Dragon’s-Eye View 3/28/2012... now with ENW poll!

[Minigiant]

Overall, if I never heard Manga again on Enworld, I would be a happy man.

As for the topic, I prefer armor that is mostly realistic, but with a nice flair to it. Definitely not photorealistic, but not the showing enough skin to gag a demon stuff either.

But overall, with magic around, why isn't armor less realistic? It really should be.

I agree pretty much.

I want fantastic realism but with very little unprotected skin or clunky pieces on heavier armor. Cloth wearers can have their fleshy bits showing. Light armored folk may go with short sleeves, sleeveless, and shorts.

Though I am a bit of a hypocrite as I described a Major NPC as wearing an Erza Scarlet-like bikini-topped, winged, battle dress. But that was to scare the players into not attacking her.

I'm okay with over the top armor-dresses and black tie plate armor. My characters got style, baby.

 

[delericho]

Of the three options, the one labelled "photorealism" is the best of the three, but still not particularly good. Those spikes have to go, as does the skull motif at the knees. I'm also not a fan of her inability to actually draw that sword she's carrying.

 

[ppaladin123]

The problem is when men are depicted with "photo-realistic" armor and women are depicted with "manga" armor in the same setting/world.

 

[Yora]

I am not really sure what the purpose of the image is. "Manga" doesn't have much to do with manga, fantasy realism isn't realistic at all, and photorealistic is something entirely different from what's shown.

But the actual poll in the article doesn't ask which of the three we want to see, and I kind of assume it's another of his carricatures and not an actual illustration to prove his points.

 

[Henry]

I actually preferred the styles from the 4E PHB/DMG, because while some were rather stylistic, the majority actually looked real enough to be plausible, and avoided the "Hennet buckles" look or the "XTREME ARMOR" look that got a lot of complaints circa 2000-2001. For example, I absolutely loved the angular/stone/runic look of the Dwarven armor -- it definitely screamed "archetypal Dwarven sensibilities" to me. Failing that, my second favorite is the look of late 1E to early 2E art - fairly no-nonsense armor, the kind that Caldwell & Elmore used to do. That other thread turned me on to Michael Komarck, now that's some pretty practical but good-looking armor represented.

 

[Iosue]

I actually preferred the styles from the 4E PHB/DMG, because while some were rather stylistic, the majority actually looked real enough to be plausible, and avoided the "Hennet buckles" look or the "XTREME ARMOR" look that got a lot of complaints circa 2000-2001. For example, I absolutely loved the angular/stone/runic look of the Dwarven armor -- it definitely screamed "archetypal Dwarven sensibilities" to me. Failing that, my second favorite is the look of late 1E to early 2E art - fairly no-nonsense armor, the kind that Caldwell & Elmore used to do. That other thread turned me on to Michael Komarck, now that's some pretty practical but good-looking armor represented.

The 4e dwarf armor was good, but that's because they shamelessly ripped off the Lord of the Rings art design.

 

[avin]

Server is down, so I can't reat that at this moment, so I'll comment about options.

While I love photo realism for some things, D&D is pretty much a Fantasy game, not a Medieval Earth simulation.

Most of 4E armor and weapons are far from what I'll like to see (dwarven armor is horrible) but the idea isn't bad: armor tries to capture what some fantasy race would wear, not what we, humans, used to wear at middle age.

As for Manga, I see that some people hate it and don't even want to hear about. But we can't just put all mangá in the same basket, that would be like compare Peanuts with Hellblazer. There are things like Sakura Card Captors and there are things like Lone Wolf and Cub...

So, what I would like to see is fantastic realism. Armor that you look and think that could be really used by somebody, but that also clearly looks different among races...

...but, please, no more 4E-like dwarven armor... be subtle...

 

[gyor]

Fantasy realism. I've said it before, I'll say it again, I love breasts. Not PC, but honest.

Although I think it should go more by class and race of course.

Cleavage makes more sense on say a Bard's armour, then a Paladin's. And a Tiefling rogue's leather armour more likely to show some skin,then say a dwarf rogue.

 

[gyor]

Fantasy realism. I've said it before, I'll say it again, I love breasts. Not PC, but honest.

Although I think it should go more by class and race of course.

Cleavage makes more sense on say a Bard's armour, then a Paladin's. And a Tiefling rogue's leather armour more likely to show some skin,then say a dwarf rogue.

 

[Klaus]

I went with Fantastic Realism.

Here's how I'd represent the three styles mentioned:

Manga:

Fantastic Realism:

Photorrealism: