D&D’s latest dragon-focused compilation is packed with stunning dragon illustrations

Dungeons & Dragons’ new anthology of adventures, Dragon Delves coming on July 8, “is a little experimental,” Wizards of the Coast vice president Jess Lanzillo told Polygon during a press panel at MagicCon Chicago. “I’ll absolutely admit that, in the sense that this is something that we haven’t done in this specific way for D&D ever. […] But it does harken back to some things that were really foundational for me in my love of Dungeons & Dragons, which is the really art-driven world-building concepts you saw with Planescape or Dark Sun.”

A former creative vice president overseeing Magic: The Gathering, Lanzillo knows from her art-forward fantasy game projects — but she wasn’t just talking about Dragon Delves’ psychedelic alternate cover art, crafted by veteran Magic artist Justine Jones. The new book is a collection of short, dragon-themed adventures for any D&D table, following 5th edition’s solid legacy of anthology books like Candlekeep Mysteries and Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel. It also boasts veteran designer James Wyatt (who led the design of the 4th-edition Dungeon Master’s Guide among other projects) at the helm.

And as the first new release to follow Wizards’ updated core D&D rulebooks, says Lanzillo, Dragon Delves represents a new era for the art inside D&D manuals as well.

With 5th edition’s art, Lanzillo said, Wizards’ team has been trying to emphasize immersion and world-building. “A little less of the spot art of the dude just standing there, and a little bit more of What is it like to be this person in this world? so that it can really inspire the imagination.”

Lanzillo joined the team during the production of Dragon Delves, and said, with humor, that the book’s art style — or styles — shows it. “I’m like, ‘Great, I’m so glad we have a very strong foundation. I would love for us to figure out diverse expressions of what that foundation is, and bring those principles in not only in the world-building sense, but psychologically what kind of art style expresses this.’”

Dragon Delves doesn’t just feature 10 dragon-themed adventures for any GMs who have yet to figure out how to get the dragon into their Dungeons & Dragons campaign. Each chapter features a different color of metallic or chromatic dragon, and each chapter also claims its own art style.

This week, Wizards revealed the main cover by Greg Staples alongside Jones’ neon-colored heavy linework for the alternative, but the publisher also showed off the diverse styles of Dragon Delves’ interior pages — featuring flat, stylized images; painterly sweeps of color; or intricate black-and-white linework. Any fantasy fan will tell you: It’s not hard to make dragons look cool. But Dragon Delves certainly does it with style.

Designer James Wyatt told Polygon about receiving printed copies of Dragon Delves for review. “We had the experience of turning the pages, turning the pages, and suddenly [it’s], OK, we’re in a whole different world here. And it’s awesome. It is very unexpected.” He explained that each chapter of the anthology opens with a gallery of classic dragon art — of the appropriate scale color, naturally — from across the history of D&D manuals, from 1st edition to the present.

“So you open up to any chapter, you page through that gallery of art, and then you turn the page and you see something that might be just an amazing piece of D&D art that is in line with what we do in other books, or it might be something completely different, just to make your head explode with awesomeness. I can’t wait for folks to see it.”