WotC are Removing My Favourite Page of the PHB!

[@leodouskyron5671]

No April fool post- the picture of the fighter is why I looked at D&D again and at least got the books. I had left in 2E because I really was getting tired of the rarity of minorities (sans East Asians) as part of D&D worlds. YES D&D. Was. It was my first RPG but I was getting tired of telling players no my character is not pale skinned and yes they are an elf (or whatever). I got tired of being told that this is Europe and there are no black people there. It was easier to go to other systems and deal with people that knew I was not so limited in who I could see on my fantasy. So when I had seen that fighter, I was like where is that from (as is the case when I see good art) and then I found the system again.

[@the_twig131]

That's absolutely lovely. I'm going to pin this. I showed this video to my mum a few days before I posed it. She played a Paladin way back in AD&D while in university, and after watching it she went to get in touch with some of her old friends. The art in these games is really powerful.

[@leodouskyron5671]

@@the_twig131 Certainly feel free to use the post as you like. It has the additional value of being written my a real person based on the truth. I hope that the experience I had will be repeated by others that find the game has at least to some extent come back to them.

[@youtubeuniversity3638]

Petition to name the fighter in the fighter artwork "Eric Belisle".

[@the_twig131]

We'll have to ask Eric about that.

[@youtubeuniversity3638]

​@@the_twig131 Then let's!

[@MrCactuar13]

I'll miss 5e Fighter. He was just a guy with a bunch of weapons. Peak Fighter artwork

[@xiongray]

Man that outro goes hard. Like I just finished an anime credit scene.

[@Zr0din]

@8:00 Condition sketches are GREAT! They just don't need to be on the DM Screen because we need that space for other stuff. Conditions should be one panel!

[@the_twig131]

I do actually agree. Back when I did in-person games when I was in uni, I made custom inserts for my DM screen because I was annoyed by how much wasted space there was. I added stuff like a tracker for PCs' AC and their save DC, so I didn't have to keep asking, reminders for all of the environmental effects and the dice on each type of healing potion, and examples of magic schools to help me tell the party what school their Detect Magic was finding. I actually had so much space that I was able to add a d40 table of random trinkets that the party could find when looting enemies. drive.google.com/file/d/1VsBHaLmo2LDGjA8KBR9kNZJCT4hYTMLw/view?usp=sharing

[@caseykits]

i love the PHB -- but i remember when i first got my monster manual in 2020, as a gift from family at christmas, and i would carry it around just memorizing what creatures looked like. i had bought the PHB and DMG myself, so getting the MM as a gift felt special. i've since moved on to entirely digital books, so i only own the 3 core books for 5e, but i still think about getting books because of that year. only 2 years ago, one of my mom's best friends was staying over after getting too drunk to drive. she was given my room for her comfort. she happened to have played dnd in the distant past, saw my three books on the hutch above my computer, and must have cracked them open to read while falling asleep. she was still kind of holding the monster manual when i went up to my room the next day. apparently, she bought the MM after that, despite not planning to play again.

[@the_twig131]

Probably my favourite monster design in the PHB is the Bone Devil. The contrast between the really sharp, brutal looking body, and the incredibly delicate dragonfly wings is so cool. I showed this video to my mum a few days ago. She played a paladin right back in AD&D, and it got her to go search out some of her old friends so she could share it on. The art in these books holds so much power.

[@caseykits]

​@@the_twig131I still use a wallpaper painted by someone with the surname "Kubrick" as my all-purpose wallpaper. It's directly inspired by the style from the MM, from what I can tell. You can easily find it as the first result when you search "Kubrick d&d wallpaper." Side note: despite my loyalty to the MM, my actual favorite piece of dnd artwork is Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse -- "Goblin Javelineer" by Mike Jordana, directed by Zack Stella. It was also featured in MTG: D&D: Forgotten Realms as a card of the same name.

[@DndUnoptimized]

Oh good old Chompy McFeatherhand. We will dearly miss you in the new PHB. I'm excited for a lot more art in the spells section, that'll be great!

[@the_twig131]

Yeah, spell art will be cool.

[@youtubeuniversity3638]

Night Watch, by Ralph Horsley

[@solalabell9674]

The issue with the fighter is he has a shield spear which you can’t have and would be so cool

[@the_twig131]

Yeah, add a shield spear to the game WotC!

[@9Johnny8]

One danger of the AI Art scare is that people are starting to identify AI art by the art styles it is emulating. So the actual artists being copied sometimes get accused of using AI to copy their own styles.

