Art in books

[diaglo]

Besides, its nice to be able to look in a WotC book, ... and then think "Hey, my three year-old godson can do better than that..."

fixxed it fer ya.

 

[Desdichado]

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

Me too. Unfortunately, 3e and beyond have had very inconsistent artwork. When it's good, it's the best artwork D&D has ever seen. When it's not, we might as well go back to the crayon art of older D&D. Blech.

 

[IronWolf]

I like for my books to have good art in them. Not sure I would pay more for a book that has really well done art though. I also agree with Diaglo and miss some of the older art, there just seems to be something missing from some of the newer books.

 

[Voadam]

Monster and race books are really helped out a lot by art. PDF ones with art are great because you can easily cut and past the pictures for use in an e-mail game or whatnot. Plus the publishers does not need to worry about the cost of color printing. I really like my complete minions book.

 

[Voadam]

On the other hand I have really enjoyed forgotten heroes paladin and other pdfs with no art whatsoever. But in monster entries art is functional in addition to being a decorative luxury aspect of the rpg work.

 

[Pants]

Besides, its nice to be able to look in a tSR book, ... and then think "Hey, my three year-old godson with no arms can do better than that..."

fixxed it fer ya.

Fixed it for real.

Usually art alone won't get me to buy a book, but sometimes it helps. I usually look at content first, but it's nice to turn a page and not be appalled by some hideous Jeff Laubenstein/Dennis Cramer/Erol Otus/Trampier picture gracing its pages.

 

[pdkoning]

Art is nice, however, it does not really influence my decicions about what to buy. I like good art, but if a book contains only a small number of black and white images and the text is good, (and the text concerns a subject I like) I would buy it.

 

[nyrfherdr]

Art is very important to me. I think one of the reasons I enjoy RPG books is the constant imagery.

I've been disappointed by the lack of art or quality of art in some PDFs (and some print books for that matter). I've passed on print books because of the art and I've bought some books because of the art.
PDF's is more difficult, because you can't browse.

I don't usually look for a specific artist, I love good art by anyone.
I do have my favorites, but I don't pick an RPG book based on them.

If you do an adventure, I might pay more for player handouts. There were some classics in the Old days that had lots of handouts that showed characters, unique monsters and unique rooms.

Just including more or 'better' are in a PDF wouldn't necessarily justify a higher price to me.

Hope that helps.
Game ON!
Nyrfherdr

 

[mac1504]

Art is very important to me as a DM. I often use art from RPG books (mostly PDFs as they are easier to cut and paste so I can print the picture only out) that I purchase to use in showing the players in my games.

One of the authors over at RPGNow, VShane IIRC, has a set of books that are nothing but illustrations of weapons and gear. I love these as I can mine them for items to give my PCs. I usually print out a 4x6" index card with the abilities and a picture of the item on it as well. My players love it when they get a new item, they usually use a paper punch so they can clip it inside of their character sheet folder. Not to mention the illustration of an item often gets me inspired to come up with more unique abilities for the individual item.

I would love it if more publishers would do books like this. I would love to see a book with settings (cities, wilderness, dungeons, etc.) as well as more books on magical items, character illustrations, etc.

 

[MrFilthyIke]

i miss the older art.

Art like:

and

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