Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Turjan" data-source="post: 1866379" data-attributes="member: 3477">Fair enough. But don't be surprised that a post signed with "Bastion Press, Creative Director" will be taken as a company statement.I'm fine with publishers answering to critics. I was specifically commenting on some details in your answer. My declared dislike of a particular art style does not mean I'm into children-style comic book art and a language that makes the "ABCs for Barbarians" look like Shakespeare.Art in books is a two edged thing. RPG books without art are hard sellers. We already heard about the importance of the cover art, and in this point, the Oathbound Campaign Setting (OBCS) succeeds. In the interior, art is supposed to carry ideas over to the reader. There are bad examples of RPG books where art is just put in to make the book look nice without connection to the text, and this is not the case in the OBCS; here the art is clearly meant to illustrate the accompanying text, which is a good thing. It is said that one picture says more than a thousand words. Good illustrations enhance the image of the world that builds up in your mind. Illustrations that the reader does not like have the opposite effect: they attach themselves like a stain to the image of the whole product, and it costs quite a lot of energy to get rid of these mental images and to abstract the contents of the book from these concepts that burnt themselves into the brain. This is an effort you cannot take for granted.The funny thing is that I actually like some of his stuff. As art, some pieces are considerably expressive. I like to stress that the question we are pondering here is not, whether his illustrations are good art or bad art. The question is whether the art is functional. As his pieces are often quite disturbing, my answer to this question is no.Well, most people are just considering the OBCS. There, his influence is dominant (The border art does not help, either.). The point is that the "flagship product" will always determine the view of the whole thing. You don't like that approach, but there's nothing inherently wrong with that method.Okay, I understand that you were involved with follow-up products of the orignal OBCS book and don't want to suffer from the legacy of your "elders". Although I can sympathize with your point of view from a personal standpoint, I think you should calm your emotions down in this point. It's like forcing people to judge the Forgotten Realms only if they have read all supplements, and this is quite a ridiculous notion. I'd try with a more positive approach. Instead of being defensive with products that you had no influence on, you should take a positive approach with the newer stuff. I admit that I don't know anything about Arena (except the things in the OBCS).You see? Why not follow your own advice and let the beginnings be the beginnings. It's beyond your power to change anything with the OBCS of 2002. The time is too short that people might have forgotten the "humble beginnings" of OB; they are still fresh in their minds. You cannot change anything about it by attacking their views. If you want to change their minds, show them your new ways <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />.This is good to know <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Okay, I have definitely read the whole Oathbound Campaign Setting book (the core book, which is a valid option to base an opinion on) and raised concerns regarding art, maps and rules. I said that I find the concept of this setting fascinating. I just did not get the images out of my mind <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />. If you want to change this, convince me of your new ways.</blockquote>

Verification