The cover of the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook has been revealed, ahead of the Fifth Edition sequel coming later this year.
The Player’s Handbook will be the first book released for Dungeons & Dragons 2024 (as the new “not-an-edition” edition is being called, having dropped the One D&D moniker last year) when it arrives on September 19. The Dungeon Master’s Guide will be released on November 12, and an oversized Monster Manual will be released on February 18 of next year to round out the staggered release of the core trilogy of 384-page rulebooks.
In revealing new artwork for the 2024 Player’s Handbook, Game Informer highlighted the new edition of D&D’s homage to Dungeons & Dragons’ 50-year history, featuring characters from all of the role-playing game’s adventures and settings—including Molliver the rogue, Yolande the elf queen, the knight Strongheart, and the dwarven warrior Elkhorn—ready to do battle beneath a golden dragon. (For the game’s golden anniversary, get it?)
Meanwhile, a red dragon (which could be a nod to the game’s iconic Red Box from the 1980s, which also included a red dragon) lurks in the bottom corner. The book’s new all-red spine could also be considered a nod to the starter set that helped popularize the role-playing game 40 years ago, replacing the red and black spines of the 5th edition books.
Dragons are among the monsters said to be getting a complete overhaul for the new edition of D&D, with all 10 metallic and chromatic dragon species getting updated. Lead designers Jeremy Crawford and Chris Perkins previously said they had also rebalanced the stats of nearly every creature in the game, resulting in a total revamp of the bestiary.
The back of the Player's Handbook features a bronze dragon carrying a cast of unknown D&D characters, including a tiefling, an elf, and a human, presumably stand-ins for the players' own creations. First editions of the new books will also include a symbol marking D&D's 50th anniversary on the back cover.
Behind the art is Tyler Jacobson, who was also responsible for the Fifth Edition Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide, as well as several 5E adventures and supplements over the past decade.
In addition to the standard cover, the Player’s Handbook and other D&D 2024 books will be offered with alternate covers at local game stores, just like previous Fifth Edition books. For the 2024 Player’s Handbook, the alternate cover will feature a group of elves and a golden dragon, finished with gold foil on the book itself.
The new artwork is worth a full look at on Game Informer's site, as the new Dungeons & Dragons will get a more complete presentation in the latest issue of the video game magazine.