Character Sheets (Role Playing Games)

On display

Young V&A
Play Gallery, the Arcade, South wall

Artist/Maker	Tony DiTerlizzi (designer) Tony DiTerlizzi (illustrator)
Place of origin	USA (designed and made)

Paper character sheet for Dungeons & Dragons gameplay, outlining character traits and strengths. Printed copy of black ink illustration with hand written pencil. Character sheet depicts an illustration of a fighter, dressed in armour holding a sword with both hands. Name of character is 'Harvey Masher Kobold Killer'

Object details

Categories	Games Entertainment & Leisure Illustration Children & Childhood
Object type	character sheets (Role Playing Games)
Materials and techniques	Printed paper copies of illustrations; original designs created using pen drawing and computer design. Ink copies filled in with pencil, by hand Paper Ink Pencil Illustration Printing
Brief description	Dungeons and Dragons character sheet, Harvey Masher, designed by Tony DiTerlizzi, 2015, USA
Physical description	Paper character sheet for Dungeons & Dragons gameplay, outlining character traits and strengths. Printed copy of black ink illustration with hand written pencil. Character sheet depicts an illustration of a fighter, dressed in armour holding a sword with both hands. Name of character is 'Harvey Masher Kobold Killer'
Dimensions	Height: 279mm Width: 216mm
Gallery label	(2023) Far-out fantasy Tony DiTerlizzi is an artist who has created many fantastical monsters, people and places for both Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering since the mid-1990s. His character sheets show how his visual work takes fantasy ideas and adds offbeat inspiration from other artists, like Dr Seuss. Tony also illustrated and co-wrote The Spiderwick Chronicles with Holly Black. Harvey Masher character design Tony DiTerlizzi 2015 Amherst, Massachusetts, USA Given by Tony DiTerlizzi Museum no. B.20-2023 A chat with D&D illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi Running time: 2 minutes With thanks to Tony DiTerlizzi Tony Diterlizzi’s interview transcript: Hi, I’m Tony Diterlizzi, I am a bestselling author and illustrator of books for young readers like The Spiderwick Chronicles. I am a huge lover of all things fantasy, especially tabletop games like Dungeons & Dragons. What you’re looking at here is an older character that I love drawing, Harvey Masher. He’s just a classic Dungeons & Dragons type warrior. It’s been said that even my most vile and despicable characters, monsters, humans have still a bit of charm. And I think that’s because the monsters are what I relate to the most. That sort of empathy towards the bad guys in these stories is important to me because you can carry that understanding out into the real world. When I have to illustrate something, whether it’s a single image for a gaming product or a magazine or a series of images for, say, a book, it really, for me, begins with the character. What’s the expression on the character’s face? What kind of body language does the character have? An illustration is like a frozen frame of animation or film. The trick, of course, is in illustration you’re doing a single static image as opposed to a series of moving images. But that’s the challenge, and that’s what I love about illustration. I think if you are inspired and you want to create your own stories, it really comes down to discipline and diligence and tenacity and just going after it and never giving up, even when it seems like you should give up. I wish I could tell you there was a secret path that you could take that would get you from point A to point B. But my path is long overgrown. You have to forge that path on your own. And after all, that’s what we love. A great adventure and a fantastic story with a happy ending.
Credit line	Given by Tony DiTerlizzi
Collection	Young V&A Collection
Accession number	B.20-2023

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Record created	December 5, 2022
Record URL	https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1737732/character-sheets-role-tony-diterlizzi/

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