Artworks in an RPG

[aia_2]

Ok, now that it is clear that artworks can grant several benefits for the reading (not for the in-game moments), I have another question for those who think artworks are effective for in-game moments: you (a player) and your fellows enter in a room (this is simply the GM description). There is a troll standing in the middle of the room looking at you. Do you think that your PC concentrates on other details of the room or not? This just for the sake of role-playing.

 

[Rogerd1]

Artwork can show you better than a 1,000 words sometimes and evokes atmosphere, feel and tone. Back in the days when good art was impossible, and you only had hand drawn - but now so many talented artists many of whom will do requests.

It makes sense to include.

 

[Jd Smith1]

For me this just kills it in a few ways (and again this is just my personal opinion, everyone is going to have a different perception of these things):

1) Time consumption: it takes more time when you are messing around with a grid and miniatures, doubly so online.

Again, I find the opposite. Shift over to the correct VTT map, give the players a minute to look it over, and jump in. None of the tedious GM yapping about what the PCs see, and then questions from the players to define the issue.

2) Imagination: I prefer that I be allowed to imagine this stuff on my own. VTT and battlements, or dungeon tiles, all that stuff just directs my attention towards the visual medium and away from imagining it in my own mind.

But a VTT means everyone sees the same thing.

3) The shift: I find shifting from RP to battlement, for me, creates a phantasy star effect where the role-play and exploration part of the game feels like an entirely different game than combat. And in some cases RP ends up feeling totally different from exploration. I just prefer having that all feel like it is organic and part of the same process.

I feel exactly the same about VTT: it feels far more organic than endless GM talking.

In terms of precision, there is a trade off. On the other hand, in VTT you are tethered to that grid so you can get more granular and expansive when you aren't. In terms of describing things, I find to get the most accuracy out of theater of the mind, it is less about long descriptions and more about the right description, as well as allowing players to ask key questions when needed. I hate long descriptions and favor short, quick, natural language when describing things in game. One good thing it does is train the GM to think more concretely about what they are imaging and to track things so they can report accurately.

I don't use a grid in VTT.

And a beautiful map, unique to the situation. complete with sound effects, draws the players in far deeper than just some GM's summary.

For example, last session the PCs (in 1776) crept through a woods at night to storm an abandoned cabin and rescue a kidnap victim. Thanks to Dynamic lighting, the players had to creep their PC pogs in, feeling their way through the darkness, and then on to a desperate close-quarters firefight and ultimately cold steel.

Extremely evocative.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Ok, now that it is clear that artworks can grant several benefits for the reading (not for the in-game moments), I have another question for those who think artworks are effective for in-game moments: you (a player) and your fellows enter in a room (this is simply the GM description). There is a troll standing in the middle of the room looking at you. Do you think that your PC concentrates on other details of the room or not? This just for the sake of role-playing.

Obviously, the PC will focus immediately on the threat to their life.

So when the VTT door opens and suddenly the players see the troll pog, they get the same shock that their players experience. No GM description is going to match that.

IMO, too many GMs stick with 'theater of the mind' because they love the sound of their own voice.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Again, I find the opposite. Shift over to the correct VTT map, give the players a minute to look it over, and jump in. None of the tedious GM yapping about what the PCs see, and then questions from the players to define the issue.

But a VTT means everyone sees the same thing.

I feel exactly the same about VTT: it feels far more organic than endless GM talking.

I don't use a grid in VTT.

And a beautiful map, unique to the situation. complete with sound effects, draws the players in far deeper than just some GM's summary.

For example, last session the PCs (in 1776) crept through a woods at night to storm an abandoned cabin and rescue a kidnap victim. Thanks to Dynamic lighting, the players had to creep their PC pogs in, feeling their way through the darkness, and then on to a desperate close-quarters firefight and ultimately cold steel.

Extremely evocative.

Again this is all personal preference, but for me, imagination is the thing that really pulls me in. I love a good movie, and I love music and sound, and those things can be great. But when I sat down to play an RPG for the first time, with nothing more than dice and pencils before me, the big revelation was how powerful my own imagination was. It was like I was there. Anytime I've brought in visual aids (and sometimes they are necessary to illustrate something) it dampens that for me.

 

[Sacrosanct]

. Back in the days when good art was impossible,

When was this?

 

[Sacrosanct]

Again this is all personal preference, but for me, imagination is the thing that really pulls me in. I love a good movie, and I love music and sound, and those things can be great. But when I sat down to play an RPG for the first time, with nothing more than dice and pencils before me, the big revelation was how powerful my own imagination was. It was like I was there. Anytime I've brought in visual aids (and sometimes they are necessary to illustrate something) it dampens that for me.

Yep. I remember when people stopped reading books and novels because movies and comics came out.

Wait...

 

[Rogerd1]

When was this?

When art was hand drawn, and not done on a computer. So anything early 2000s and prior. Look at the old Unisystem, Runequest or Palladium stuff.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Again this is all personal preference, but for me, imagination is the thing that really pulls me in. I love a good movie, and I love music and sound, and those things can be great. But when I sat down to play an RPG for the first time, with nothing more than dice and pencils before me, the big revelation was how powerful my own imagination was. It was like I was there. Anytime I've brought in visual aids (and sometimes they are necessary to illustrate something) it dampens that for me.

We are diametrically opposed. Listening to a GM drone on bores me to tears. But to each their own.

 

[Sacrosanct]

When art was hand drawn, and not done on a computer. So anything early 2000s and prior. Look at the old Unisystem, Runequest or Palladium stuff.

So to be clear, you're saying hand-drawn art cannot be good?