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

[Micah Sweet]

I remember, when what was it, 3rd ed DnD came out there was a big reaction to the art, that seemed to set a trend in the RPG world of great art or bust. This is an impression, not a fact. That said I am wondering does art still carry a lot of weight in the RPG comuunity and if so, I would like to understand why. I myself will hold up a picture , my players will give me a quick nod of understanding and away we go.

Is it like that for you? Do your players rely on pictorial reference or imagination more?

I don't care about art beyond it being a good representation of what it's trying to depict. To me, art in RPGs is far more about showing me what things look like than anything else. Words are the important thing to me. Any inspiration I may get from it is a nice but unnecessary bonus.

 

[Micah Sweet]

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.

This is a business reason to appreciate art in RPGs. Unless you're a publisher, I'm not sure what this has to do with anything.

 

[Corinnguard]

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

It certainly was for me when I decided to play a Bugbear for the first time in 5e. I was inspired to play one after seeing a pic of one from the Baldur's Gate 3 game.

 

[MGibster]

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

I keep thinking of the Maya Angelou quote: "At the end of the day people won't remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel." I do think good RPG art should invoke feelings related to the game it appears in. My gold standard for art is Thirsty Sword Lesbians, a game I have zero interest in playing, but when I look at the art it's very romantic in that it inspiring and really focuses on the individuals. It's exactly the right art for a game about "telling queer stories with friends" and "angsty disaster lesbians with swords."

That's the kind of thing I want to see in RPG art. Something that invokes feelings for a setting, a character, a monster, etc., etc.

​

 

[payn]

I keep thinking of the Maya Angelou quote: "At the end of the day people won't remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel." I do think good RPG art should invoke feelings related to the game it appears in. My gold standard for art is Thirsty Sword Lesbians, a game I have zero interest in playing, but when I look at the art it's very romantic in that it inspiring and really focuses on the individuals. It's exactly the right art for a game about "telling queer stories with friends" and "angsty disaster lesbians with swords."

That's the kind of thing I want to see in RPG art. Something that invokes feelings for a setting, a character, a monster, etc., etc.

​

That is a great quote for this discussion. I can even recall conversations about systems that are janky, and need to be hammered into place to be playable, but oh the feeling!

 

[Bravesteel25]

I'm an extremely visual person so art means a lot to me. There are systems where I feel happiness when I open them because of the art and others that almost turn me off the whole system for the art. I love good monster art because I've never heard of most of these monsters. Seeing them inspires me as well as helping me understand how they might move or sound.

This is exactly how I feel about art in RPGs. Perfectly said, djotaku.

 

[LordEntrails]

Art is important. But I find that often maps/cartography is more important. Though I would argue that maps are art too!

 

[djotaku]

Art is important. But I find that often maps/cartography is more important. Though I would argue that maps are art too!

A good map is so great. However, I've also come around to the idea that "wrong" maps - made wrong by someone in-universe can be great and that a map that is too detailed can be a jail of sorts.

However, I LOVE a good dungeon/room map with tiles/hexes so that I have a good sense of scale for descriptions and/or battles.

 

[cbwjm]

A good map is so great. However, I've also come around to the idea that "wrong" maps - made wrong by someone in-universe can be great and that a map that is too detailed can be a jail of sorts.

However, I LOVE a good dungeon/room map with tiles/hexes so that I have a good sense of scale for descriptions and/or battles.

I'm the same, when it comes to maps which are too detailed, makes it feel like everything has been discovered. This is one of the things I recall people praising about the original Greyhawk, it had vast expanses of nothing that allow the DM to fill in the spaces instead. Mind you, I'm also running my players through Dolmenwood which has a lot of detail in its map, still space to put my own stuff but I'm mostly following the book.

 

[djotaku]

I'm the same, when it comes to maps which are too detailed, makes it feel like everything has been discovered. This is one of the things I recall people praising about the original Greyhawk, it had vast expanses of nothing that allow the DM to fill in the spaces instead. Mind you, I'm also running my players through Dolmenwood which has a lot of detail in its map, still space to put my own stuff but I'm mostly following the book.

I'm currently working my way through Kobold Press' Guide to Worldbuilding and at least one, if not two, essays praise Greyhawk for being so sparse, allowing for lots of GM imagination.

I'm so both ways about it, though, so I can see how the publishers can't win. For Kobold Press' big setting book of 2025 - The Labyrinth, I want so many more details about the "core worlds" and other important worlds they mentioned. But the only ones that are truly detailed are Midgard, Parsantium, and the Shadow Roads (Book of Ebon Tides). Everything else is either a few paragraphs in The Labyrinth Worldbook or scattered throughout Warlock magazine issues. I need (for me) just a LITTLE BIT more. It feels like a big tease vs just saying - make your own worlds.