D&D: The New ‘Player’s Handbook’ Should be a ‘Portal’ Into Another World
In a new video, the art team at WotC discusses the surprising amount of intentionality in art and layout going into the new PHB.
Art sells RPGs. Hands down. There is absolutely no contesting that. However, one of the undersung heroes of the RPG world is layout. Layout is how easy it is to find the information you want. It’s relating the art to what’s happening on the page.
The two are working in harmony in a fascinating new preview of the upcoming Player’s Handbook, which has the most art of any D&D book to date. More art, art that ties into what’s happening, art that’s meant to do just as much work “onboarding” new players as the text itself.
So take a surprising peek behind the scenes and find out why WotC thinks the Player’s Handbook 2024 will be a “portal” into another world.
Inside the Art and Layout of the Player’s Handbook
Contrary to what your min-max player might tell you, there’s more to a book than just “the rules.” The art and design of the new Player’s Handbook have been overhauled with an eye toward “user experience,” as explained in the video.
Now, ordinarily, when people start tossing around words like onboarding and UX, their eyes start to glaze over. The hand instinctively reaches for the “turn the camera off” button on Zoom or Teams. And the mind wanders, asking questions like, “How far can I get in Hades 2 before anyone notices I’ve tuned out of this meeting?”
But here, you can get a sense of how the new PHB will be easier to use. And, as someone who’s played D&D for a while, I know these books aren’t always good about that. Even in 5E, there’s a meme about inventing rules that are already just in the Dungeon Master’s Guide. But nobody knows where to find them.
So hearing that not only is the new book going to be full of art, but that things will be more scannable, you’ll know where to flip to get what you need instead of having to figure out the right combo of words to throw into something like D&D Beyond to try and get the results you want, makes me hopeful for the new book.
Will it have its own quirks and idiosyncrasies? Absolutely. But, it’ll look absolutely gorgeous as we figure out what they are.
The new Player’s Handbook is due out September 17th!
