We MUST have nudity, and we MUST NOT have nudity.
"Huh?"
Look at the illustrations in the 1st edition AD&D Monster Manual, Players Handbook, and Dungeon Masters Guide. They don't shy away from featuring nudity IN MONSTERS. Succubi don't wear clothes! Harpies don't wear bras! Etc. It would be a shame to illustrate them wearing clothes. You might as well draw a picture of a red dragon wearing a sweater.
On the other hand, in the AD&D core rulebooks there is not a single adventurer running around in a chainmail bikini or similar nonsense. That is NOT how an adventurer dresses. (The only possible exception is the cover of the DMG, with that scantily-clad girl in the efreeti's clutches. I do not interpret her to be an adventurer, though. I interpret her to be a slave girl.) So no "adventurer babes", PLEASE. And no "pumped-up" men, either. Look at the adventurers in the old MM encountering that giant spider. Look at the adventurers in D2: Shrine of the Kuo-toa. Look at the adventurers in the AD&D Fiend Folio. All of them are lean and mean and roughed-up. They look like they are fighting their way through dungeons. They do not look like they just finished working on their six-packs at the gym.
Please note that I have taken my examples from the old AD&D books simply because that is what I have. I do not own the 2nd or the 3rd edition rulebooks. This thread isn't for Edition Wars.
Wow, 18 pages of thread, and here I am replying to the first one. Whew. Should I?
Well, where are the centaur schlongs? Ogre balls? Ettin junk? Oh, sorry, girl monsters are supposed to show tits to increase our sense of verisimilitude, but lets not get further.
Yeah, the adventurers in many books sure look tough and realistic: a white sausagefest on the road. Now and then we have a girl to help us fill the quota.
Yeah, attack the monster. Distract it! Show it that leg! Sad you forgot your bra when we had to quickly break camp, but stuff like that happens.
Of course, for Dragonlance, this was turned into an art form. Rough adventurers all, and the girls are experts at showing glistening thighs and perfectly styled Farah Fawcett hair. If they are not slave girls, of course, then all bets are off.
Play "where is Goldmoon" on this pic. Don't worry, it's not hard, Caldwell added some extra glisten this time.
But I like Caldwell. He was creative.
A gargoyle head spewing gems on string from your crotch. Masterclass of understated design!
Ha, I wonder what the official D&D artbook wants to tell us.
Oh.
I am old. Old D&D art was often sexist trash. It was good, 80s sexist trash, perfect to catch and keep adolescent boys. Yes, there are exceptions. Warrior princesses, maybe someone hid a token black character somewhere in the background.
But mostly its all Alias: men thinking drawing tits on a warrior woman is female empowerment. Stuff that worked 40 years ago, but thank god it wouldn't work today.