D&D General One Piece of Art IX (Wildcard)- What NON-D&D Art Inspired You to Love D&D?

[Lidgar]

MERP had some awesome art…and even better maps. Here’s one of my favorites.

Oh and does the cover of Dragon mag count as non-D&D? If so…

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Finally! I have one!

Loved this as a kid. I think I read it sometime in 1981/82. Probably only months before I heard about this Dungeons and Dragons thing.

It definitely coloured my view of what knights and clerics could be.

 

[Umbran]

Back in the day, the Brothers Hildebrandt did a series of posters for Coca-Cola, relevant to college life. My oldest brother, who indtroduced me to RPGs (first T&T, then D&D) collected them for us.

They were all good, but my favorite of them was probably...

 

[Hussar]

View attachment 260314


Finally! I have one!

Loved this as a kid. I think I read it sometime in 1981/82. Probably only months before I heard about this Dungeons and Dragons thing.

It definitely coloured my view of what knights and clerics could be.

Absolutely my favourite Moorcock story.

 

[CharlesWallace]

I'll see if I can find it...there was a poem in my middle school English Lit textbook. I can't remember the author or the title, so it might take me a minute to hunt it down.

But anyway, the author was sitting on the edge of a fjord in Newfoundland or Iceland or somewhere similar, listening to the fishermen below as they used bugles to communicate with each other. The sounds of their bugles echoing off of the castle-like cliffs of the fjords inspired him to write a really haunting and beautiful poem about loss. And it just so happened that I stumbled upon this poem while I was reading CM1: Test of the Warlords, a D&D module set in the imaginary kingdom of Norwold that resembles that same, real-world place. The two are now completely intertwined in my brain.

EDIT: Found it.

"The Splendor Falls" by Alfred Lord Tennyson

The splendor falls on castle walls

And snowy summits old in story;​

The long light shakes across the lakes,

And the wild cataract leaps in glory.​

Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,
Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.

O, hark, O, hear! how thin and clear,

And thinner, clearer, farther going!​

O, sweet and far from cliff and scar

The horns of Elfland faintly blowing!​

Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying,
Blow, bugles; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.

O love, they die in yon rich sky,

They faint on hill or field or river;​

Our echoes roll from soul to soul,

And grow forever and forever.​

Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,
And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying.

I’ve never seen this before. It’s stunningly, shockingly beautiful. Thank you so much!

Edited to add one image that came to mind for me. I’m going to follow OPs request and not share the others I think of. But in this moment, this old cover of the first Earthsea novel comes to mind. It was on the shelf in my elementary school library.

 

[MGibster]

One of my top fantasy movies. The dragon is incredible for the technology they had IMO.

I was already playing D&D when I first saw it, but it was just different from other fantasy movies, it seems more gritty and "real" to me.

On the rare occasion I use a dragon in my campaign, I sometimes name them Vermithrax Pejorative and nobody's recognized it yet. And oh, boy, what a dark and cynical movie Dragonslayer was.

It's difficult for me to pinpoint any art that inspired me to love D&D, but this certainly inspired campaigns I ran.

 

[MGibster]

I had to think about this more than I expected.

When I was young, I read the Dragonlance books -without knowing they were D&D. So, they would have been early influences on me (along with The Hobbit and The Chronicles of Narnia). However, Dragonlance is D&D, so that don't count.

I also grew up within reasonable driving distance of where Frank Frazetta was located, but his influence on me would have come later.

I wanted to post something from Riddlemaster of Hed or the Lonewolf series. But, ultimately, I think one of the biggest early influences on me was this:

Ghosts & Goblins

View attachment 260050

I swear I can hear this image.

 

[Kobold Stew]

Michael Whelan's cover to The Sailor on the Seas of Fate.

The entire crew is looking at something (something that seems to be just behindf where the viewer is), and everyone except for the Hero is terrified. Perfect.

I love many of this set of covers -- Vanishing Tower is my second favorite -- but this image seared on my brain at an early age more than the rest, and I disproportionately give my characters some kind of boating proficiency beacuse of it.

 

[DND_Reborn]

On the rare occasion I use a dragon in my campaign, I sometimes name them Vermithrax Pejorative and nobody's recognized it yet. And oh, boy, what a dark and cynical movie Dragonslayer was.

Yep, love that dragon! The movie is dark and gritty and in-your-face real to me. Younger players don't seem to know the movie, which is a pity IMO of course, but understandable. If I was playing and you used the name, I would just sit back with a big grin on my face and enjoy the moment.

 

[Mad_Jack]

Yep, love that dragon! The movie is dark and gritty and in-your-face real to me. Younger players don't seem to know the movie, which is a pity IMO of course, but understandable. If I was playing and you used the name, I would just sit back with a big grin on my face and enjoy the moment.

I'd immediately have my character start running for the local blacksmith...