Homage: 2008
Here's your exclusive early-bird look at the homage Stan! began during Episode 38.
Character sheets are one of the most ubiquitous parts of any and every TRPG that’s ever been. A player character is basically just an idea that the player (and the other members of the gaming group) carries around in their head … but in order to PLAY the game, you need to have access to all the pertinent mechanics. For pretty much ALL of the fifty years of this hobby, players have bought character sheets from the publisher … and then IMMEDIATELY begun tweaking them to their own specific needs and styles.
As the game grows and changes—particularly when it changes editions—new sheets are needed to cover the new iteration of the game stats. For D&D there have been nearly as many “Character Record Sheet” products than there have been “player’s rulebook” products over the years. Often these have had pretty utilitarian-looking covers, since the “wow factor” for a character sheet is TOTALLY driven by the player … there’s no “creative content” inside the package.
But for the 4th Edition character sheets, the D&D team creative a cover image that could have gone onto the PHB … or a new version of the basic game. A “content-heavy” cover image, for sure!
Artist Wayne Reynolds cooked up another scene that’s made me want to play the adventure inside. Except there WAS no adventure inside! I wonder how many DMs used this image as a jumping off point for designing dungeon for their players to explore?
I certainly had a great time interpreting Wayne’s depiction of a party squaring off against a green dragon. And even while doing so, I found myself wondering, “Why a green dragon? Don’t you usually find those in the woods? What brought it to this dungeon? What’s it hiding? Oooo … I could totally write an adventure around THAT!”
As a subscriber to this newsletter, you’re seeing this art before it is released for general consumption. You also have the option to buy an art print of this or any of the cartoon homages (and if you’re a paid subscriber, you get a discount on those purchases).
Please share this newsletter with friends who are also fans of Dungeons & Dragons. The best promotion we can get is word of mouth … and your opinion matters! Drop us a line if you have any comments or suggestions for the newsletter or the livestream shows.