Art, is it important to you, does it help your roleplaying?

[Koloth]

I found the illustrations in the AD&D(1e) books to be some of the best in book artwork of the game's run. Most were on point, educational (sometimes in a humorous way) and didn't take up a whole page. Sure, a full page color image is often cool, but many are just there and don't really tie in well to the topic. I do like Pathfinder's beginning of chapter illustrations with the follow on text story.

Images of weapons, armor and items are really helpful. Too many real world regional variations on what a 'short' sword is. Give me an illustration of the various weapons and a size reference. Also, include a sample of Tiny vs Medium vs Large weapons with size references if the game system includes different size class weapons. If a pixie's long sword is a halfling's dagger and a ogre's toothpick, it would be nice to know.

Monster Manuals and Bestiary books should have artwork for each entry with size references. Is that giant spider 2 ft wide or 20?

 

[TheSword]

Art is essential for me when playing VTT. If it isn’t in the product then it’s a job for me to go out and hunt some down.

However poor quality art is next to useless anyway. So if you going do a crappy sketch or a blobby pastel face id rather you not bother…

Case in point…

 

[Micah Sweet]

I found the illustrations in the AD&D(1e) books to be some of the best in book artwork of the game's run. Most were on point, educational (sometimes in a humorous way) and didn't take up a whole page. Sure, a full page color image is often cool, but many are just there and don't really tie in well to the topic. I do like Pathfinder's beginning of chapter illustrations with the follow on text story.

Images of weapons, armor and items are really helpful. Too many real world regional variations on what a 'short' sword is. Give me an illustration of the various weapons and a size reference. Also, include a sample of Tiny vs Medium vs Large weapons with size references if the game system includes different size class weapons. If a pixie's long sword is a halfling's dagger and a ogre's toothpick, it would be nice to know.

Monster Manuals and Bestiary books should have artwork for each entry with size references. Is that giant spider 2 ft wide or 20?

Exactly. Art for me is about telling me what things look like, often in relation to other things. Anything else is very secondary.

 

[Blue]

I appreciate that you posted this, I was curious to see if anyone was going to say "no ttrpg book art doesn't matter to me," because to my mind it'd be like someone saying "I don't like (any) music" so I couldn't imagine it. Thus I appreciate you sharing your perspective!

I'm glad I can give an opposite viewpoint and that you can appreciate it even if it's foreign from your own.

To me it's not that "I don't like any music", it would be more of "I rarely choose a videogame to play because of the background music". There's some seriously fantastic background music out there, as well as some utilitarian "gets the mood across" stuff. But just like art isn't really a factor for picking up an RPG, I won't pick up a video game for the music. I'll pick it up because I like the gameplay.

And just as I do like specific art in RPGs, such as NPCs, monsters or items I don't know, I can appreciate that one banging boss-fight music that really works, while the rest of the music isn't something I pay any conscious attention to.

 

[Blue]

Me, well I'm small potatoes atm, and well I am not a terrible artist. I came up with my own way to do black n white pics. They are simple, but for the most part, clearly illustrate my intended target. I also felt that when a player looks at the art, and they want to create their own, it feels a whole lot better to compare yourself to something you feel you can imitate, or even out do. I was hoping my art style would make my presentation relatable. I have hundreds of pics in my book and it took diving into every past art I ever made to fill my book.

I have a soft spot for the old AD&D-style art. One point in your favor is that I think consistent art is better than all over the place -- this piece aiming for hyper realistic, this one cartoon-y, this one with characters in an anime style. So doing it all yourself will have a definite feel that it will impart.

 

[Distracted DM]

I have a soft spot for the old AD&D-style art. One point in your favor is that I think consistent art is better than all over the place -- this piece aiming for hyper realistic, this one cartoon-y, this one with characters in an anime style. So doing it all yourself will have a definite feel that it will impart.

Agreed that consistency and a sense of direction's very important. There are some indie ttrpgs that use old art that's fallen into the public domain, and it can be very effective if they curate it well so it's all a consistent feel.

 

[jdrakeh]

It's important to me. Good art can absolutely elevate a product. Objectively bad art can ruin an otherwise good product for me. I'd prefer no art to bad art.

 

[Bill Zebub]

I was reminded again just recently of how important artwork is to me when perusing my new volume of "Delve" for Shadowdark, which I backed on Kickstarter. In the section with some short dungeons they chose an aesthetic for the dungeon maps that really just does not do it for me. I can parse the information well enough, but there's something about the style that just really turns me off, and it colors my appreciation of the adventures themselves.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I was reminded again just recently of how important artwork is to me when perusing my new volume of "Delve" for Shadowdark, which I backed on Kickstarter. In the section with some short dungeons they chose an aesthetic for the dungeon maps that really just does not do it for me. I can parse the information well enough, but there's something about the style that just really turns me off, and it colors my appreciation of the adventures themselves.

Not me. Art is gravy for me, and a lack of it (or a lack of quality IMO) doesn't affect the real (IMO) part of the product: the words. So long as I can read the map, it's all good

 

[Artamo]

First off, I just want to get this out of the way: I miss the days of Tomb of Horror and Barrier Peaks style illustration books and wish more games used them as tools.

Moving right along…

Artwork has always been a big factor for me in my overall enjoyment of the game, dating back to the early drawings of Emerikol the Chaotic riding out of town blasting magic along the way, to the Larry Elmore fighter lunging at the red dragon Basic Cover, to the unique belts, buckles and spikes style of 3e artwork. They’re engrained in my memory now; an important sticking point for anyone’s TTRPG product. Sure, I can read cold text and rules but it’s certainly not going to capture my imagination.

It’s not strictly limited to the rulebooks either. I played Gradient Descent for Mothership and our GM showed us the amazing map that came with the game. Simplistic in design, the feel was a 1970s computer system diagram that was clearly an artistic choice rather than a functional one at times, but incredibly evocative of the adventure we were getting killed in…I mean, playing.

Art denotes a finished TTRPG product in my opinion, and not a manuscript or first draft. I wouldn’t read a screenplay when expecting a movie. I wouldn’t listen strictly to its soundtrack either. You can enjoy those things individually but they’re vital to the greater whole. The artwork doesn’t even need to be professionally done. There’s a certain fun that comes from the more basic, amateurish art that was often seen in early books like the 1e books or Arduin Grimoire that made it seem, at least to me, like this was another kid at the time creating something cool and showing their friends. I’d miss it incredibly if the artwork became second fiddle or non-existent compared to the actual writing in TTRPGs.

Edit: I realize this feels like an old man’s post given the constant references to 1e and OSR, but I also recently picked up the new 2024 PHB and I’m blown away by the full page artwork in this book, and the way they use those big, glorious artwork to section the book and break up the text. The dwarf fighter they have as the front piece for the Fighter class is just chef’s kiss