D&D General Defining your campaing through art? Or how I learned to embrace anime elf ears (image-heavy)
Urriak Uruk
Gaming is fun, and fun is for everyone
There are very few animals that have ears as bit as some of the elven portrayals, especially those for some of the games like Zelda. Looking at the proportions of ear-to-head ratio, to me they look like donkey ears.
If you put ears as big as they have in MToF on Legolas I personally think they don't look right.
View attachment 139478 Personally? I think this looks better: View attachment 139479
In any case, it's just a matter of preference.
Agree that this is preference... but that looks bad because of bad photoshop, not because it can't look good. Although I do find these WoW elves lean way to much into "bikini armor."
Lanefan
Victoria Rules
Interesting.
Bilbo, with pointy ears, drawn by Tolkien himself.
This adds a whole new element to a discussion I was having a while back with some of my players...
Though one could, depending which way one squints, see that as being a small pointed ear or the lower part of a larger round ear, the top of which is partly obscured by a lock of hair.
doctorbadwolf
Heretic of The Seventh Circle
Terrible photoshop doesn’t really illustrate your point.There are very few animals that have ears as bit as some of the elven portrayals, especially those for some of the games like Zelda. Looking at the proportions of ear-to-head ratio, to me they look like donkey ears.
If you put ears as big as they have in MToF on Legolas I personally think they don't look right.
View attachment 139478 Personally? I think this looks better: View attachment 139479
In any case, it's just a matter of preference.
also looking at Zelda art and game footage…they don’t even have big ears.
I define my campaign through art - specifically, through the use of initiative cards. I have each player provide me with a picture of what their PC looks like and print it off the size and shape of a standard playing card. This gets glued onto an index card and cut out, with the PC's name written on the back. Then the whole thing gets covered in Con*Tact paper and cut out again, this time leaving around a 1/8" border.
I do the same thing with every (major) NPC and monster the PCs meet up with. This allows me to stylize the monsters as I see fit. I play 3.5 and have always hated the "redesign" of the carrion crawler that started with the 3.0 Monster Manual, so by choosing a more accurate (for my campaign preferences) illustration for my "carrion crawler" initiative card I can easily show the players what a carrion crawler looks like in my campaign world when they meet up with one. This has also allowed me to sneak monsters past my players; when one teenaged player bought a Monster Manual and started reading up on the various monsters' weaknesses, I made sure to start using images that weren't the ones from his Monster Manual and occasionally referring to them by different names. So when they met up with a "fishman," he had no idea they were actually facing a skum and there were likely aboleths in the vicinity.
On the occasions where there isn't an image for the monster I want to build an initiative card for, I can either find something similar and manipulate it in the Paint program or simply draw it myself the way I want it to look.
As far as usage, the initiative cards not only allow me to show the players what their PCs are seeing, but they get used to track initiative (hence the name). Once everyone's initiative order had been determined (jotted down on scratch paper), I assemble the initiative cards of the creatures in question into a deck, with the top card showing whose turn it is. When that PC/NPC/monster completes its actions, the card goes to the bottom of the deck. If you wish to ready an action, your card gets placed sideways and put on the bottom of the deck; once you take that readied action, the card goes back to normal orientation. Once a creature gets killed (or all of that creature if there are multiple, say, skeletons in a fight), the card is removed from the deck. And if your PC does something like turn invisible, flipping the initiative card over backwards (name side up) is a handy reminder.
And to sound off on the "donkey eared elves" discussion, I'm definitely not a fan. I have used an image of a World of Warcraft elf for an NPC's initiative card, but only after I had manipulated it in the Paint program, snipping off his ridiculously long eyebrows and trimming his ears back to a normal length.
Johnathan
I do the same thing with every (major) NPC and monster the PCs meet up with. This allows me to stylize the monsters as I see fit. I play 3.5 and have always hated the "redesign" of the carrion crawler that started with the 3.0 Monster Manual, so by choosing a more accurate (for my campaign preferences) illustration for my "carrion crawler" initiative card I can easily show the players what a carrion crawler looks like in my campaign world when they meet up with one. This has also allowed me to sneak monsters past my players; when one teenaged player bought a Monster Manual and started reading up on the various monsters' weaknesses, I made sure to start using images that weren't the ones from his Monster Manual and occasionally referring to them by different names. So when they met up with a "fishman," he had no idea they were actually facing a skum and there were likely aboleths in the vicinity.
On the occasions where there isn't an image for the monster I want to build an initiative card for, I can either find something similar and manipulate it in the Paint program or simply draw it myself the way I want it to look.
