbook should give it a big leg up.
Quantity is one thing, of course, but the art’s also good.So many pieces make color and composition choices that leap off the page, even when dealing with constraints like the narrow vertical frames for the subclass depictions. The sense of curated style can have its downsides — there are times when I miss how varied and off-the-wall the hodgepodge of art could be in older TTRPGs and fantasy publications at large — but in the context of what the book’s going for, artists still manage to make their individual touches felt.
DnDfaced criticism in 2023 after AI-generated art appeared inBigby Presents: Glory of the Giants, and the company has since affirmed its policy against AI art and reissued the book with replacements.
I Can’t Show You Most Of The New Player’s Handbook Art
At Least I Can Talk About Why I Love It
I don’t have a treasure trove of high-def images, though, just the same press kit pieces that have been decorating news aboutDnD’s 2024Player’s Handbookfor months. My copy of the book is heavily watermarked and generally pretty well-locked down, which doesn’t make it impossible to enjoy the images but does get in the way of sharing them. A good portion of the art has made it onto the Internet in more recent weeks through official videos and news posts fromDnD, but the selection and the quality of the images shared are erratic.
Why One Popular D&D Class Won’t Be In The 2024 Player’s Handbook Revealed By Jeremy Crawford
In a statement at Gen Con 2024, Jeremy Crawford has explained why one of D&D’s most popular classes won’t be in the newest Player Handbook.
At the very least, I can talk about the art, flapping my arms and gesturing vaguely at something cool that’s just out of sight.My favorite stuff tends to be the larger pieces that set up a whole scene, like the art of Dragonlance heroes fighting a wyvern that made it into the press kit. The expanded approach to illustrating the spell chapter delivers a lot in this vein. One great illustration shows a tiefling Cleric castingdispel evil and good, contrasting the icy blues of an exorcised spirit with the warm colors of the tiefling and their glowing amulet.
A lot of spell art can be seen in the spell video available on the officialDungeons & DragonsYouTube account, albeit with varying degrees of crops for the images.
As a big fan of classic fantasy artists like Michael Whelan,another personal favorite is the artwork forfireball, which features an elegant rendition of an elf Wizardthat evokes a similar approach to depicting heroic figures. The image accompanyingMelf’s acid arrowshows Melf’s midair poise as a troll takes a swipe at him — if you’ve seen the picture of Olympic surfer Gabriel Medina celebrating after coming out of the tube, it’s got that energy.
Every D&D Ranger Spell That No Longer Requires Concentration In The 2024 Player’s Handbook
A lot of Ranger spells still require Concentration in D&D’s 2024 Player’s Handbook., but a few have received tweaks that make them easier to use.
Another thing that I see as an improvement from the 2014Player’s Handbookis a minor uptick in depicting places, which gets a special spotlight in a sequence of illustrations for character backgrounds. From the towering ramparts of a walled city to the elaborate interior of a planetarium, I mostly just wish these were bigger. The same chapter packs in some species illustrations that depict them going about their daily lives, and a few of these particularly charming inclusions are luckily already available.
D&D Has Stepped Up Against Stiff TTRPG Competition
Art Helps Make A Lot Of TTRPGs Great
I could use more full-page illustrations in the 2024Player’s Handbook, but despite the fact that text appears on just about every page, there’s way less of a tendency to slap individual items and characters into small cornersthan there was in the 2014 book. When I attended the50th Anniversary event at Gary Conearlier this year,DnDdesigner Chris Perkins mentioned the effects of a strapped budget on the approach to art in 2014, and the new book definitely shows off the increase in allotted funds.
I’m not going to say thatDnD’s 2024Player’s Handbookrepresents a new standard for TTRPG art or anything like that, because there’s an incredible world of competition out there. From the vividly rendered scenes that are common inPathfinderartwork to the patently inky, underground look ofMÖRK BORG, a lot of other TTRPGs lean into strengths thatDnDdoesn’t. ButDungeons & Dragonsis stepping up with the 2024Player’s Handbook, and even if you don’t buy a copy come September, you should take the opportunity to flip through one if you can.
