R&C Art, the Women of R&C

[Lurks-no-More]

I'd say damn, but honestly, the chainmail bikini never really did it for me.

Me neither. Give us skimpily clad women drawn to titillate, or give us women dressed appropriately as adventurers; chainmail bikini pretends to be the latter while aiming to be the former. It's kind-of cloying.

On the actual subject of the thread, I've really liked almost all of William O'Connor's artwork I've seen, and if his pictures are prevalent in the 4e books, good!

The few preview pics I've seen of the R&C look very good as well; the look of the game appears to suit my tastes.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I've really liked almost all of William O'Connor's artwork I've seen

I gotta say, I don't like how immense the tiefling horns and tails are.

Aside from that, they've been fine.

 

[ObsidianCrane]

Having seen O'Conner utterly destory pictures in the L5R CCG/RPG - usually by mangling faces to the point you have to wonder if the creature you are viewing is human (despite that being the case) - I'm not so happy to see him so central to 4E.

He does some wonderful work, and so far his 4E stuff has been great, but he can also stuff things up royaly.

But yes so far the 4E art is good - supposed PHB cover being a noteable exception.

 

[Gundark]

It looks like they took the "rugged badass" parts of the 3e "dungeonpunk" aesthetic and left behind most of the associated silliness.

Yeah it looks like the are leaving some of the negative aspects of 3e art behind them. I noticed a return to more "old school" style of art.

 

[Merlin the Tuna]

But yes so far the 4E art is good - supposed PHB cover being a noteable exception.

I thought that was a Wayne Reynolds job. It's certainly got his trademark battlescowls.

 

[Ahglock]

To be honest, the girls dressed like strippers and the men dressed like they're out on the lash don't particularly bother me. I live in a country where I can get soft porn in a newspaper if I want it. It's the people who seem to want to combine their prostitute-wear with armour, leading to some sort of slight chainmail covering with a completely bare chest or boob-window that get to me.

Either you're dressed to titillate, or you're dressed for protection. One or the other. You think that zombie cares about your boobs beyond their high fat content?

That is sort of how I see it. With some of the lighter armors you can get some snug fits that are sexy/practical. But the full on chain mail bikini thing looked silly and never felt very sexy to me either, it was just exposed flesh.

 

[Nim]

I also applaud the art team for going with more "vistas" like the human on horseback that give a context to the world, rather than just having character floating around in whitespace all the time.

...that was a horse?

Overall, I give a solid two thumbs up to the art in the R&C book; I'm looking forward to seeing more from these folks. The warrior in that mounted pic looks great. The horse, though, had some serious issues. I think its mother got drunk, then snuck away in the morning without ever having any idea how she ended up in bed with a lion.

And I'm sure this has been touched on elsewhere, but...the text says tieflings have small horns, thin tails, and can be mistaken for human at a medium distance. Obviously no one told the artists, though. Not sarcasm - the tiefling pics are all consistent with each other, so I'm assuming the difference between the art and the text isn't the artists' fault.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

...that was a horse?

Overall, I give a solid two thumbs up to the art in the R&C book; I'm looking forward to seeing more from these folks. The warrior in that mounted pic looks great. The horse, though, had some serious issues. I think its mother got drunk, then snuck away in the morning without ever having any idea how she ended up in bed with a lion.

And I'm sure this has been touched on elsewhere, but...the text says tieflings have small horns, thin tails, and can be mistaken for human at a medium distance. Obviously no one told the artists, though. Not sarcasm - the tiefling pics are all consistent with each other, so I'm assuming the difference between the art and the text isn't the artists' fault.

Hehe, the horse looked strange indeed. And the text and the artists depiction don't match. I think I prefer the artists depiction, because, well, if we're going to have aliens with bumps on their foreheads, they should be noticeable and cost something in the make-up department. Broken bajorian noses and pointed ears are sooo 20th century.

 

[Ander00]

From skimming over Races & Classes yesterday, I'd say some of the females could've done with showing a little less skin. Granted, that's also true for at least one of the males, and there's nothing near the level of bad that is a fighter type in a chainmail bikini, but still.


cheers

 

[RPG_Tweaker]

I applaude more scenic art, and a greater trend to viable clothing/armor... but... I'd still like to see a chainmail bikini now and again.

Cheescake/beefcake shouldn't be the defining image of D&D by any means, but it does fit the fantasy genre.