Art in books

[RangerWickett]

What's your opinion of art in game books? Do you like it? Would you be willing to pay a bit more for a book if it contained quality illustrations? As an online publisher I wish we could afford to pay our artists more, because I really love quality illustrations. I know I certainly prefer reading a book with illustrations to a textbook, because rules alone can get kind of boring.

I've been considering having a one-shot book with some of the more respected artists who've been at this community for a while. The cost to produce the book would be high, and given the economies of scale for pdf releases, it'd probably need to cost 50% more than a normal pdf book of the size. But it'd be gorgeous. I'd like to know if people would be interested. I'm not even sure what the subject of the book would be yet, but I'm thinking of perhaps retooling some of the Adventurer's Guide to Surviving Anything articles I've written. Or possibly a sourcemodule -- an adventure with snippets of new rules and mechanics worked into the plot, sort of like the first adventure for Mindscapes Malhavoc put out, If Thoughts Could Kill.

If there's no interest I'll just have to scrap the idea, and my artist friends will be forced to sleep under overpasses outside in the cold. But if people are interested in this experiment, I'd like to produce a book we would all enjoy having a copy of, just to look at.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

I love art! I really dont care if it is pencil sketch, black & white, mosaic, hnd drawn or rendered! I expect any book I buy to have some art in it. The only thing I dislike is WotC overused art (Illithid skull comes to mind).

 

[Crothian]

Good art is nice and I like the full page action pictures, but bad art can kill a book for me.

 

[Jdvn1]

Since the text is more dry than past editions, good pictures give a good semblance of color. They give you a little bit of an idea of what's happening. Plus, they make everything seem a little more real when you can see what's happening.

 

[Turjan]

It's a difficult question. Point is that products that are sold over the internet have to impress by cover art only most of the time. On the other hand, if I go into a game shop, a book with good art has a much easier time to impress me, and bad art turns me off.

If you show an art preview or a layout sample beforehand, the situation is different. For example, the art preview for the Avadnu Primer managed to put the book on my 'definite buy' list .

 

[reanjr]

I like it, but generally I'm not willing to pay for it unless it's got a purpose. Maps, monster illustrations, and pictures of things that are much smaller to show than describe are all perfect places for art. Filler so that the chapter ends at the end of a page rather than the middle is not.

 

[Ryltar]

I have to admit, I sometimes buy RPG books for the art alone.

 

[Empress]

I love good art for a game book. It must be thematically appropriate, though: In an anime game, you can have anime drawings, but not so much in a game about European Renaissance, please.

And can we have some pecs, please? And fur-clad barbarians? Male, of course. *g*

 

[tetsujin28]

I have to admit, I'm a big sucker for art. Good art gives me a feel for a setting a lot more than prose does. That said, I've got a lot of indie games on my shelf with hardly any art.

 

[Soel]

Good art has made me buy many a book. Even if the book isn't what you thought it was, at least you still have some nice art.