Quote from: Marleycat;755709Art is nice and it looks simple and straightforward.

And Yay! The females look sensibly dressed.

No endless spikey bits on the guys armor either.

Quote from: Bill;755588Hopefully a starter party can't beat a Dragon

Nice art.

The level 1-5 thing should work if the full game is released at the same time.

Latest Q&A says that the green dragon is in the starter, requiring the PCs to be level 5 to take it on.

Quote from: Warthur;755680Yeah, it isn't quite as inspirational to show a group of adventurers heroically ambushing a flumph.

Exactly. More inspirational is showing a flumph heroically ambushing some adventurers!

The first level fighter on the cover is not well versed in the effects of chlorine gas as a breath weapon.

Quote from: BarefootGaijin;756193The first level fighter on the cover is not well versed in the effects of chlorine gas as a breath weapon.

But it would appear he's about to become so.

Has this one been mentioned anywhere?



Oh, the complaints have started already: "why are they ALL WHITE??"

(Because the selective pressure for eumelanin production decreased in climates where radiation from the sun was less intense? See also: Why aren't Dwarves black?)

Quote from: BarefootGaijin;756227Oh, the complaints have started already: "why are they ALL WHITE??"

(Because the selective pressure for eumelanin production decreased in climates where radiation from the sun was less intense? See also: Why aren't Dwarves black?)

Immigration has always been a thing. Your mental picture of an all-white medieval Europe owes more to the racism of Hollywood than to actual patterns of human migration.

That said, I expect the actual art will probably be more diverse and it's a bit early to be getting one's dander up about it.

(Who says they're not?)

I'm sure it will be balanced out more in the book itself. That seems to be something WotC cares about.

I suppose the elf looks a bit swarthy, but I'm not sure he'll pass muster.

Yeah, you can't really make that sort of call based on a single page from a book of hundreds of pages.

Quote from: LibraryLass;756255Immigration has always been a thing. Your mental picture of an all-white medieval Europe owes more to the racism of Hollywood than to actual patterns of human migration.

Moreover, standard D&D fantasy societies don't much resemble either the actual historical picture of medieval Europe or, for that matter, many of the popularised myths about medieval Europe, so there's no reason to assume any of our assumptions about the demographics of the region (whether those are the real demographics or the ones we imagine to be the case) apply to D&D cultures. Certainly, to object that including people who aren't white in D&D artwork would be historically inaccurate seems kind of choosy when there's far greater historical inaccuracies you could pick out - like the fact that there's a freaking elf sat at the campfire chilling with these people like he's a regular human being.

Quote from: BarefootGaijin;756227Has this one been mentioned anywhere?

Why does the cloaked female looking one appear to be symbolicly posed to push the males around the campfire back?

Uh, she's warming her hands?

Quote from: BarefootGaijin;756227Oh, the complaints have started already: "why are they ALL WHITE??"

(Because the selective pressure for eumelanin production decreased in climates where radiation from the sun was less intense? See also: Why aren't Dwarves black?)

It's the proto-culture midichlorians, oppressing the non-cis-gendered melanin.

Quote from: LibraryLass;756255Immigration has always been a thing. Your mental picture of an all-white medieval Europe owes more to the racism of Hollywood than to actual patterns of human migration.

That said, I expect the actual art will probably be more diverse and it's a bit early to be getting one's dander up about it.

(Who says they're not?)

I expect so to but it doesn't matter.

Nothing you can do will ever be good enough for the tumblr outrage machine. Whatever you do will be twisted into yet another excuse for outrage.

Not enough women
Not enough minorities
Minorities not depicted properly
Minorities just "tokens"
Women not depicted properly
Not enough sexual minorities
Not enough of a particular minority/ethnicity/sexual minority.
Too many stereo types.
Not enough stereo types.
Too many of the wrong stereotypes.
Not diverse with regards to class.
Not "representational"
Too biased.
Not biased enough.
etc...

And on, and on, and on, and on.

And all based on a fundamentally bullshit principle.

I see the Speaking Staff has returned...

(seriously, stirring up hay is easy fun! )

Quote from: BarefootGaijin;756227Has this one been mentioned anywhere?

Oh, the complaints have started already: "why are they ALL WHITE??"

(Because the selective pressure for eumelanin production decreased in climates where radiation from the sun was less intense? See also: Why aren't Dwarves black?)

um... the elf looks to have dark skin. Its not super dark, but its not white either. Kinda like the elf tracker in the D&D movie perhaps.