David C. Sutherland III

David C. Sutherland III (April 4, 1949 – June 6, 2005 ) was an artist whose work influenced the early development of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D).

Early life and inspiration Sutherland was born April 4, 1949 He studied as a commercial artist for two years at the Minneapolis Area Vocational Technical Institute before serving in the United States Army as a military police officer in the Vietnam War, serving in 1969–1970. He was buried on June 22, 2005, with full military honors at Fort Snelling National Cemetery in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Notable works He wrote the adventure module Queen of the Demonweb Pits (Q1) (with some editing from Gary Gygax). He created the wemic, a D&D lion-centaur. He drew the isometric maps of Castle Ravenloft for the 1st Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) adventure module Ravenloft. As the newly revised version of the module, Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, explains in the introduction, these maps were "such a powerful aid to play that a generation of Dungeon Masters still fondly recall them and reemploy them whenever possible." Sutherland is even honored in the story of this newest version of the Ravenloft module, as there is a mention of a "Dhavit Uthurlan" as the designer of the castle. He is the cover artist for the first edition rules of the AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide. He illustrated the scene of a dragon, a wizard and an armored archer on the first D&D boxed set, described as "A simple composition, it shows a wand-waving magic user and a knight, his longbow drawn, squaring off against a dragon who sits—à la Smaug from The Hobbit—atop a vast pile of gold coins and jewels." He also illustrated the original cover of the first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual.