D&D 5E Better pics from PAX East

[Jan van Leyden]

Nothing astonishing, but the Carrion Crawler looks a bit plump, with very thin legs.

 

[The Human Target]

I like the tubby carrion crawler, but I do wish it had more color.

 

[GX.Sigma]

d) Where the heck are all these "chain mail bikinis" everybody keeps talking about? Thirty years ago they occasionally cropped up. But they were pretty thin on the ground even back in the 90's. Yet people act like this was a trend that was active up until last week.

The latest editions of the two most popular RPGs:

 

[Sonny]

I like the tubby carrion crawler, but I do wish it had more color.

I like the maggot like skin color of this one. And the little legs are very caterpillar like.

 

[Salamandyr]

The latest editions of the two most popular RPGs: (lots of pics)
/QUOTE]

So...like I said, no chain mail bikinis.

In five of those illustrations, it wasn't even depicting armor​.

 

[The Human Target]

Also, that's not the actual 4e PHB cover.

 

[Salamandyr]

Escapist Magazine has pictures of the Beholder, Xorn, Carrion Crawler, Cloaker and Mimic:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/gallery/view/35/11308/2355.2

I haven't cared much for any of the human/demihuman/adventurer style illustrations, but I love these monster illustrations.

Update: If this is going to be the general gist of the art in the upcoming books, I'm going to have to look elsewhere for character art...This is just...meh.

http://conceptopolis.deviantart.com/art/Northland-Barbarian-E-349021101

People don't have legs that wide. And that axe...most of the weapons in these illos look like what you would draw if you'd never seen one and only had it described.

By contrast, the human female barbarian is pretty nice. It looks like a human being.

http://conceptopolis.deviantart.com/art/Northland-Barbarian-Female-349021464

Human men have been getting the short end of it as far as cool art goes the past few editions.

Could be worse I guess...the halfling and gnome concept art is so bad I'm probably going to ban them from my campaign.

 

[darjr]

Those are fantastic!

 

[The Human Target]

Yeah, that art beautiful.

People be crazy.

 

[GX.Sigma]

The latest editions of the two most popular RPGs: (lots of pics)

So...like I said, no chain mail bikinis.

In five of those illustrations, it wasn't even depicting armor​.

When people talk about chain mail bikinis, they aren't talking about literal bikinis made of chain mail. They're talking about gratuitous sexualization of female characters. I find it a bit silly to dismiss chain mail bikinis as a myth, when the first page of google search results for "4e phb" and "pathfinder RPG" turn up examples of literal plate mail bikinis, "leather armor" bikinis, boob windows, and "boobs of steel." The cover of every single PHB from 4e has female cleavage and/or midriff. In the Races section of the PHB1, 6 of the 8 races have the female showing cleavage. Of the iconic art on page 1 of each class section, the ones that are shown as female (2 of the 8) are both showing cleavage or sideboob. The Pathfinder Core Rulebook and Bestiary both have female cleavage on the front cover. I mean you could argue that it's justified on the Bestiary since it's a Marilith, but why would a Marilith be hanging out with trolls and goblins anyway? It has no reason to be there apart from the sex appeal.

This is a problem that exists.