Artworks in an RPG

[Rogerd1]

I love the PB art... I am no fan of the company nor its founder, and the games have incredible worldbuilding and barely serviceable rules.

It's some of the most consistent art in the industry.

Well you are one of the few.
Now Savage Rifts are is great. Another rpg, IIRC is also 5e is Aetherra the Druid stuff. Absolutely amazing stuff.

And, as far as that goes, PB has been solvent longer than most of its fans have been alive... so it's doing SOMETHING really well.

I very much doubt the veracity of this statement. Most I believe were around in the 80's.

As one of my reasons for having a new core book was to make it easier for the younger generation to pick up the books and play the game.

Sadly no one on the PB boards, bar a few cared.

 

[Art Waring]

I still have some doubts how an artwork could be helpful to a GM

Describing different elements of game design to players, such as a characters race (lineage/ heritage), a characters class, and other elements a player might need to get into the idea of playing a character, is much much easier with visual aids.

Art is open to interpretation, but it still portrays something which is more concrete than words can ever be, because if you so choose you can argue the meaning of any and every word as you dance laughing into the abyss...

Art often evolves beyond the concepts that they arose from, allowing for endless potential.

Furthermore, art will be the very first thing anyone sees before they open your book. Art can make or break your game in many aspects.

 

[aramis erak]

Ok, thanks.
Back to the first question: i didn't want to discuss whether or or not artworks support the game towards TOTM models rather than grid+minis model. This is a matter on how the game is managed by the GM (and accepted by players) and it depends solely by their choice... My question was referred to the visual support to the reading of a rule book.
I got several different points and i am not yet convinced that artworks would help the reading of a rulebook... I am now for sure convinced that artworks are essential for a setting (for the reasons you outlined, such as the mood, the flavor and so forth)... I still have some doubts how an artwork could be helpful to a GM while he reads a chapter about progression of the PCs for instance.

Simple...

the art does three things really well -

• They make things outside the reader's experience easier to visualize (Assuming, of course, one isn't suffering aphantasia, in which case, images are the only way they can visualize anything, and then only while looking at them.)
• They provide setting information - especially maps and racial images
• They provide a respite from text; this is useful for resetting attention span, and why younger age targeted texts are generally more lavishly illustrated.

Also outside play

• They also often provide information about setting elements
• Technical illustrations provide data more efficiently than prose for many information sets
  • Maps
  • Sequence of play
  • explicating firing arcs, defense zones, etc....
• They can be used to spur adventure ideas ... there's an image in the AD&D2E DMG that has inspired multiple adventure ideas... the blonde spellcaster working at a lab... Unfortunately, my ebooks are the CR2.0 RTFs, so... no images, no page numbers....

They have uses in play, easily overlooked...

• illustrations provide visual cues for finding specific locations within the books
• They can be used by GMs to reduce needed description times by showing the illustration
• The technical leaning ones can be used to assess the uses of depicted items - especially weapons and hideability of items

 

[Crusadius]

As the saying goes… ”A picture is worth a thousand words”.

And a picture can quickly impart information to a viewer faster than text can.

 

[aia_2]

As the saying goes… ”A picture is worth a thousand words”.

And a picture can quickly impart information to a viewer faster than text can.

Sorry, no offense intended but this is not the correct saying (at least here in Italy)... It'd be: "silence is worther than 1000 words", or namely "silence is golden, words are made of silver"...

 

[aia_2]

Simple...

the art does three things really well -

• They make things outside the reader's experience easier to visualize (Assuming, of course, one isn't suffering aphantasia, in which case, images are the only way they can visualize anything, and then only while looking at them.)
• They provide setting information - especially maps and racial images
• They provide a respite from text; this is useful for resetting attention span, and why younger age targeted texts are generally more lavishly illustrated.

Also outside play

• They also often provide information about setting elements
• Technical illustrations provide data more efficiently than prose for many information sets
  • Maps
  • Sequence of play
  • explicating firing arcs, defense zones, etc....
• They can be used to spur adventure ideas ... there's an image in the AD&D2E DMG that has inspired multiple adventure ideas... the blonde spellcaster working at a lab... Unfortunately, my ebooks are the CR2.0 RTFs, so... no images, no page numbers....

They have uses in play, easily overlooked...

• illustrations provide visual cues for finding specific locations within the books
• They can be used by GMs to reduce needed description times by showing the illustration
• The technical leaning ones can be used to assess the uses of depicted items - especially weapons and hideability of items

Sorry but none of these points are good to the example i provided (the chapter about PCs progression), i am with you in case we are talking about a setting, no doubts on that...

 

[Jd Smith1]

Sorry, no offense intended but this is not the correct saying (at least here in Italy)... It'd be: "silence is worther than 1000 words", or namely "silence is golden, words are made of silver".

It's the correct saying in this context.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Sorry but none of these points are good to the example i provided (the chapter about PCs progression), i am with you in case we are talking about a setting, no doubts on that...

Lets come at it from another direction. The original computer games were text-based. The instant images were available, they transitioned in that direction. Text-based games still exist, but the industry is dominated by graphics.

The same is true in RPGs: art dominates.

 

[aia_2]

Lets come at it from another direction. The original computer games were text-based. The instant images were available, they transitioned in that direction. Text-based games still exist, but the industry is dominated by graphics.

The same is true in RPGs: art dominates.

That is an opinion, you took an example which doesn't grant an objective conclusion. And moreover, even, if your logic might be applied to rpgs, i still miss the why... I am convinced for a setting (as i wrote befohand), i still miss why an artowork should help the reader in a game mechanics chapter...

Ps with this i don't want to go against that a good picture (and not art... Please art is smtg different) is a great idea in a text when this is useful to help somehow the reader!

 

[aia_2]

It's the correct saying in this context.

Well i did some search on this... I am still in doubt this is a saying (i'd rather say it is a good ad takeaway... I remember the ad of diamonds using smtg similar...): this is a sentence by Mao.