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

[payn]

I tend to spring board off influential foundational pieces. I’m not good at building from whole cloth. So, I’m big into art and adventure modules as they get me started and I take them to great places.

That said, some games I’ve been into are not well funded so the art and adventures tend to be a luxury. I still have a good time and do what I can.

So, important but not tantamount to my enjoyment.

 

[Morrus]

It's pretty important to me. It's not even about the quality of the art, but it has to say something to me.

 

[aco175]

I like the art, especially the old black and white art in the modules and old books. I do not think I really need it to play. I do not show pictures of things to the players, but was are all related and know/seen most of the same things.

I have used minis in the past to show certain people or bad guys mostly. I had one of a drow elf that was a reoccurring bad guy that kept getting away. I must have pulled him out 5-6 times before they finally got to kill him. Each time I slapped it down on the table, the players would get all fired up. I guess I could do the same with other bad guys and NPCs that are reoccurring.

 

[Fetfreak]

DnD art inspired me to become an artist myself so yes, it is very important to me. But, I very much prefer one great piece that captures the spirit of the game, like a visual backbone, over lots of art that aren't that inspiring.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Art is important to me, full stop.

Within the gaming hobby, the stuff in RPG books stimulates my imagination and whets my appetite, no question. Art outside of RPGs has also inspired my character & campaign designs.

That said, because I surround myself with art as a habit, I don’t necessarily need it in my gaming projects. I do appreciate it, though. I’d probably give more attention to a gaming book with at least good cover art, absent interior illustrations than one without cover art at all.

 

[Synthil]

Absolutely. As a player, I draw my own characters myself. It helps me a lot to imagine them and play them. I also prefer art for NPCs. A single picture helps me remember them better than any description could.

As a DM, cool pictures inspire more encounters, NPCs and locales than any other form of media. They leave more room to imagine something yourself, compared to other forms of media. I've borrowed art from adventures that I would never run just because they looked amazing.

For species and monsters in particular, art is probably the deciding factor for me to include or play them.

 

[John Dallman]

Art is not very important to me, but it can be influential. That sounds contradictory, but a picture sometimes has a huge influence on the way a species gets played. My best example is the picture of a Gif in the first edition of Spelljammer for AD&D 2e. The monocle. and details of the uniform, cued everyone I know to play them like WWI German airship crews with more guns available.

 

[Jahydin]

I can't think of anything more important to the success of an RPG than the artwork. You could have next to no mechanics, small page count, and typo/grammatical errors and the book will still sell like hotcakes if the art is good enough.

 

[pemerton]

The art and layout for Agon 2e played a role in my decision to buy the book: <AGON - An Epic TTRPG by Evil Hat Productions>. I didn't know I was going to buy it until I saw it in the shop.

 

[MGibster]

Honestly, it more an opportunities to lose points (Freaking 2014!PHB Halflings) than gain them.

Gaze into the abyss!

I certainly can't argue I'm not influenced by the art in an RPG book, though I'm not sure to what extent. I can identify games whose art kept me away entirely. A lot of the Avalanche Press d20 setting books were supposed to be very good, but the covers looked like poster art for those late night movies they used to show on Cinemax, so I stayed away. One of my favorite bad covers was Exalted: Savant & Sorcerer affectionally dubbed the camel toe cover by many. Though I have to admit the rules kept me way from Exalted more than any art did.

Though perhaps the art that kept me away from a game I should have been champing at the bit to play was Cyberpunk 3rd edition. By most accounts, it's not a very good game, but when I saw the art, it was so ridiculous I decided right then the game wasn't for me. You thought the halfing looked bad? Gaze upon this and weep for humanity!

I suspect good art is something that mostly just affects me on a subconscious level. I don't always notice it unless it's really good or it's really bad.