D&D General D&D: Literally Don't Understand This

[Warpiglet-7]

art matters to me in games.

Previously there was the”debate” about people wearing glasses in art. Arguments they are/are not anachronistic and all the rest. Then you hear the game is no loner based on medieval European mythology. “It’s not even accurate history bro.”

And so on. And it all misses the point.

Does it evoke the fiction and archetypes you want to play with? D&D used to evoke a fiction and a vibe, not real world history.

I will take bucket helmets, battle axes and chainmail, wands and weird wizard robes and skull topped staves.

They say the kids like seeing their adventurers eating tacos/sushi, wearing glasses and apparently high heel 20th century outfits. I mean I don’t think you are a bad person for liking those things but I can’t join you.

I think I his kind of thing really made 2024 D&D an easier pass for me. I don’t even know what it’s trying for anymore.

You might say it’s a multiverse! There is room
For it all. Sure. Put knights on one page, cowboys and jet fighters on another. It’s not supposed to be tied anything, right?

No thanks.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I'm just saying historical inaccuracy is a trend far bigger than D&D. I also think audiences aren't interested in bilauts, doubles, or conical hats. And that's certainly a modern trend, especially if you check out old Arthurian or Robin Hood movies from prior to 1980s. But I don't think that trend is going to reverse itself.

Trends are cyclical. You never know.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

For me, it's not just the shoes. It's the whole aesthetic. D&D is just becoming "too modern" in general for my tastes.

I feel like we just need to start one of our infinitely long threads instead of having this complaint come up time and time and time again.

Yes, fantasy tastes have changed. Yes, it bothers some people when their tastes are no longer what D&D is mostly aimed at.

There's not much to be done about it and since WotC wants to aim its product at the largest part of the market -- young people -- they're not likely to blow the dust off of their Terry Brooks novels and decide they need their books to be filled with Brothers Hildebrandt-style art again.

I can accept fantastical elements as long as they at least feel like they could have been a thing in the Middle Ages / Renaissance eras of our history.

I'm OK with having full plate armor but not guns, and I've never been a fan of mixing 17th/18th century Age of Sail pirates and sailing ships into my medievalesque D&D either. (Let's not get started on including futuristic spaceships and laser guns and stuff. No thanks!)

Plonking your typical D&D adventuring party with their swords, bows, and chainmail into a setting that looks like this just doesn't work for me:

Looking at that art, my mind goes somewhere between 1860 and 1930, and that's just not a time period that I would equate with D&D specifically. I can't envision a guy in plate armor with a sword and shield walking up to the door of that farmhouse.

Yes, that's explicitly what it's supposed to be. It's a post-slavery Deep South horror story. It was a really effective adventure for my group, who got much more creeped out by it than I'd expected.

But if that's not to your tastes, there's lots of other adventures out there, both published by WotC and others, and they cover a huge range of tastes.

 

[Micah Sweet]

You know, going back to the original post, you could probably find a random illustration from an adventure from any era of the game and just as easily have people saying "What does this have to do with D&D?"

Heck, Barrier Peaks had robots. D&D has always contained multitudes.

They made a point out of the robots in that adventure though. Anything like that happen in the adventure in which that picture appears, or are we supposed to ignore anything that one might consider unusual?

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

Journeys through the Radiant Citadel doesn't take place in Waterdeep or the Forgotten Realms at all (although there are conversion notes). At least one of the locations is a techno-magical city similar to Sharn.

Tastes in fantasy have changed since 1974. If you aren't into the techno-magical stuff, there's still plenty of traditional settings. WotC is making the World of Greyhawk back into the organized play setting, for instance.

Thanks. I might give the organized play a go.

 

[pukunui]

I feel like we just need to start one of our infinitely long threads instead of having this complaint come up time and time and time again.

Yes, fantasy tastes have changed. Yes, it bothers some people when their tastes are no longer what D&D is mostly aimed at.

There's not much to be done about it and since WotC wants to aim its product at the largest part of the market -- young people -- they're not likely to blow the dust off of their Terry Brooks novels and decide they need their books to be filled with Brothers Hildebrandt-style art again.

Yes, that's explicitly what it's supposed to be. It's a post-slavery Deep South horror story. It was a really effective adventure for my group, who got much more creeped out by it than I'd expected.

But if that's not to your tastes, there's lots of other adventures out there, both published by WotC and others, and they cover a huge range of tastes.

Yeah, I guess I’m just an old man yelling at clouds now! (I’m only 44, for the record.)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Yeah, I guess I’m just an old man yelling at clouds now! (I’m only 44, for the record.)

An old soul.

You can come sit next to us on the OSR bench, where the art is enthusiastically 1E-coded.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

Yeah, I guess I’m just an old man yelling at clouds now! (I’m only 44, for the record.)

Geezer!!!

 

[Cadence]

Re: Clothes out of time

The world of Glen Cook's Garrett Files (first story from 1987) has a pretty D&Dish fantasy feel, and Garrett is an investigator in it.



How egregious are the fedora trench coat, and door wirh frosted glass window? (All mid 1800s or later in our world).

 

[Chaltab]

They made a point out of the robots in that adventure though. Anything like that happen in the adventure in which that picture appears, or are we supposed to ignore anything that one might consider unusual?

But who considers it unusual? Presumably... high heels(?) or whichever other modern anachronism that supposed D&D purists want to make their hill to die on this time... aren't out of the ordinary for the world this adventure takes place in.

A Lightning Rail would be remarkable on Greyhawk but warrant a shrug on Eberron.