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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Iron_Chef" data-source="post: 1064762" data-attributes="member: 4530">Re: Re: Arcana Unearthed: Pro's and Con'sExpectations, book design and technology were very different in the 1970s, so that's hardly an accurate comparison. I can look at 1970s books and judge them by 1970s standards; the art in those books can still inspire me today! I judge brand new books by brand new standards set by WoTC, Fantasy Flight, Green Ronin, AEG and others. AU falls flat on its face. It looks amateur and boring, not what I'd expect at all from a $30 hardcover, regardless of publisher. Heck, even Fast Forward has better looking books than AU, LOL!!!Art makes a huge impact on how I react to a book. Bad art makes me throw it away on gut instinct--if the art's bad, mustn't the rest of the content be similarly poor? Art is there to inspire, to excite the imagination. Even Sam Wood and MacBin did nothing to inspire or excite me (they broke no new ground and their art felt like tired retreads of pieces they've done for WoTC and/or Green Ronin), and the "sketchy/blotty" guy should never have been hired in the first place, by anyone, ever. The cover art, the most important factor in getting someone to actually pick up and read your book, was awful, just really boring and old school GURPS-y with too much open space (like the interior layout). The only thing I liked about the cover was the raised surface of the art, but that was too subtle an effect to save it. I disagree that artwork is not helpful to running an interesting game; great art can inspire all kinds of ideas in players and DMs alike, and it makes them want to compulsively read and reread a game book. Bad art (like bad layout) inspires nothing but boredom and contempt.All I really wanted from AU was a collection of brand new feats, classes and spells, with variants of same; I don't want a book so utterly tied into a setting I have zero interest in. I guess I got that, but it ust doesn't feel right... AU is both "too different" and "not different enough." It doesn't feel like D&D and that's a very bad thing for a game that is being marketed as a variant "plug-n-play" D&D to D&D gamers. WW's Everquest and Warcraft both suffer from the same problem, though Everquest looks "too busy" (and too different to use with 3e/3.5e) and the Warcraft book just looks terribly boring (with bad layout and not enough interesting art).</blockquote>

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