Artworks in an RPG

[aramis erak]

Perhaps you should try reading what I wrote too, with the specific examples I gave. These are good for the time but would ge substandard rpg art now.

at the time, they were excellent. Now, they're still above average.

When one looks at the range of genuinely crappy art on many independent games... nothing Chaosium's used is really bad, even now.

And that's before comparisons like the cover art on most of Avalanche Press' 3E setting books; all but 3 of the ones I've seen had technically well rendered but borderline NSFW highly sexualized art. The three that didn't? Noble Knights, Noble Steeds, and I, Mordred.

 

[Rogerd1]

at the time, they were excellent. Now, they're still above average.

Hahahaha...nope.
They are so subpar compared to now it is not even funny. You just lost any credibility whatsoever with this statement.

 

[Art Waring]

Back to the subject,

Speaking from experience as not just an artist, but as a son of a professional freelance artist, and as someone who grew up learning to love art, art is essential for some people. Some people are brought into the hobby by the art alone... but down to the facts.

The creator of Oddworld Lorne Lanning has a great interview about the significance of visual aids and the purpose of art in games and in aiding with technical projects outside of gaming (link below).

To briefly summarize his origins: Lanning was formerly a freelance graphic designer working for a design company cntracted by the military for making visual concepts of military technology because the very people who were in control of the military could not look at the pages of printed text in front of them and understand what they were looking at, they needed visual aids in order to understand.

"the Generals in the pentagon no longer understood what the hell the scientists were talking about"

Timestamp 29:44

Note: Lanning later explains that at the time he needed a job, and didn't really want to work for the ilitary in the first place, but that job did lead to his awakening about the importance of visual aids, and it inspired his creation Oddworld for years to come.

 

[Morrus]

Hahahaha...nope.
They are so subpar compared to now it is not even funny. You just lost any credibility whatsoever with this statement.

Warnings for insulting other members is starting to become a thing with you. You're done in this thread.

 

[Rogerd1]

Warnings for insulting other members is starting to become a thing with you. You're done in this thread.

That isn't insulting other members. That is me telling them what they're saying is ridiculous. And trying to compare old b&w art to what we have now ( whether 3PP or other rpgs) shows how silly that statement was.

 

[Morrus]

That isn't insulting other members. That is me telling them what they're saying is ridiculous. And trying to compare old b&w art to what we have now ( whether 3PP or other rpgs) shows how silly that statement was.

And your second warning for challenging moderation. You're now not just done in this thread, you're done on this forum for a week.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Yes ... I'm ... taking the Michael. They are both iconic covers to me.

lol. Sorry, thought you were being serious

 

[Bedrockgames]

Of course you can find examples of crap art from the time, but guess what, you can find the same thing today in the age of "computer art". By the same logic, there is more bad art produced today compared to the 1980s/1990s because the same technology is creating greater access to more bad artists. The reason that you are missing is cost and the network. Paying for art is expensive, today and in the "pre-computer age" you have identified. The reason some early RPGs had bad art is that they had small budgets, and hired school children or college kids or their gaming buddies to create it. Bigger budget RPGs had better art, even in the "pre-computer age". The same is true today.

Some of the ugliest RPG books I have on my shelf are from the mid-2000 period. Lots of great looking books came out at that time, but this was also the d20 boom, where tons of people were cranking out books, and, perhaps because it was getting easier to self publish, there were a lot of books with poorly formatted art. I have a bunch of books with pixelated images for example because it looks like the correct resolution was not sent to the printer. Have many books with disjointed art (multiple styles of art that don't fit together). Some of the odder books have great art but bad composition (i.e. poor art direction not the fault of the artist). I am also not a huge fan of many of the color palettes from that period in general but personal preference aside, I have a lot from that period with pallets I think many would agree were terrible color choices.

When I go back and look at my books from the 80s and 90s, even stuff with art that isn't as good quality, usually at least looks cohesive. But a lot of the stuff people are labeling bad isn't, it is just a different style of art.

 

[aia_2]

Back to the subject,

Speaking from experience as not just an artist, but as a son of a professional freelance artist, and as someone who grew up learning to love art, art is essential for some people. Some people are brought into the hobby by the art alone... but down to the facts.

The creator of Oddworld Lorne Lanning has a great interview about the significance of visual aids and the purpose of art in games and in aiding with technical projects outside of gaming (link below).

To briefly summarize his origins: Lanning was formerly a freelance graphic designer working for a design company cntracted by the military for making visual concepts of military technology because the very people who were in control of the military could not look at the pages of printed text in front of them and understand what they were looking at, they needed visual aids in order to understand.

"the Generals in the pentagon no longer understood what the hell the scientists were talking about"

Timestamp 29:44

Note: Lanning later explains that at the time he needed a job, and didn't really want to work for the ilitary in the first place, but that job did lead to his awakening about the importance of visual aids, and it inspired his creation Oddworld for years to come.

Thanks for this interesting point. Let me say that i have a problem with this explanation: in this case we are talking about "visual aids", not necessarly artwork... These could be closer to infographics than pieces of art.
Let's assume that rpg market has a similar situation, where publishers/authors need "visual aids" to the text. This implies an underlying issue: the rpgers have come to a point they are not able to understand more than a bunch of lines of text.
To be extremely honest i do not accept to be considered as silly as a donkey, being not able to concentrate for less than a page of text... What is incredible is that this seems to be the case for militars! (And even for this case i have serious doubts...)
In any case the explanation of this situation brings back to my first point of the previous post: a reason for an image in a rulebook would be necessary as "aid" (concept close to infographics) rather than a moment to enjoy a good piece of art...

 

[aia_2]

Re to the discussion whether a drawing is good or not... This is a product of art! Someone may like a drawing, others don't... That is the ultimate purpose of the art: let people have an opinion generated by their own perception and discuss about it and defend thier point!