Dungeons & Dragons Shows Off Redesigned Venger

The artist of the new Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master’s Guide cover has shown off his rendition of Venger, a classic villain from the 1980s Dungeons & Dragons cartoon. Today, artist Tyler Jacobson showed off his redesigned version of Venger, who appears on the new Dungeon Master’s Guide cover alongside Warduke and Skylla. Jacobson’s version of Venger keeps the character’s one-horned headdress, bat wings, and pale white skin, but also gives elongated arms and a narrower face, as well as red eyes, slitted nostrils, and a mouth full of pointed teeth. You can take a look at the concept art for the character, which also features a rough sketch of Venger’s bicorn steed, below: 

Venger first appeared in the 1980s Dungeons & Dragons cartoon as the main antagonist of the series. The son of the show’s Dungeon Master (yes, the character’s name was actually Dungeon Master), Venger was once a human but was transformed into a “half-fiend” when he turned to evil. Venger had some sort of connection with The Nameless One, an eldritch evil entity who Venger referred to as his master. 

Dungeons & Dragons confirmed that Venger would be appearing in upcoming Dungeons & Dragons adventures and its likely that the powerful sorcerer will appear in an upcoming book. Wizards of the Coast has also commissioned art of grown up versions of the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon characters, which will appear in the new 2024/2025 Core Rulebooks that will start releasing later this year. 

Venger’s redesign is part of a renewed push to embrace many of the characters associated with the D&D brand during the 1980s. In addition to Venger, the Player’s Handbook and Dungeon Master’s Guide covers features several characters from a popular line of D&D action figures that were released in the early 1980s. While some of these characters received statblocks via the Quest for the Heartstone and Shady Dragon Inn supplements, they didn’t make a proper appearance in an adventure until the 2021 adventure The Wild Beyond the Witchlight. Wizards of the Coast has confirmed that both Valor’s Call (consisting of the good-aligned characters from the action figure line) and the League of Malevolence (the evil-aligned characters from the action figure line) will appear in upcoming adventures as well.