D&D (2024) Comeliness and Representation in Recent DnD Art

[Thomas Shey]

I hate that argument with the unbridled fury of a thousand suns.

But like I said, its not your bottom line at risk.

 

[Minigiant]

Technically an arming doublet is what you wear under plate armor (and even under mail armor).

A gamebson is its own armor, and usually slightly thicker than an arming doublet.

That's what I know if anyway.

and it would be more than AC 11.

 

[Micah Sweet]

A lot of people buy gaming books specifically for the art, so no it’s not a waste of space. And yeah, only depicting one example of a character of each class would obviously not create much room for representation, but depicting every class as every possible combination of identifying traits is not the only alternative. As long as the art is generally diverse, people can find examples of art that is relatable to them.

Not a waste of space for them.

 

[Micah Sweet]

But like I said, its not your bottom line at risk.

This issue has been discussed. No one is forced to act like WotC does or they can't make a profit. I still just see it as greed.

 

[Micah Sweet]

There are many retcons in Burton's Batman, depending on what you consider to be "original" Batman. And the "needless" is purely subjective.

I think they're pretty clear that they feel it is needless. And I can see their point.

 

[Micah Sweet]

The problem is that you (generic you) would need to actually tell a story about prejudice being bad, and more importantly, tell the story well. How many people (and game companies) are actually good enough to write those stories well? And how many people and game companies are actually going to write those stories instead of just including bigotry or whatever just for the heck of it?

Sounds like an argument in favor of sanitizing so the possibility of getting it wrong is removed. Is that what you're advocating?

 

[Micah Sweet]

That presumes that a few instances of artwork necessarily inform us about the state of D&D's implied setting, rather than just the specific individuals and locales that are depicted in each piece. Likewise, the ability of healing magic to affect congenital conditions isn't explicitly defined that I'm aware of. As such, while there's certainly a legitimate argument to be made for assuming that (low-level) healing spells can take care of such conditions, the basis for arguing that they can't isn't without merit either (and that's beyond getting into issues of accessibility and affordability, etc.).

Art is in many ways all you have to go on when sussing out an implied setting.

 

[Charlaquin]

Not a waste of space for them.

Or, you know, for the people trying to sell the books.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Or, you know, for the people trying to sell the books.

Do we know how important the amount and quality of art is to the sales of RPG products?

 

[Kobold Avenger]

As for representation about me, I'm fine with a couple examples of the Monk being represented by someone from my ethnic background, as Monk has strongly being tied to it, but they shouldn't be all Monks. I realize the second most likely character class that might be represented by characters from my ethnic background is the Wizard (though it's a more modern stereotype), but so far only Strixhaven has featured one. It's why I liked the fact the Sorcerer from 3e (and a different Sorcerer in the 5e 2014 PHB), and the Artificer from Tasha's Cauldron were characters who resemble my ethnicity.