D&D General Is DnD being mothballed?

[Older Beholder]

I have bought several D&D art books just for the artwork (Art of Dragonlance, for example)

That Art of Dragonlance book was one of the things that got me into D&D.
Such a beautiful book.

 

[mamba]

That's what I do. I have a 400+ page homebrew doc, double column, no art, suits me great. I will accept a lower profit margin if it means a lower art budget. Nice cover, some chapter plates, and illustrations for stuff that needs illustration.

wait, are you selling that? I understood @TwoSix as selling players on his homebrew, not literally selling a document / PDF

 

[TwoSix]

I liked a lot of the art in the 2e era, and I can't say that no cover caught my attention, but it wasn't why I was there.

And I'll say that while it wasn't the only reason I was there, I wouldn't have bought any of the major settings for 2e if the art hadn't been there.

 

[TwoSix]

wait, are you selling that? I understood @TwoSix as selling players on his homebrew, not literally selling a document

Yep, I meant selling the game to my players. I kickstart the pretty Kickstarters that I think would grab my players's attention.

 

[Older Beholder]

There have also been RPG's completely based on art, such as Tales from the Loop.

 

[Micah Sweet]

And I'll say that while it wasn't the only reason I was there, I wouldn't have bought any of the major settings for 2e if the art hadn't been there.

Very alien to my experience.

 

[Micah Sweet]

wait, are you selling that? I understood @TwoSix as selling players on his homebrew, not literally selling a document / PDF

No, I'm not selling anything.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

I don't know if it's the primary draw, but it's definitely a source of inspiration. I would likely not have become as enamored of Dark Sun back in the day without Brom's paintings and Baxa's B/W interior art, bringing that stark world to life (such as said life was).

Right. It's a source of inspiration for most, I would say, me included. I was responding to a post, though, that said something quite different: that a product's art work is the primary factor on whether to buy that product or not. That, I don't agree with at all.

 

[TwoSix]

Very alien to my experience.

We're all just here to share our anecdotal experiences.

 

[Stormonu]

There have also been RPG's completely based on art, such as Tales from the Loop.

Yep, and that art was THE reason I picked the game up.

There's been cases where you can spend pages in a RPG book talking about a place and have me yawning. Or show me 3 pictures and having me falling over myself to want to run a game there.

Hell, one of the biggest selling points on the MM to me is that it has a picture of just about every creature in it. I've run across other game systems/publishers where their "Monster Manual" is nothing but stat block after stat block with no pictures, and they sit on my shelf unused or in storage.

For me, a picture truly is worth a thousand words.