Head of art for Dungeons & Dragons Josh Herman shared details on the upcoming Monster Manual revision with Dexerto, including the team’s goals and how much new artwork we can expect from the book.
Herman estimated the new book has over 300 new pieces of artwork, telling us “I would say it’s almost entirely new art from cover to cover. We’re still actually commissioning, but we may use some old illustrations, mostly because they’re still good.”
Though we weren’t able to see any new monster art, Herman told us the team’s goal with the new artwork was “to help communicate what the player experience is.”
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That meansD&Dplayers should expect to see more monsters in action, including artwork of creatures and characters engaged in combat.
Of course, a revision like this provides a chance to make more significant changes to monsters, with Herman saying these “visual updates or redesigns” are meant to “reflect where we want them to go in the future or give a glow-up.”
Herman also discussed how the Monster Manual’s appeal extends beyond D&D players. “A lot of people I know who have never played D&D, the first book they picked up was the Monster Manual,” he said, explaining that they were interested in the creatures, artwork, and lore.
This makes him hopeful that the revised Monster Manual will have the same impact, telling us “I genuinely hope non-D&D fans buy this book only to look at the monsters. If you only bought this to look at a rad monster book, good! That’s fine!”
Noelle Corbett was a Senior Writer on Dexerto’s US team. She is a Gaming expert, covering Pokemon, Baldur’s Gate, Dungeons & Dragons, and RPGs. She also has bylines at CBR.
