D&D 4E In terms of theme, tone, and spirit, I hope 4e . . .

[Korgoth]

It's just natural. It's like when old people, like grandma, classifies all modern music as "heavy metal".

It aint what is was before, thus it is "heavy metal" and automatically suspect. And much as the "D&D illos are anime" meme, saying something is "heavy metal" is often presented as enough evidence of its lack of quality.

It's a sign that we are getting older, I guess. That and having hang ups about how people don't dress properly nowadays.

/M

Wrong. Here's my description of anime:
- Everything is Giant In-Your-Face: giant leaps, giant muscles, giant poses, giant swords
- Flash over substance: static, contrived images that focus on the "coolosity" of the character and little else
- Punked out: spikey blue hair, spikey green hair, spikey hair hair, tattoos, piercings, fetish gear/bondage outfits
- Character extremes: everybody either looks like a child, an emaciated speed addict or a steroid monstrosity
- Wuxia action: combat is evidently all about jumping through the air like a Street Fighter video game

I get all that out of 3E art. Now, there are conventions of "proper anime" that don't apply. When I call 3E art "anime trash" I mean "anime-inspired". Which is no knock against the talents of the artists, only that to me their talents have been put to a regrettably unaesthetic use.

 

[Delta]

It's not just the superior composition and sense of action that makes this updated version by Carl Frank look better, either. This paladin's armour isn't copied from a museum tour booklet, but it's still perfectly practical and believable.

Actually, that's a perfect example of how somehow the world around the characters disappeared in a lot of 3E art. I definitely much prefer the 1E version: hell, and the monsters therein, continue on out of the frame. This 3E version looks very static: you know to expect a fixed encounter with 4 opponents, and there's no world or effect thereon outside of that encounter. It's literally a big blank space.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Wrong. Here's my description of anime:

Ah. So you're using a completely different description of anime than anyone else.

Gotcha.

 

[Xyxox]

I have yet to see a DnD book, either by TSR or WOTC, that did not have some art I really liked and some I didn't care for at all.

I didn't see a single piece of artwork in antyhing 3E or 3.5E I purchased that I did like.

I ahven't purchased anything in a while though, so there could be something in some of the stuff that's come out since MMIII

 

[Wolfspider]

Wrong. Here's my description of anime:
- Everything is Giant In-Your-Face: giant leaps, giant muscles, giant poses, giant swords
- Flash over substance: static, contrived images that focus on the "coolosity" of the character and little else
- Punked out: spikey blue hair, spikey green hair, spikey hair hair, tattoos, piercings, fetish gear/bondage outfits
- Character extremes: everybody either looks like a child, an emaciated speed addict or a steroid monstrosity
- Wuxia action: combat is evidently all about jumping through the air like a Street Fighter video game

I get all that out of 3E art. Now, there are conventions of "proper anime" that don't apply. When I call 3E art "anime trash" I mean "anime-inspired". Which is no knock against the talents of the artists, only that to me their talents have been put to a regrettably unaesthetic use.

When you call something "trash," you don't mean to insult the talents of the artists, eh?

I'm afraid I don't see much of what you've listed in your definition of "anime" in D&D 3rd edition art at all. Why don't you post a link to an example of each thing you list?

 

[Wolfspider]

Ah. So you're using a completely different description of anime than anyone else.

Gotcha.

You gotta love this approach.

"You're wrong. In my mind, a horse is a twenty legged arthopod with scales, gills, and a lateral line like a shark. Sorry you're so misinformed."

 

[Raven Crowking]

Honestly, can anyone really say that any of the characters or pictures in the old editions are cool, like the ones in 3E?

Yes.

But I do recognize that there is a difference between "cool in isolation" and "cool in context". The first means that I just look at it and go "Hey, that's cool" but it doesn't imply a cool context as well. It is sort of a wall, instead of a window implying more than what is seen in the picture itself. "Cool in context" implies that what you are seeing is cool not simply because of what it is, but also because of what it implies about the world in which the picture takes place.

A lot (but certainly not all) of 1e and 2e art, and some current edition art, is "cool in context". The vast majority of the current PHB, DMG, and MM (I) art is "cool in isolation". I mean, I don't think that too many people were jazzed about the blue line margin drawings of gems etc. in the 2e PHB, either.

Part of this is just, of course, what one prefers. Part of it, though, is that older editions took the stance that the PCs were entwined in the world, needed things from the world as much as the world needed them....perhaps more. As 3e continues, WotC is putting more effort into building up this sort of "entanglement" between PCs and their world, and the artwork reflects this as well.

Or, so it seems to me.

 

[Raven Crowking]

- Everything is Giant In-Your-Face: giant leaps, giant muscles, giant poses, giant swords
- Flash over substance: static, contrived images that focus on the "coolosity" of the character and little else
- Punked out: spikey blue hair, spikey green hair, spikey hair hair, tattoos, piercings, fetish gear/bondage outfits
- Character extremes: everybody either looks like a child, an emaciated speed addict or a steroid monstrosity
- Wuxia action: combat is evidently all about jumping through the air like a Street Fighter video game

I'm confused.

Are folks saying that the above are not conventions in anime, or that they don't appear in D&D 3.X art, or both?

 

[Wolfspider]

I think a lot of us are just getting old and set in our ways.

I've seen a lot of this kind of phenomenon in literature and the arts.

"'Red Wheel Barrow' isn't poetry! It's trash!"

"'The Waste Land'? Who does this T.S. Eliot fellow think he is anyway? A poet? Bah!"

"What is this dadaism crap? Trash, trash, trash!"

"Rock and roll? Please! Turn it off and smash the records!"

"Rap music? That crap will never last."

"Grunge? Someone give those guys a bath!"

Etc., etc., etc. ad infinitum.

 

[Raven Crowking]

So, are you saying that what Korgoth listed are not conventions in anime, or that they don't appear in D&D 3.X art, or both?