Here’s what the cover of Dungeons & Dragons’ 2024 Player’s Handbook looks like
Surprise, there’s a dragon!
The cover of Dungeons & Dragons’ next Player’s Handbook has been revealed, ahead of the follow-up to Fifth Edition arriving 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 19th. The Dungeon Master’s Guide will then drop on November 12th, with a supersized Monster Manual following on February 18th of next year to complete the staggered rollout for the core trilogy of 384-page rulebooks.
Revealing the new artwork for the 2024 Player’s Handbook, Game Informer pointed out the new D&D edition’s homage to Dungeons & Dragons’ 50-year history, with characters from across the RPG’s adventures and settings - including Molliver the rogue, Yolande the elf queen, knight Strongheart and dwarven warrior Elkhorn - readying to battle under a gold dragon. (For the game’s golden anniversary, geddit?)
Meanwhile, a red dragon - potentially a nod to the game’s iconic Red Box from the eighties, which also featured a red dragon - lurks in the bottom corner. The book’s new fully red spine might also be considered a nod to the starter set that helped popularise the RPG 40 years ago, replacing the red-and-black spines of 5E books.
Dragons are among the monsters that are said to be fully revised for the new D&D edition, with all 10 metallic and chromatic dragon species updated. Lead designers designers Jeremy Crawford and Chris Perkins previously said that they had rebalance almost every creature’s in-game stats too, resulting in a total makeover for the bestiary.
A bronze dragon appears on the reverse of the Player’s Handbook, ferrying a group of unknown D&D characters including a tiefling, elf and human - presumably stand-ins for the players’ own creations. Early print runs of the new books will also feature a symbol marking D&D’s 50th anniversary on their back cover.
Behind the art is Tyler Jacobson, who was also responsible for Fifth Edition’s Player’s Handbook and Dungeon Master’s Guide, as well as various 5E adventures and supplements over the last decade.
As well as the standard cover artwork, the Player’s Handbook and other D&D 2024 books will be offered with variant covers in local game stores, as with past Fifth Edition books. In the case of the 2024 PHB, the alternate artwork will show a group of elves and gold dragon, finished with gold foil on the book itself.
It’s well worth taking a full look at the new artwork over on Game Informer’s site, with the new Dungeons & Dragons getting a fuller reveal in the video game magazine’s latest issue.