Do you prefer B&W or Colour books?

[omedon]

Excluding the cover, what kind of artwork do you guys prefer to see inside your gaming books?

Do you like full colour like the WOTC core books? Or would you prefer the moody B&W pages of the Sword & Sorcery line?

I think I prefer B&W myself. It reminds me of the glory days of gaming and has more of a mood than colour.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Black & White.

[snotty gamer mode on]

If I wanted a comic book, I'd buy one.

[snotty gamer mode off]

That was one thing I loved about Blue Planet first edition. Big, big book and very little art. If a game book has to be heavy on art I'd want that art to contribute to the "feel" of a gameworld (e.g. Brom and Dark Sun).

 

[Melan]

omedon: I prefer B&W, too. It is more evocative - like the Dungeon Features in the DMG. If I had my way, the 3e Core books would have been all B&W and as big as the Hackmaster ones. And the name "Fischer" would have been changed to "Fraim".

 

[Turlogh]

Another situation I would like to have my cake and eat it too. I like colour art but it is way too costly for most publishes to make it worthwhile. Oh well as long as the art is good and doesn't interfer with the rest of the product, I'll settle for B&W art.

 

[Thaumaturge]

I'll admit to being a big fan of color. The FRCS was gorgeous and the pictures of the NPCs gave me a taste of the fashion and flair of FR. However, B&W has its place. Ravenloft, for instance, was perfect in B&W and would have seemed odd in color.


Thaumaturge.

 

[Ristamar]

Make Mine Color

Color all the way. Having good artists is certainly more important than color art (if it's a budget issue), but if you can have both, I think it really pays off. It's one of my favorite aspects of the 3e hardbacks. It's lively, it's eyecatching, and it's often very inspiring. The color art in the Psionics Handbook did an excellent job of capturing the 'flavor' of psionics, IMO, and would not have been as nearly evocative in black & white (though that's not to say B&W art doesn't have it's place).

 

[Moon_Goddess]

It really depends on the quality, if it's color, I'm very particular. It has to be photorealistic. I'm not forgiving of the slightest detail in color art. I'm much more accepting of artist in B&W, in fact, I much prefer art in the sketched look like the 3e conscept art drawing. Also some of the heavier sketch look art, such as the B&W art in Dragonstar, Darksun.

 

[Crothian]

I perfer Black and white. But the big campaign books can be in full color. That ussually adds more to the feel of the campaign world.

 

[Laslo Tremaine]

Color is nice, I cannot deny that.

But... I find that it is hardy ever worth the increased cost.

For those of you who are not familiar with the printing industry (I've worked in pre-press and advertising for the past 15 years), color increases the printing cost of a book by 2-3 times.

I personally would rather have that money spent on more content, better artists or a cheaper total cost...

 

[Kichwas]

Even though I chose the first option I expected to be alone in that choice.


B&W brings out emotion better. So it's what I prefer.

I feel fantasy art is strongest when it captures emotion and a sense of wonder. Much like any art, but critical for fantasy.