Dungeons and Dragons may be the most important gaming franchise ever. The fantasy role-playing game has captivated millions of players over its four-decade history, inspiring game designers, authors and filmmakers, and brought countless people together. Now a new illustrated history is providing an unprecedented look at the visual evolution of the game, showing its continued influence on the worlds of pop culture and fantasy… and it’s an absolutely spectacular book.
Dungeons & Dragons Art and Arcana: A Visual History, out today, conveys the epic history of D&D through more than 700 pieces of artwork encompassing game books, magazines, advertisements, merchandise, prototypes, drafts and more. The book’s authors had unparalleled access to the archives of publisher Wizards of the Coast, as well as the personal collections of top collectors and the game’s original designers, allowing them to compile the most comprehensive collection of D&D imagery ever assembled.
The result is an gorgeous and essential visual history of the game. I picked up this book knowing a decent amount about D&D: I wrote my own book about it, Of Dice and Men: The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and The People Who Play It. But I was continually surprised and delighted to find material in Art & Arcana that I didn’t know about or had never seen before. Any D&D fan will drool over the the color photos of original maps and concept art, and the text –written by some of the most knowledgeable people in the hobby– is full of new information and obscure details.
Just check out some of these page spreads:
Art & Arcana was written and compiled by an all-star group of D&D experts, including Michael Witwer, author of Empire of Imagination: Gary Gygax and the Birth of Dungeons & Dragons; Jon Peterson, author of Playing at the World: A History of Simulating Wars, People and Fantastic Adventures, From Chess to Role-Playing Games; Kyle Newman, writer and director of films including Fanboys and Barely Lethal; and Sam Witwer, an actor whose work includes Being Human, Star Wars Rebels, and Battlestar Galactica. These are all guys who grew up playing the game, and who genuinely love and respect it; they’re also immensely knowledgeable about its past, and well suited to compile this visual history.
But as much as I love the book itself, I’m particularly excited about the Special Edition box set, which adds a clamshell case and cover featuring art by Hydro47, plus ten poster-sized recreations of classic D&D artwork, and a pamphlet-sized recreation of Gary Gygax’s original, unpublished Tomb of Horrors adventure module. The set is really worth it for the extras alone.
Art & Arcana is a must-have item for D&D fans. But it’s also worth checking out if you’re new to the game, or just a fan of pop culture. D&D is an incredibly influential invention, and it has shaped decades of fiction, films, games and television. Art & Arcana helps put the game in context.
It’s the kind of book to pore over and regularly return to, something to display on a favorite shelf or leave on a coffee table. I’ve had a copy sitting on my desk for a couple weeks, and I keep picking it up in quiet moments. Every time I crack open the cover, I discover some new detail in a painting, or find some new bit of esoteric knowledge. If you’ve ever paged through a Monster Manual just to gawk at the amazing pictures, this book is for you. If you learned about mythology because you loved the portraits in Deities & Demigods, this book is for you. If you’ve ever obsessed over a hand-drawn dungeon map, pinned a fantasy magazine cover on your wall, or wore a t-shirt printed with a knight or a dragon, this book is for you. Art & Arcana is a delight and a treasure.
Dungeons & Dragons Art and Arcana: A Visual History is on sale today, October 23, 2018. The 448 page hardcover edition has a list price of $50, and the Special Edition Boxed Book & Ephemera Set is listed at $125, but both editions are available at significant markdowns from a variety of booksellers and online retailers.
