How important are and RPG's aesthetics to you?

[Wofano Wotanto]

Like, I am a huge fan of the Pathfinder look, and even the newer stuff. Except the kobolds. Dear gawd are they ugly AND dumb looking.

I'm even less of a fan of the PF goblins with the idiotic football-headed muppet look. Someone's got an weird Hey, Arnold fixation going on there.

That kobold is suspiciously similar to a recolored version of Wayne Barlowe's illustration of a salaman from his Guide To Extraterrestrials. Adding a horn to the back of the head and tweaking some hand and foot details doesn't disguise it much.

 

[billd91]

I'm even less of a fan of the PF goblins with the idiotic football-headed muppet look. Someone's got an weird Hey, Arnold fixation going on there.

That kobold is suspiciously similar to a recolored version of Wayne Barlowe's illustration of a salaman from his Guide To Extraterrestrials. Adding a horn to the back of the head and tweaking some hand and foot details doesn't disguise it much.

Your comments make Chuffy Lickwound sad. How can you make this happy li'l fellow sad?

 

[Reynard]

Your comments make Chuffy Lickwound sad. How can you make this happy li'l fellow sad?
View attachment 351652

Yeah, I have no problem with the goblin design.

 

[Umbran]

I'd include White Wolf's Hol

Human Occupied Landfill isn't a game anyone is actually expected to play. It is a satire product. Artistic choices for it should be considered in that light.

 

[Reynard]

Human Occupied Landfill isn't a game anyone is actually expected to play. It is a satire product. Artistic choices for it should be considered in that light.

It didn't keep us from trying! Also, we were drunk.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

Human Occupied Landfill isn't a game anyone is actually expected to play. It is a satire product. Artistic choices for it should be considered in that light.

Granted, but the joke would still work better if it was easier to read it.

And honestly, it was a lot more playable than some things I've owned that were meant to be. Looking at you, Realm of Yolmi.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

Your comments make Chuffy Lickwound sad. How can you make this happy li'l fellow sad?

You'd have an easier time getting sympathy for the spider.

 

[schneeland]

Coming back to the original question: art style is a pretty big factor for me when it comes to RPGs. Now contrary to the OP, the art punk attitude in Mörk Borg's design immediately got my interest, but specific examples aside, I have also noticed that some art styles attract my interest much more than others (e.g. the concept art Free League uses in many of their games, works extremely well for me, and is one of the major reason I buy so many of their games). And especially generic fantasy art in the style of 5e immediately let's me go "meh", even if the quality is often high. Now there are still cases where I have bought games with this art style, but it reaches a neutral feeling at most.

 

[Juxtapozbliss]

I'm even less of a fan of the PF goblins with the idiotic football-headed muppet look. Someone's got an weird Hey, Arnold fixation going on there.

That kobold is suspiciously similar to a recolored version of Wayne Barlowe's illustration of a salaman from his Guide To Extraterrestrials. Adding a horn to the back of the head and tweaking some hand and foot details doesn't disguise it much.

Wow. Quite a callback there. I have that book somewhere around here.

 

[Kannik]

They are very important to me. A well designed layout/book/look is great for bringing the world and it's themes and tone alive. It's one of the reasons for my totally healthy and not at all obsession with designing character sheets -- we spend so much time looking at the thing that having it bring to mind the flavour every time does wonders. It's also why I love feelies (real, tangible props, ripped straight from the game world).

Note that this doesn't mean that graphics ought to take preference over readability and usability -- as an architect I know that both form and function are crucial to the 'best' building designs. And I will take a 100% functional no frills layout quite well as well (IMHO it's better than an 'aesthetic' layout that didn't hit the mark due to lack of time/effort).

All that said, this importance doesn't equal all encompassing. As much as I love 4e, I was not often a fan of the artwork both on the covers and within.