The New Emblem Brings the Dragon into ‘Dungeons & Dragons’

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dungeons and dragons ampersand

This summer, Dungeons & Dragons is set for a significant rule revision, and to coincide with this, its logo is undergoing a makeover as well. Revealed last week, the refreshed D&D emblem will be featured on all materials for the iconic role-playing game’s fifth edition. The logo discards the previous versions’ excessively medieval typography and textures, and in line with contemporary trends, it is transformed into a much sleeker, tidier design. Nevertheless, it retains sufficient decorative elements to convey the franchise’s fantasy theme.

The most captivating element of the revamped logo is not the words, but the ampersand nestled between them. As reported by Brand New, D&D’s publisher, Wizards of the Coast, engaged an external design team specifically for the ampersand’s creation, while its parent company, Hasbro, took care of the words. This collaboration birthed an ingenious metamorphosis of the symbol into a dragon spewing fire—a fitting centerpiece for the game’s emblem.

Regrettably, Brand New reveals that Hasbro applied a 3D chrome effect to the classically styled dragon-ampersand created by the external team for the final version, which gives it a somewhat gaudier appearance. However, you might not see it in all instances: the main rulebooks for the game’s next version display an abbreviated logo that simply states D&D, with the ampersand presented in a flat red. The ampersand is also prominently featured, indicating that it may be used independently as a means of distinguishing new D&D products.

While the ampersand slightly mirrors the logo of Guild Wars 2, where the “2” morphs into a fiery dragon, D&D’s revised ampersand actually harks back to the game’s origins. Dragons have been used as ampersands for several previous editions, although they were considerably more indistinct. If you revisit the second edition of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons and other versions from the 1980s, you’ll discover that the ampersand bears a striking resemblance to its current iteration. A virtually identical dragon-ampersand graces the second edition of AD&D’s core rulebooks, though its style now carries a decidedly more vintage feel. This logo also incorporates simpler typography, yet the logo of the new edition retains a distinctly contemporary aesthetic.

D&D’s logo typically undergoes changes in sync with significant game releases, and the upcoming major one is slated for this summer. The new iteration strives to incorporate more role-playing aspects into the (arguably overly) simplified mechanics introduced in the 4th Edition, with the aim of attracting players who have migrated to other games, notably Pathfinder. A starter kit is set to launch on July 15th, followed by the core rulebooks over the subsequent four months.

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