I'm A Banana
Potassium-Rich
I was just paging through my copy of Complete Adventurer tonight and something struck me. Something I hadn't quite put my finger on until now.
I absolutely adore it when the artwork in gaming books depicts scenes instead of just characters. It's so much more motivating and inspiring -- especially considering WotC's crack artistic team -- that I've just gotta rave.
See, I've never really had a problem with WotC artwork in general, with the "dungeonpunk" style or with the peicemeal equipment or tatooed, peirced, action-oriented shots. Those are all well and good and I'm kind of a fan (I'll take it over big 80's hair and chainmail bikinis anyday, anyway). But I could tell it was missing something. The shot of, say, Regdar, gave me a good sense of what it would look like to make a fighter character. However, it didn't give me any indication of how that fighter would interact with the world around him -- all construction, no use. And I didn't really notice or mind this lack. But with the gradual return of occasional full-page art pieces, I've started to love these even more.
No longer are portraits drifting in the aether, floating amongst the words and located in vacuum from the rest of the world. They have a context, sometimes, and that context is immensely inspiring to me as a DM. Because instead of just imagining what characters and equipment looks like, I imagine what scenes look like -- the scenes make me ask "what's going on here?", "who are these people?", and "how can I get this to happen in my game?".
Scenes give a background. It's not just a wizard casting a spell, it's a wizard trying to save the princess and casting a spell to do so. It's not just a rogue executing an attack, it's a party laying in wait, fearful of the hulking doom but knowing they must challenge it. It's not just two PrC's, it's two characters who are close to each other having just slain a beast and ready for their next challenge.
I like it. A lot.
What do you blokes think?
I absolutely adore it when the artwork in gaming books depicts scenes instead of just characters. It's so much more motivating and inspiring -- especially considering WotC's crack artistic team -- that I've just gotta rave.
See, I've never really had a problem with WotC artwork in general, with the "dungeonpunk" style or with the peicemeal equipment or tatooed, peirced, action-oriented shots. Those are all well and good and I'm kind of a fan (I'll take it over big 80's hair and chainmail bikinis anyday, anyway). But I could tell it was missing something. The shot of, say, Regdar, gave me a good sense of what it would look like to make a fighter character. However, it didn't give me any indication of how that fighter would interact with the world around him -- all construction, no use. And I didn't really notice or mind this lack. But with the gradual return of occasional full-page art pieces, I've started to love these even more.
No longer are portraits drifting in the aether, floating amongst the words and located in vacuum from the rest of the world. They have a context, sometimes, and that context is immensely inspiring to me as a DM. Because instead of just imagining what characters and equipment looks like, I imagine what scenes look like -- the scenes make me ask "what's going on here?", "who are these people?", and "how can I get this to happen in my game?".
Scenes give a background. It's not just a wizard casting a spell, it's a wizard trying to save the princess and casting a spell to do so. It's not just a rogue executing an attack, it's a party laying in wait, fearful of the hulking doom but knowing they must challenge it. It's not just two PrC's, it's two characters who are close to each other having just slain a beast and ready for their next challenge.
I like it. A lot.
What do you blokes think?
