@Vectner @ToddKenreck that’s a great interview. I love the cohesiveness of 5th ed. it’s the best looking. Now I know why. Glad you enjoyed the interview. And thank you!
— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) March 28, 2017
@joshvandenberg @Wizards_DnDAnd absolutely beautiful books they are Aw, thank you!so the three of us not only for tales
from the awning portal but for all
dungeons and dragons books the three of
us unite together we call it with
Voltron together and we working on the
layout the art and the text make sure
that everything in the book is hitting
its target we make sure the game design
is what it’s supposed to be we make sure
that our storytelling in the book is
hitting our story notes we make sure the
layout is communicating the information
well as a pleasure to look at Kate make
sure that all the art is exactly where
it needs to be and that its associated
with the right text that it’s supposed
to be associated with so the three of us
manage this constellation of different
elements and weave them all together
into what ends up being each dnd book
and and that was true for tales from the
awning portal just as it is for all of
our books a lot of my job starts pre
Voltron because that’s when the
commissioning of the art happens that’s
a few months before we actually start
putting everything together Jeremy and
the other editors are working on the
text and I’m working on the art assets
once the text has been turned over to
any annie has finalized her design for
the look and feel of each book because
each one is different kind of follows a
theme of the book so Jeremy’s text she’s
visuals I’m we put it all together and
then it’s smashing it all in fit our
fluffing it to fit or making like will
add pickup art sometimes to fluff
something out Jeremy will cut words to
shrink something down for us so that
things are pasted in the right manner
that’s the beauty of the Voltron and
then Emmy makes it all look good on the
page so that everything looks like oh we
planned it this way from the beginning
we’re really we’re making decisions
minute by minute I mean we do a lot of
planning prior but when we’re in those
last phases it’s it’s well this would
look a lot better if we could do this or
what if we move
data and then she starts moving things
around and she’ll find a new hole or or
have something that’s over set and will
shrink something down pop something up
heart damn word as the art director at
the very beginning of a project well
certainly not the very very beginning
but a few months before we actually
start working on the layout of the book
itself I have to Commission the art so I
contact a bunch of artists who I think
would be appropriate for whatever the
theme of the book is and the kind of
content that we’re looking for we get
our orders from the writers and then I
commissioned them out to the artist and
work with them through sketch and final
art to get a piece of art that were
satisfied with and with something like
this there’s a lot of attention to
detail because these are adventures that
people know and love so the content of
the image is supporting the story in a
way that’s more strong than when it’s
it’s just you know here’s a bunch of
monsters and they can they can be doing
a lot of different things but but this
story has these stories have a specific
route to them and there are things that
have to be in an image or have to be
taken out of an image if an artist takes
too much leeway when it was released
yeah near the end my case said it’s not
as we would love to say everything’s
planned that way it’s not and there are
all these challenges that come in from
the outside and within between us and
Chad music I’ve got this feedback and it
needs to be added here and we’re like oh
my goodness it’s going to move
everything you know everybody get up
from the chair and move over so that’s
where you know Jeremy’s knowledge and
his amazing vacuuming and cutting and
slashing skills come in to be like okay
I’m going to you know put this in I’m
going to take this out in so good a fit
and then you know Kate will make sure
that everything is visually still
working good it’s that vault running
near the end that things will always
shift thanks always move and everybody’s
still on it because there’s only three
of us which is needs more work but it
also means closer communications
as well because often as we’re finishing
a book like tales from the awning portal
the three of us will be gathered around
and these deaths and and Emmy will be
the hands and you know Kate will say
well I’d like to move this painting over
here and I’m like okay and we can remove
this sentence to make room for it and
then you will then all right and I’m now
going to put in this splotch behind the
painting to really make the page pop and
we’ll do that over and over and over
again sometimes hundreds of times for a
particular book with with each of us
often that’s like minute by minute
adjusting how a particular page looks
and they’re even been times where the
content of the book itself has changed
in some substantive way in this process
because we’ll be looking at it this
isn’t really it’s it’s not working
visually I’m not super satisfied with
the text on the page and we might
through a series of snips moving things
around I might write a few new lines of
text Kate might go find an old piece of
pickup art for us to use it’s just right
for the purpose and then Emmy doing some
beautiful layout work in the process we
might end up with a page we never
imagined was even going to be in the
book I whole section yeah actually
entails from the awning portal Z the
creature appendix in it because there’s
an appendix of monster stop locks at the
back of the book and therefore all seven
of the adventures that appear in that
book that appendix when we started with
nothing like the one in the final book
because we have an appendix that was
kind of like the shambling it was like
and we looked at it or like oh boy you
need a makeover and so we we really
heavily redid that both visually yeah
yeah Kate found some art for us to use
and me change the whole layout i ended
up redeveloping a number of the stat
blocks so almost every aspect of that
section changed in the fun
few weeks of the book and that often
happens with us where it’s not until we
see all the elements coming together
when the three of us put our heads
together did we start seeing like roof
this thing we planned six months ago now
this all together this is this is not
working and and and the beauty of our of
our work relationship and that trust
that you mentioned a me is we can change
fast because we understand each other’s
perspectives so well respect each
other’s areas of expertise and so each
of us brings that expertise and we
sometimes the amount we change and the
way it turns out after an elephant I
look back inside how did we do that i
have written I’ve written sometimes
close to entire pages in the final weeks
on one of our D&D books so there I can
point to sections like they’re actually
a number of places in cursive straud
where half or more of a page exists in
cursive straud because we needed to fill
it and I just went back to my book back
to read back to my desk like all right
this is now in cursive straw oh that’s
right yeah I forgotten about that knows
it yeah yeah that’s probably that book
more than any other yeah at the hotel
and I just really why I’m from your home
game yes into the game exactly exactly
to the adventure itself yeah but even in
tales from the unimportant air was a
page where we didn’t like how it was
laying out so I wrote about a quarter of
a page to fill it up so it can
definitely be high pressure but
thankfully I have the two of them to
rely on and so it’s it’s again it’s a
give-and-take where if we look see we
have space we want to fill tape might be
able to fill some of it with a new piece
of art Emmy might provide part of the
solution with the layout and then I
might bring the you know the third piece
of the solution with the text so it
rarely is it just one of us in the when
we’re constructing the book needs to
provide the
full solution unless it’s unless it’s a
solution that must come only from one of
our areas of expertise like if the only
way to solve this as a new piece of art
Logan we rely on Kate to bring that
solution or the only solution is layout
Emmys going to do it yeah there are
times that that we need art and that’s
where Richard and Shawn come in Richard
where’s and Shawn would because they
they can always pull through with
something to to add in is if I can’t
find a piece of pickup art that that
fits in a place that it must be an art
solution they’ve come through with my
things like that too there there are
other appendages to the ball trauma as
well we bring others in yeah yeah it so
so we have core tenants in our game
design and storytelling Kate oversees
the commissioning of the art for all of
our books any oversees the layout of all
of our books and so in addition to
having sort of principles we use for
book after book after book the other key
and this is very unusual for 5th edition
compared to other editions of the game
if the three of us have overseen the
creation of every single book for this
edition every book has had Emmys hands
on it Kate’s hands on it and my hands on
it and that’s actually never been the
case at least in the additions that were
created by wizards of the coast until
now where you would have the same the
same art director on everyone the same
layout artist on everyone the same
editor overseeing the text of the book
and in addition to that we were the
three along with bre hice who
established all of the layout that you
see in fifth edition so that’s the other
thing the people who are making the
books are the same people who created
all the design elements in the first
place so really it’s just if part of it
is it’s a continuity of
no it’s just it’s us thanks for watching
this video— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) March 28, 2017