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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Desdichado" data-source="post: 777656" data-attributes="member: 2205">Official vs. 3rd party:  WotC has put out some pretty slipshod products, notably Sword and Fist (bad mechanics), Song and Silence (uninspired in all regards) and have also had some pretty lousy art in recent books (ELH, for example, or MoW).  Some third party companies, such as GR, Privateer, etc. have always been consistently good.  I've never cared rather material is official or not, and there are at least some "unofficial" books that I'd allow in a heartbeat and some official stuff I'd never allow.  Official is meaningless, at least to me.Good vs. Bad Art:  I admit, I prefer my books to be pretty as well, and I've even picked up some books almost solely on their presenation, layout and art.  However, I've generally been disappointed in books that I bought solely for these reasons.  I also think that WotC art has been slipping, and although it's had some good stuff, even from the very beginning it had some really bad illustrations as well.  Look at the blackguard from the DMG, or anything by Kaluta in the MM, for example.  Look at Roach and Cramer's works in the splatbooks, which unfortunately, was the majority of the art in some of the splatbooks, particularly the later ones.  For every Sam Wood, Todd Lockwood or WAR (or other good artist) picture in a WotC production, there's an equally bad one by Michael Kaluta, BAXA, Fisch or someone else.  Even some of the big name artists have some bad pieces -- I'd say Sam Wood is overall my favorite WotC artist, but he's got some real stinkers as well.  If you're saying you don't look at 3rd party stuff for this reason, I completely don't understand what you're talking about.  Plenty of 3rd party books are at least as good in terms of art and layout as anything by WotC.</blockquote>

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