As far as usage, the initiative cards not only allow me to show the players what their PCs are seeing, but they get used to track initiative (hence the name). Once everyone's initiative order had been determined (jotted down on scratch paper), I assemble the initiative cards of the creatures in question into a deck, with the top card showing whose turn it is. When that PC/NPC/monster completes its actions, the card goes to the bottom of the deck. If you wish to ready an action, your card gets placed sideways and put on the bottom of the deck; once you take that readied action, the card goes back to normal orientation. Once a creature gets killed (or all of that creature if there are multiple, say, skeletons in a fight), the card is removed from the deck. And if your PC does something like turn invisible, flipping the initiative card over backwards (name side up) is a handy reminder.
And to sound off on the "donkey eared elves" discussion, I'm definitely not a fan. I have used an image of a World of Warcraft elf for an NPC's initiative card, but only after I had manipulated it in the Paint program, snipping off his ridiculously long eyebrows and trimming his ears back to a normal length.
Johnathan
Voadam
Legend
In the Pathfinder 1e era I used to make my own tokens for use on a battle mat by finding images I liked for the planned monster encounters, copying them into a word file, sizing them appropriately, copying as many as I needed on a sheet, then printing and cutting them out. This allowed me to use the images I wanted and share them with the players when things did not match the tokens I had from the 4e Monster Vault. This allowed me to do things like have Heat Miser and Cold Miser tokens for a winter fey versus summer fey battle and similar non standard stuff.
Initiative cards would have been bigger images the players could see better though. I started using initiative cards about three years ago in face to face 5e games, but it was just colored index cards with names on them.
In pandemic fantasy grounds online playing others in the group are technically proficient enough to get custom images for their characters and the other DM in our group was able to swap in custom images on the fly for monsters, but I barely have the bandwidth to run my games with the program and existing resources, I have not yet learned a lot of the tool manipulation functionality including changing monster images.
Initiative cards would have been bigger images the players could see better though. I started using initiative cards about three years ago in face to face 5e games, but it was just colored index cards with names on them.
In pandemic fantasy grounds online playing others in the group are technically proficient enough to get custom images for their characters and the other DM in our group was able to swap in custom images on the fly for monsters, but I barely have the bandwidth to run my games with the program and existing resources, I have not yet learned a lot of the tool manipulation functionality including changing monster images.
el-remmen
Moderator Emeritus
I need to do more of this. I do google for possible NPC portraits to use on my campaign wiki (or scan art out of modules/books when I find a version in print I like), but I am very picky about it. While I do like some of the manga-influenced art, if it leans too far in that direction I find it a turn off - just like I find oversized armor and weapons (Final Fantasy-style) a turn-off - but I do like what someone called that "softer" style.
By the way, big ups to the person who mentioned Monstress. One of my favorite comics - the politics may be so convoluted I don't always know what is happening month to month, but the art is so gorgeous and the characters so interesting that I love it nonetheless.
By the way, big ups to the person who mentioned Monstress. One of my favorite comics - the politics may be so convoluted I don't always know what is happening month to month, but the art is so gorgeous and the characters so interesting that I love it nonetheless.
Oofta
Legend
On topic of using art, I do like to use art for monsters, NPCs and locations. I use a laptop when I DM so I'll load up images ahead of time and show them to everyone when describing a scene or NPC.
To me, this image of an NPC helps solidify an image more than just a woman with short cropped hair and a scar on her face.
Or that creepy forest
Or inspiration for a monster in an upcoming session
Of course it's also helpful for deciding on what I want my next PC to be
Just have to figure out how to implement Spider Dwarf.
To me, this image of an NPC helps solidify an image more than just a woman with short cropped hair and a scar on her face.
Or that creepy forest
Or inspiration for a monster in an upcoming session
Of course it's also helpful for deciding on what I want my next PC to be
Just have to figure out how to implement Spider Dwarf.
Mannahnin
Scion of Murgen (He/Him)
I highly recommend this tool/site for making custom tokens. Incredibly easy, as long as you have an image of the monster or character:
Token Stamp 2
A RPG tool site with a table top token app and dice roller for table top role playing games.. RollAdvantage aims to provide tools and resources for table top role playing games. All the tools aim to be easy to use, fast and accessible on the fly, and optionally in-depth if possible in order to...
rolladvantage.com
Oofta
Legend
I used that when running games online. Occasionally I'd tweak things a bit with paint.net, another free tool.I highly recommend this tool/site for making custom tokens. Incredibly easy, as long as you have an image of the monster or character:
Token Stamp 2
A RPG tool site with a table top token app and dice roller for table top role playing games.. RollAdvantage aims to provide tools and resources for table top role playing games. All the tools aim to be easy to use, fast and accessible on the fly, and optionally in-depth if possible in order to...
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