I see a lot of this new-style D&D art, you know, the modern-looking, overly flamboyant, cosplay-style costumes that are so prevalent in fantasy art these days. It is as if the chainmail bikini has evolved into the flashy, stylistic armor styles inspired by anime, where a shoulder pad is more prominent than half of the character's torso, and only one is worn. Additionally, numerous flashy pirate and Victorian styles are incorporated, enough to make Steampunk cosplayers cringe.
None of it is armor. It is all faux-dungeon fashion.
And I remember the old D&D.
It was a suit of realistic chainmail, or a thief in a rugged leather vest. Ordinary plate armor. Gritty and rugged individuals who likely did not have a choice, or poverty was so endemic that crawling in a 700-year-old hole in the ground looking for coins was the best way to cheat a feudal system where you were likely dead by your late 30s. This was the only way to get ahead without being forced to drag a hoe through a field for potatoes and crop yields that barely reached sustenance level.
Back in the day, D&D was a blue-collar experience.
The art was very 'common person' and elevated the ordinary into the realms of the fantastical.
Everyone looked like they didn't want to be there, and no one had armor tailors.
These days, D&D, dungeon-ing, and adventuring feel like a hobby of the idle rich. Everyone in modern art appears to be happy, well-dressed, stylish, and good-looking. I feel a nausea coming on when I watch a reality TV show featuring a crowd of 'perfect people' selected for their stylistic traits and good looks. Living mannequins.
Everyone starts as a fantastic, stylized, powerful hero with a perfectly tailored set of armor that has a unique style (likely copied from anime, but as stale as three-day-old sushi), and they look... rich.
Everyone in the new games looks rich, fat, happy, well-fed, beautiful, handsome, overly made up, and like hand-picked contestants from a reality show. They all have perfect, brightly dyed, modern hairstyles, as if they had just visited the salon before embarking on a "little jaunt" to the Tomb of Horrors to test their magic and combat skills.
They all appear to be fake social media influencers putting on an act.
Death isn't even a fear for them.
These people are nothing like me, nor do I have anything in common with them. The art feels like an "in crowd" of lifestyle influencers who don't want rabble to be a part of their exclusive club. This attitude seeps into groups and live streamers, the "better than you" culture that tells others, "unless you are good-looking and popular, the game isn't for you."
I recall the days when playing D&D automatically assumed you were considered unattractive and unpopular. We were the nerds who played out of our notebooks in school, and the rulebooks were three-hole punched so we could hide them in our Trapper Keepers. Teachers would take the books from you.
D&D, back in my school days, was a subversive revolution. We played in secret, out of sight of the teachers, and a few kids had to hide the fact that they played from their religious parents. Some kids used the numbered counters in a cup because special dice would be a dead giveaway, or teachers would think they were gambling. Real sets of dice were kept hidden, and two of the six-sided dice were always pulled out of the Monopoly game.
These days?
D&D has been taken over by the wannabe influencers and those who pretend to be rich to gain followers. Even their characters reflect this attitude. It would not surprise me if they had livestreaming rules in the new games, allowing followers to watch along as they embark on their incredible adventures.
Oh, wait, we have a game that does that. This is a good game because it acknowledges the stupidity and embraces the concept. It is a parody of what D&D and modern fantasy gaming have become.
Celebrity livestreaming.
For a lifestyle brand.
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