Need *useful* images

[Quasqueton]

This concept struck me as I looked through my LGS yesterday. I saw the book for Black Sails Over Freeport on the shelf. One of my Players has run our group in Freeport a few game sessions (when I needed a break as DM). The book cover has a picture of Freeport as seen from a ship in the harbor. Wow, I thought, I didn't envision the city like that when playing the adventures (was not Black Sails). [Specifically the concept that the city is on a hill/mountain and rises quickly from the docks.]

Many modules and source books have images of various aspects of the book in them, but most of these images contain spoilers or other tidbits that shouldn't be shown to the Players. Or the camera angle is not one the Players would have. In fact, the BSOF book cover shows the city burning. I think my enjoyment of the Freeport adventures would have been greater had the DM some pictures of the city and environs to show us. The DM did, in fact, photocopy and show us many, many pictures during the game -- usually individuals we were interacting with. But there weren't really any that gave us an idea of our environment on a daily basis. Of the images I've seen of the environment of Freeport, there were things going on in the image that made the city look like an extremely dangerous place -- not something to get Players in the mind of ever taking off their armor or getting comfortable. (Maybe that is the reality of Freeport? But how do the normal people survive there?)

But this post is not specifically about Freeport.

Some old adventures modules, like Tomb of Horrors, Hidden Shrine of Tomoachan, and Expedition to the Barrier Peaks had a dedicated section for images to show players. The cover of the old Temple of Elemental Evil was great for setting the mood of the place.

But there needs to be more images in D&D books specifically for showing Players and getting them in the mood, or letting them get a mental picture of the setting. The cover of adventure modules should have an image of the adventure site, as the PCs would see when arriving, instead of an image of the PCs fighting the BBEG at the end of the adventure (which the DM has to keep hidden lest he spoil the secret).

In one adventure I created for my campaign, I used the map in the old adventure module The Sentinel. In that module, there is an image of the "small castle" and of the xvart fort (made a goblin fort in my game) as seen by the adventurers. No hint or spoiler as to what is inside, but just an image to show the adventure locale. That worked perfectly.

I would love for someone to make a map "folio" with not only maps, but a basic illustration of what the locale looks like from the PCs' perspective -- arriving at the site, and a simple example of the interior. If there is a particularly interesting room in the site, let's have another image. Describing a site verbally can be very good, but everyone "sees" a verbal description differently.

It seems that a lot of artistic effort is put in drawing the map, which is for the DM's eyes only, than giving the DM something to show the Players to actually enhance the game play.

I really wish I could draw.

Quasqueton

 

[Voadam]

A bunch of the Kalamar modules have player handout images in them of various scenes from the adventures.

I use a lot of monster images such as from the WotC art galleries for the various monster books, but it is tough to find an appropriate general scene that matches what you have in the game as you run it. Fantasy cities with the right mix of creatures are particularly tough to find.

 

[Savage Wombat]

Just as a thought -

I once found a co-worker had several beautiful pictures of the mountains where she went on her vacation.

I decided at once that I had found my current campaign setting. The evocative pictures were far more useful to creating a mood than anything I might decide for pure rules reasons.

 

[stevelabny]

this is SOOO true.

the most annoying thing about the Eberron books is that all the pics of evil NPCs...LOOK EVIL !!!

They are completely unusable like this, if a DM shows them too the players they will instantly suspect that the NPC is evil and up to no good.

This also meshes nicely with the other thread about how modules are poorly constructed because they are written for the DM instead of written for the players.

 

[IronWolf]

You pick up a lot of images off the image search on Google. Often times you can find a pic of scenery or building that depicts what you want. It's a little more work than having it come with the module, but it can work well.

 

[Hand of Evil]

There are a number of sites you can find images at that will help your gaming such as:

http://www.renderosity.com/

http://desktopstarships.com/

Even goggle photos.

 

[Frozen DM]

I remember the old Dark Sun flib-book modules from TSR did this the best. Each adventure had 2 flip books, one for the DM and one for the players. The DM's book had the maps, statistics and text for the adventure. The player's book had the player maps and images relating to the different scenes, NPCs and locations. It was a great way to show the players what was happening to their characters.

I've also found that the Shackled City hardcover has done a good job of providing images of the city (the 3/4 view of the city over the walls) and npcs. Almost every major NPC in the module is given a headshot, and there are 2 two-page art pieces, one featuring the supporting cast and one featuring the main villains. Very nice work from Paizo.

 

[Staffan]

The old Dark Sun "flipbook" adventures were great for this. They came with one DM's book and one player's book, where the player's book was mostly filled with images (both directly linked to the adventure and more along the lines of "this is a typical street scene in Tyr").

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

You pick up a lot of images off the image search on Google. Often times you can find a pic of scenery or building that depicts what you want. It's a little more work than having it come with the module, but it can work well.

I do this a lot. I've got gigs of pictures I've found on the 'net. Artist's sites are great, because they almsot always have links to other artist's sites. I find concept art for video games to be particularly useful - lots of environments and creatures, things like that. I've found tons of pictures of castles, mountains, churches, old european cities, all of it very handy and full of adventure ideas.

 

[Steel_Wind]

It seems that a lot of artistic effort is put in drawing the map, which is for the DM's eyes only, than giving the DM something to show the Players to actually enhance the game play.

I really wish I could draw.

Seems to me that you don't need to know how to draw - you need to know how to build and light - NWN areas, that is.

If your need is to be able to create out door and indoor environments for use in depicting scenes to inspire your players, use the NWN toolset and any one of a few thousand hak paks to get the basic feel for what you want - build it in the toolset - position your camera on the toolset (or in game).

In toolset - hit ctl+printscreen - open up Photoshop or Photopaint or whatever you are using - hit ctr+v and paste in your image. Edit. Voila.

In game - hit printscreen. Your images will be taken in .tga format and will be in your NWN main directory. Open up into Photoshop - Edit as you like.

The toolset is pretty easy to use. It does have a moderate learning curve for area building and lighting - but nothing too grand. You aren't trying to script a module, you are trying to build an area to then use as a source for a 2d image. That's pretty easy. And it is VASTLY more sophisticated than CC Pro 2 or Dundjinni. (As it should be - it cost millions of dollars for a Triple A game dev to develop the NWN toolset. In comparison, CC Pro and Dundjinni are hobbyist efforts.)

The source for the "undoable" is NWVault. Mountains, ships, castles, - a friggin BOAT LOAD of content is there free for the asking. Fill yer boots.

That NWN game has a pretty powerful character, monster, encounter and treasure generator too -but we'll leave that for another time.