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Does art matter in a publication?
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<blockquote data-quote="WayneLigon" data-source="post: 4560339" data-attributes="member: 3649"><p>Old guy that I am, I'm used to RPG books that were instruction manuals full of text blocks and nothing else. In the begining it wasn't especially worrying to me to not have a lot of art, but art adds so much that now having seen how effective it is, I think of it as a necessity.</p><p></p><p>Good art provides it's usual service: inspiration. A jumpstart to the imagination is a very valuable thing. Done well, it evokes a feeling of time and place that really gets the old creative juices flowing.</p><p></p><p>Art and illustration is vital to an RPG, especially in a setting book. I think the various armor and weapon illustrations are needed in the basic books, if only to ally the state of education most people receive in them. Most people know what a sword is, but you should see the blank looks some people get when you talk about banded mail or a sai. True story swear to God, I had one guy think a mace was a chemical weapon.</p><p></p><p>A setting book needs to take the generic focus of the game and tighten it considerably. I want to see the various fashions for the Sword Coast. I want to see priests robes. I want to see what a Baldur's Gate coin looks like as oppossed to a Zhent coin.</p><p></p><p>More than the simple presence or absence, the <em>quality </em>of the art is a big factor, as is the choice in setting, mood, tone, etc.</p><p></p><p>The differences between this</p><p><img src="http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r293/wayneligon2007/chimera-1.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /></p><p></p><p>and this</p><p><img src="http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r293/wayneligon2007/chimera.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /></p><p></p><p>are palpable. Same monster, same stats, but presented in such a way as to fire the imagination. Can you imagine being that guy on the front lines facing such a thing? Imagine the terror he has to feel? Yeah. Big difference.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="WayneLigon, post: 4560339, member: 3649"] Old guy that I am, I'm used to RPG books that were instruction manuals full of text blocks and nothing else. In the begining it wasn't especially worrying to me to not have a lot of art, but art adds so much that now having seen how effective it is, I think of it as a necessity. Good art provides it's usual service: inspiration. A jumpstart to the imagination is a very valuable thing. Done well, it evokes a feeling of time and place that really gets the old creative juices flowing. Art and illustration is vital to an RPG, especially in a setting book. I think the various armor and weapon illustrations are needed in the basic books, if only to ally the state of education most people receive in them. Most people know what a sword is, but you should see the blank looks some people get when you talk about banded mail or a sai. True story swear to God, I had one guy think a mace was a chemical weapon. A setting book needs to take the generic focus of the game and tighten it considerably. I want to see the various fashions for the Sword Coast. I want to see priests robes. I want to see what a Baldur's Gate coin looks like as oppossed to a Zhent coin. More than the simple presence or absence, the [I]quality [/I]of the art is a big factor, as is the choice in setting, mood, tone, etc. The differences between this [IMG]http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r293/wayneligon2007/chimera-1.jpg[/IMG] and this [IMG]http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r293/wayneligon2007/chimera.jpg[/IMG] are palpable. Same monster, same stats, but presented in such a way as to fire the imagination. Can you imagine being that guy on the front lines facing such a thing? Imagine the terror he has to feel? Yeah. Big difference. [/QUOTE]
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