FR to look like a Roger Dean painting

[Rain]

Overall i like what i have heard about 4e, the art is the exception, 3.0-3.5 in terms of artwork and layout was perfect but 4e just has this old look about it, like everyone just grabbed a bunch of 1st edition D&D books and redrew everything in it. I will have to wait and see how this new FR direction is, but pointing people towards bad 70's album covers just plays in to my overall worry about 4e art direction

 

[Athenon]

Wow... hate on FR as much as you want, but don't Dis my prog rock heroes!!!

Seriously though, Yes was one of the greats in the 70s.

Great man. I'm glad you like Prog-Rock. That has nothing to do with the topic at hand.

 

[Cabled]

Oh dear. I guess this confirms that, despite my plaintive bleatings to the contrary, I am now officially "out" of the 4E FR. Album covers of terrible '70s bands are precisely what I feared the new FR was like, and apparently my fears were spot-on with laser-like precision. Damn I'm good at cynicism/paranoia. I should probably ditch optimism altogether, eh?

Yeah, it's probably for the best, given your description of your situation.

 

[Darrin Drader]

Oh god. Not more static Elmore crap. I had enough of this in the 80's. Whoo hoo, look at me! I'm a guy on a pony. Yay, this screams fantasy. Grrrr. I'm a toughie. Gimme a break.

I actually prefer "static Elmore crap" to 90% of what's found its way into D&D books since the launch of 3rd edition. I feel that Elmore does a much better job at capturing the essence of character than many of the attempts since he more or less left D&D. Everyone has their own taste. Mine is Elmore and Easley.

For me, Franzetta speaks much more to Greyhawk than to FR. FR has always been, IMO, a high fantasy setting. Epic story lines, huge backdrops, that sort of thing. Grim and gritty it's never been.

I would agree with you if not for the Drizzt novels, which as much as people love to mock them, happen to be what is most associated with the Forgotten Realms by the casual (read non-gamer) reader. The Icewind Dale is all about harsh landscapes, grim characters, and gritty realism. Drizzt sneaking into the orc army camp and slitting their throats as they sleep is grim and gritty. Wulfgar tortured at the hands of Errtu for years and then returning the FR, only to become a drunk and leave everyone he cares about is grim and gritty. There are a ton more examples, but the point is that even though a lot of FR has gotten away from grim and gritty, that doesn't mean that it doesn't exist in the setting.

So, if it's a high fantasy setting, why not actually use high fantasy art? Why shy away from what it really is? It's not Middle Earth with the serial numbers filed off. It's Myth Dranor and Evermeet and whatnot. It's about bloody time it starts to look it too.

Hey, I don't care if they raise Salvador Dali and have him do the art, or better yet Pablo Picasso. It's all good. It just isn't the style I always associated with the setting. But then neither were the 3rd edition FR products. I still bought them and enjoyed them.

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

...is apparently phallic vertical rock outcroppings.

I get the same thing. And it makes me ever less interested in Realms 4E.

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

Gnomish Industrial Revolution, a series of incredibly long play-by-post/alt.history threads where the gnomes blow up the Realms.

The gnomes did not blow up the Realms. The Elves of Evermeet tried (and were foiled by the Psionic League.)
But it's hard to blame the elves when Forrester and his army of humanoids were about to conquer (and eat) all the elves, the Technomancy was secretly on Forrester's side, the Faerie and druids and Magocracy were being held in bay by the Technomancy (and everyone was afraid of the Illithid Empire, which consumed more of their time and energy.)
Perhaps help should have come from Zakhara, but it was in still divided about what to do about the situation (and, divided period, really.) Kara-Tur could have done something, but they were still getting their act together and becoming the Union of Toril at that time.
So the elves were SOL, and when Evermeet fell they blew it up.

Yes, Forrester's legions of orcs and other humanoids had advanced firearms and cannon and ironclads and other things of this sort. And for that, you can half blame Lantan and the Gnomes, and half on the countries that took Lantan's technology, made it their own, and sold it to Forrester (and don't forget to give credit to Forrester's secret Kobold Cities, where massive manufacturing and research went on, and ultimately a great part of his war machine was developed.)

The IRs altered the FR setting greatly. Yes they did.
And heh, these new pictures *do* remind me of the IRs. Because the pictures evoke a sense of the Way Out, the Exotic, the Fantastic. And the IRs had all of those (plus Comedy and large doses of the Absurd, but that was deliberate.)

 

[Callikah]

i like that manual of the planes pic, if they used that i'd buy 2 or 3 just for the cover

as for the new reference pics i kinda like the look, as for those who hate em well they did say that the north and waterdeep region werent altered much so drizzt and elminsters areas wont be ruined by the new stuff.

 

[Darrin Drader]

One thing I'm not pleased about is the fate of Mulhorand, but that has nothing to do with the art.

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

One thing I'm not pleased about is the fate of Mulhorand, but that has nothing to do with the art.

Not directly, but the thought process that led to one also led to the other on part on the WotC staff and the decisions they made.

 

[The Ubbergeek]

And yet, as I said about another topic, with changes come things that we may not like. And yet, uneascapable, or even needed then also. Move on to see the rest of them and don't focus only on the bad bits. Or move on at all.