Artworks in an RPG

[Crusadius]

Well i did some search on this... I am still in doubt this is a saying (i'd rather say it is a good ad takeaway... I remember the ad of diamonds using smtg similar...): this is a sentence by Mao.

Wikipedia even has an article on it:

A picture is worth a thousand words - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Bagpuss]

Thanks! Now it is clear!
I miss how this aspect is related to thr presence or not of artworks but i do understand now.

Well clearly any artwork you see will have an impact on your imagination, and thus the TOTM for that particular game.

I also play with pencil and paper but without grid and minis... I have been playing this way since the very beginning, in 1983!

Well a lot of the early RPGs lacked artwork, or had very minimal art work (generally B&W) compared to the art you get in RPG books now days.

As mentioned earlier RPGs aren't novels, while they often have some short story elements, the bulk of them tends to be rules, which is very dry reading without illustrations to break them up. Rules also do very little to inspire the imagination, hence the images and short story elements most RPG books contain.

 

[Bagpuss]

That is an opinion,

I think it is pretty clearly a fact. Graphical games sell better than text based ones. Illustrated RPGs sell better than text heavy ones, sales figures in both cases are going to back that up.

you took an example which doesn't grant an objective conclusion. And moreover, even, if your logic might be applied to rpgs, i still miss the why... I am convinced for a setting (as i wrote befohand), i still miss why an artowork should help the reader in a game mechanics chapter...

If I'm looking for a chapter in a rulebook, it is quicker to flick to an illustration my brain has mapped to that section of text, than it is to try and pick out the text, and often faster than looking at the contents or index, once I am familiar with it.

If you know anything about graphic design, print layout you would know that a four columns of text, isn't visually appealing, and doesn't engage the reader, no matter how interesting your rules are. You break that up with different sizes of text, maybe a table, or some bullet points it helps, but you stick an image in there it makes it much more visually appealing. This helps keep the reader engaged and track where they are up to in the text. That's the why.

 

[aramis erak]

As the saying goes… ”A picture is worth a thousand words”.

And a picture can quickly impart information to a viewer faster than text can.

Well i did some search on this... I am still in doubt this is a saying (i'd rather say it is a good ad takeaway...

It is a staple of English educational guidance. It's a documented feature that students learn better with illustrated texts than non-illustrated ones. (Hence why even most college texts use illustrations.)
While 1000 words may be exaggerated in some cases (weapons illos for example, where it's often only replacing a few dozen), it is a principle that is consistently part of English for a century now (entering in 1921); it was being quoted from an older oriental source.

'A picture is worth a thousand words' - the meaning and origin of this phrase

The meaning and origin of the phrase 'A picture is worth a thousand words'.

www.phrases.org.uk

 

[Jd Smith1]

That is an opinion, you took an example which doesn't grant an objective conclusion. And moreover, even, if your logic might be applied to rpgs, i still miss the why... I am convinced for a setting (as i wrote befohand), i still miss why an artowork should help the reader in a game mechanics chapter...

I suspect that the reason you miss the point exists solely within you. Multiple posters have explained, often better than I, this very simple truth, and yet you still are in the dark.

 

[Bilharzia]

Ok, thanks.
Back to the first question: i didn't want to discuss whether or or not artworks support the game towards TOTM models rather than grid+minis model. This is a matter on how the game is managed by the GM (and accepted by players) and it depends solely by their choice... My question was referred to the visual support to the reading of a rule book.
I got several different points and i am not yet convinced that artworks would help the reading of a rulebook... I am now for sure convinced that artworks are essential for a setting (for the reasons you outlined, such as the mood, the flavor and so forth)... I still have some doubts how an artwork could be helpful to a GM while he reads a chapter about progression of the PCs for instance.

You are mixing up illustration with graphic design and layout. Take a look at these examples

"Control Panel" Page Layout in the OSR - Questing Beast

More and more books in the OSR have been making layout and information design a priority, in particular the “control panel” format that puts all of the relevant information from a single topic on a single page (or two page spread). It’s a term I first used on my video review of B/X essentials...

questingblog.com

Look at the examples and ask yourself whether those pages would be just as comprehensible as big blocks of undifferentiated text. There are some text-only! people who will thump on their mighty rpg tomes and claim hundreds of pages of dense text is just fine thankyou. They all have something in common, none of them are graphic designers, or care about layout or design.

Graphic design and layout is a real thing, it exists in the world, people have jobs doing this stuff, whole industries revolve around it, the publishing industry relies on it, degrees are taught and awarded for it. You can pretend it's not real, not necessary or not desirable, but just like the moon landing and the reality of orbital communications satellites, it is still there and it is not going away.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Well you are one of the few.

No, they are not. That's kind of the point. So far you are the only one who said it was impossible to have good art back then (because it was hand drawn, which is such a weird thing to say because art today is still hand drawn and infers that ALL art not digitally done is bad (which includes Monet, Rembrandt, etc).

You might want to consider that you are one of the few, and not everyone else. Cuz it would be even stranger to say that the larger group of people is "part of the few" and you are the only one in the majority despite seemingly being alone in your position.

 

[Older Beholder]

Maybe it’s just that one of the first things that got me into D&D was the art of Dragonlance book, but I never really understand when people don’t get the importance of art.

I just can’t imagine something like the Planescape setting without Tony DiTerlizzi’s art for example. It’s just such a big part of the visual identity.

 

[Bilharzia]

When art was hand drawn, and not done on a computer. So anything early 2000s and prior. Look at the old Unisystem, Runequest or Palladium stuff.

You mean this impossible RuneQuest art? Presumably this is Lisa A Free painting is terrible,

This watercolour painting in particular repulses me

Both date from the early 1980s, RuneQuest.

 

[aramis erak]

It's worth noting that Chaosium's graphic design was, circa 1985, amongst the best in the industry. Sidebars in boxes, good whitespace, relevant illustrations for the location, use of font/face for conveyance of structure...

The peak, however, was the AH+Chaosium and GW+Chaosium layouts for RQ3. Chaosium's rules, and the two companies making different layout choices. The GW is, to me, a friendlier one; the 5 volume AH boxed set with only internal paper stock makes me nervous to even reread, let alone use at table. (tho' it is good quality paper stock.) It is, however, well laid out in 3 color (black, grey and red) design. I'm too lazy to check for the grey being actual grey or dithered black.

The art was always reflecting either the examples or the rules in that area. The bestiary, with all of its many odd critters that are not from classic fantasy, was largely well labeled. And that made them much more useable, and allowed more of them.