[@the_twig131]

Yeah, it sucks. The accusations for the new fighter that I showed at the end were just because his elbow isn't visible. It must feel really crap as an artist to be told that you faked something that you worked really hard on.

[@Euphie_E]

Chill dude, its just April Fools, you dont need to make me cry! I can look those images for hours, dream about 1000 scenarios, there are some epic ones, cozy ones, fearful ones. Men, I love art...

[@the_twig131]

Woo! I got someone! The art in these books is so good. It doesn't get talked about enough.

[@socialrooster1320]

Even if you are a mechanics channel talking about art, I think you highlighted how important visual communication is. This form of communication is, in my opinion, just as important as written communication. The idea that visuals can and will inform how someone might interpret mechanics or that it might inform how we feel about what we are engaging with is something people probably don't consider on a day-to-day basis, but it can be just as effective, or even more effective than written word. It's biggest benefit is that it doesn't rely on a shared language, but instead a shared experience. I like that you brought up the art for the 5e fighter. Even if the art wasn't intentionally drawn for that effect, it is still something that is considered (even subconsciously) by others. Very great video!

[@the_twig131]

Thank you. I knew going in that I wanted to include Night Watch and the Fighter, but wasn't 100% sure about the rest of the video, so I made a shortlist of about 20 pictures. The more that I thought about it, the more convinced I was that I needed to include The City. The combination of the Fighter and The City just made me think about how welcoming they made these books.

[@KingTwelveSixteen]

Aw man, they're getting rid of Generic McFighterman? I liked that guy. He had a cool shield AND a spear!

[@the_twig131]

I mean, it kind of was, just not in that way.

[@joshuawinestock9998]

I was fucking sure this was an April fool until like the 2 minute mark

[@youtubeuniversity3638]

I like the talk of art I do, even as somwone who has sworn off D&D.

[@MemphiStig]

I've owned a great many D&D books over the years since I first got the Moldvay box. The art was always a highlight, and it was always expected to be. And if fans criticize anything in a new book, it will be the art first and foremost. And trust me, that's the first and last thing you'll remember over time. And in my experience, that's remained true for most other ttprg's, the big names or the little indies.

[@the_twig131]

The art in a game is so important, it sets the mood for the entire system. The same mechanics can appear as heroic fantasy, cyberpunk, or grimdark horror, based entirely on how you present the visuals around them, and the language used.

[@Dimitrishuter]

Honestly such a lovely video, perfect vibes

[@the_twig131]

Lovely is the exact feeling I was going for. Glad I pulled it off.

[@jkrogsgaard8739]

Shoutout to Lil Poptart

[@DanStuffe]

@5:42 I regret nothing!

[@jonothanthrace1530]

I don't even remember this page.

[@wilywonky]

Sometimes we have to let the old die so that something new and beautiful can replace them. U_U

[@the_twig131]

Aye. I hope it's as good as the old stuff, and there's more fun art for us to be inspired by.

[@NageIfar]

The 5e Fighter design was seriously inspired. I wish the rest of 5e would have followed its direction a bit more, instead of focusing on the far more generic european/white Sword Coast.

[@the_twig131]

Yeah, I'm so glad that he's there. The new Wizard got revealed, and she's a black woman, but she's not as good as the Fighter. His armour and weapons show culture as well, which her white robe just sort of lacks.

[@Drawoon]

Hang on. Is that professor layton music?

[@the_twig131]

Yep, I love the music in Layton.

[@_fedmar_]

Quick news: the art in the 2024 PHB as shown so far is probably AI.

[@the_twig131]

8:44 I addressed this in the video, and no it's not.

[@tur13l]

Ai art for me is more akin to a tool or a new brush, it still needs to be curated, looked over and made sure to be a part of whatever art direction you are going for. Talented people are going to be able to use it in the future to do amazing(or unfortunately terrible) things. I think that it should be standard practice of anybody that uses AI art to just be honest and say that they do and from where or what platform they are using, no shaming or naming. There will always be a marked for something created by someone else and not an Ai, we just have to recognize that the times they are ah changing as one Mr. Dylan once made famous and which to this day still lives on after his death, like the art from Dark Sun from Brom will still live on and be thought of and inspire others :D

[@the_twig131]

Use in the conceptual stage I think can be reasonable. The issue that I have with it is that for me, a huge proportion of the value of a piece of art or a song or a book or a video is the effort and emotion put into it. I don't mind the use of AI as an accessibility tool, or for the purposes of 'hey look at this cool thing that I taught my computer to do', my issue is when people start using it instead of actual creatives.