Dungeons & Dragons Reveals Alternate Art Cover for Dungeon Master’s Guide

The new Dungeon Master’s Guide for Dungeons & Dragons will feature a stunning alternate art cover by Olenna Richards. This week, Wizards of the Coast (via GamesRadar) revealed the alternate-art cover for the Dungeon Master’s Guide that will be revealed this November as part of the 2024 Core Rulebook re-release. The cover, illustrated by Olenna Richards, shows Lolth wrapping a hapless adventurer in webs. As with the previously revealed Player’s Handbook cover, the alternate-art cover will only be available at hobby stores. The standard cover, illustrated by Tyler Jacobson, was also revealed earlier this week. You can check out the alternate art cover down below: 

Lolth the Spider Queen is a demon lord and creator of the drow, an elven subrace known for their dark skin and white hair. Many drow worship Lolth and have adopted her twisted religion and beliefs, although recent changes to D&D canon have shown that other sects of the drow aren’t aligned at all with the goddess. Notably, Lolth has not appeared as the primary antagonist in a Wizards of the Coast-published D&D adventure since the launch of 5th edition, although her presence is a plot point in the recently released Vecna: Eve of Ruin adventure. 

The alternate art cover continues to paint a more serene and laid-back vibe compared to the standard covers, which showcase various characters in typical D&D action sequences. The covers showcase the intended depth of D&D’s versatility – while the rules of the game focus on combat abilities and options, many players have opted to use the game primarily as a roleplaying tool to explore a variety of different story types. 

The new Dungeon Master’s Guide will be one of two “new” Core Rulebooks released for Dungeons & Dragons this year, along with the Player’s Handbook. The Monster Manual, the third of D&D’s core rulebooks will receive a revised version in early 2025. While all three books will continue to use Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition rules, many rules have been updated as part of the new edition. The Dungeon Master’s Guide, for instance, has received a major reorganization to allow for easier onboarding of new DMs and gives more examples on how to run both D&D sessions and campaigns. A section on campaign worldbuilding has also been included in the book, featuring the classic world of Greyhawk as an example of how to build a world within a campaign. 

The new Dungeon Master’s Guide will be released on November 12, 2024. Pre-orders are expected to be available here on Amazon soon.