Smuggled photos

[FourthBear]

I realize they've got to organize things a certain way, but for a book that's been so page-count challenged, there certainly seems to be an awful lot of whitespace and large graphics.

 

[Lord Weh]

You can never have too much white space, it's visually calming and allows your mind to take things in easier without it feeling 'overloaded'. Looks like it's all written concisely and to me the layout looks like it'll help take in the rules that much quicker.

In the 3E books I end up scanning over a page, jumping from one part to another, maybe I'm just weird, but they felt a bit too 'busy' for me, these look just perfect.

 

[The_Fan]

Darn! Thought for once I had a scoop. Oh well, probably deserves its own thread.

I like how despite all the white space and the massive chapter opening artwork, it still manages to pack in a lot of info. Compare the amount of info we have about the Ranger in 1/2 page compared to the same amount of info in 3.5. And the paragon path takes up barely 3/4 page! Perhaps it comes at the expense of fluff though.

 

[Gorrstagg]

For me the part I find entertaining, the picture of the dragon, fighting the party in the Character Classes picture there.

Would of made a much cooler cover for the book. Instead of the image that is there. Action on the cover draws peoples eyes. Awkward poses and a goofy looking dragonborn, make you wish they swapped them around.

 

[Lizard]

Depending on your meaning of unreal, I would have to disagree. The art is fantastic. It is vibrant, suits to this game very well, and is exciting.

I hated 3.5 artwork where everyone wore brown and grey and looked like normal folk. I don't play D&D to be reminded of the world's uninspiring bland. I want to be reminded that freaking Dragons exist here and can be slain with spells of fire and glowing swords. yes. PArdon my language; I got excited.

This is kind of amusing. When 3x came out, the big complaint was that it was all "dungeonpunk", unrealistic anime/cartoon art which didn't look ANYTHING like Elmore! Now it's "grey and bland".

The bar's certainly been raised or lowered...

Me, I think the 4e art, other than dragonborn boobies, is fine. I don't think it's very different in style from 3e art. Maybe a bit spikier, but not much.

 

[Fifth Element]

This is kind of amusing. When 3x came out, the big complaint was that it was all "dungeonpunk", unrealistic anime/cartoon art which didn't look ANYTHING like Elmore! Now it's "grey and bland".

Perhaps that's because there are two entirely different groups of people making those two different comments?

 

[Lizard]

Perhaps that's because there are two entirely different groups of people making those two different comments?

Possibly. But I really see very little difference in general art direction between 3e and 4e, except for, as others have noted, page-eating white space, presumably on the belief the next generation of gamers is scared of words. (This was also done with the 1e-?2e shift, and was MAJOR turn off. The information density of the 3e books was an irresistable lure when they first came out, compared to the horrid bland emptiness of 2e. But I digress.)

 

[Fifth Element]

Possibly. But I really see very little difference in general art direction between 3e and 4e

I agree with this.

except for, as others have noted, page-eating white space, presumably on the belief the next generation of gamers is scared of words.

Give us a break. It is clearly a layout choice. Personally, I hate it when important headings are found near the bottom of a page - it makes scanning pages for something more difficult. The 4E layout seems to be cleaner and crisper than 3E, which was kind of messy sometimes. Why would you presume that to be the reason, other than pre-conceived notions?

 

[malraux]

Designing the rulebooks to be a really good reference book is far more important than making them a good read, at least for me.

 

[theredrobedwizard]

I personally like starting fresh headers on a fresh page. I hate when the feats section starts on page 1 of a chapter, listing one and a half feats before having a two-page table and then continuing on to the next feat. SWSE fixed this by putting the table before the feats themselves.

The book looks easier to read; again, less like a textbook, more like a magazine. Easier to read.

-TRRW