So THAT's why Regdar gets no love...

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Bah, your picture looks NOTHING like a gnome.

It's the world of ILLUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSION!

 

[Plane Sailing]

Which is why it would be stupid to run a business based off an EN World poll.

...or even a WotC forum poll

 

[Plane Sailing]

Hahahahahaha!

Oh, he got love. Spindly, wheezy, unctuous love.

See, somebody got it!

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

Far be it for me to put words in the designer's mouths, but it seems like the goal was to make a multi-ethnic, multi-racial group of iconic characters working together and sharing the spotlight, and marketing decreed that there would be a group of multi-ethnic, multi-racial sidekicks to the heroic white tough guy. Sort of a D&D Superfriends.

They already had a fighter, he was a dwarf. They had white males, Jozan and Hennet. Marketing wanted a strong, white male warrior front and center, above the other characters, and that was Redgar, and that's why he's the whipping boy.

This, I completely agree with. Redgar is a completely pointless, late-addition to the group and he is put there due to marketing rather than any other consideration. The gleeful revenge of artists and designers who are in a position to do something about this insult to gamers intelligence is something to be applauded.

 

[Ander00]

I always liked Regdar, as the intelligent fighter guy (likewise Roy from OotS). I never envisioned Regdar as white though, and any artwork that clearly depicted him as such was, to me, clearly in error.

I'd take Regdar over Tordek any day, and Eberk over Jozan, for that matter.


cheers

 

[Klaus]

I too always saw Regdar as non-white. In fact, to me he was pretty much Vin Diesel with a goatee. The whitest I have seem him depicted is precisely in the 4e Rituals chapter (look at him in the warlord chapter, looking non-beaten up).

So "3E designers" tried to circumvent "TSR policies". "Marketing" tried to circumvent "3e designers". And "Artist" managed to circumvent "Marketing".

 

[Jedi_Solo]

I never envisioned Regdar as white though, and any artwork that clearly depicted him as such was, to me, clearly in error.

Same here. With the images of Redgar that come to mind I remember a lot more where he isn't white than ones where he depicted as white.

There is also a statement by Lockwood somewhere that he purposely made Redgar ambiguous in his racial identity so I always took the verying shades of his skin tone as part of that ambiguousness. (Is that even a word?)

 

[CountPopeula]

I too always saw Regdar as non-white. In fact, to me he was pretty much Vin Diesel with a goatee. The whitest I have seem him depicted is precisely in the 4e Rituals chapter (look at him in the warlord chapter, looking non-beaten up).

So "3E designers" tried to circumvent "TSR policies". "Marketing" tried to circumvent "3e designers". And "Artist" managed to circumvent "Marketing".

I know Vin Diesel has a multi-racial background, but he's always looks exceptionally white to me. Like he could have been on Friends he looks so white.

 

[Nifft]

I have no useful opinion about Regdar's race. I don't even remember his hair color. He's a face in a helmet so far as I recall.

However, I wonder why the creative team is being held up as some sort of holy infallible group. They gave us Hennet. That's proof enough that they err.

They even gave us man-face Mialee.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Now my question is... isn't this a self perpetuating attitude? If you believe white males will be turned off from a game by having a different ethnicity grace the cover of a book... well logic says the opposite is also true. I mean if you aren't trying to grow or expand your market... then it makes perfect sense. However if you are, then not so much.

Absolutely it is, and that's classic TSR-logic.

Erik Mona - I'm not sure it's as "smart" a decision as you seem to be implying. WotC's iconics made me actually less likely to buy products from them, because, on some level, the art is part of why I buy a product, and I really hated seeing the same wankers over and over again. Exalted's wankonics are similarly irritating, though WoD iconics are bland enough to blend into the background, at least. I was really not happy, though, to go from the varied fantasy art of 2E, to seeing the same twonks over and over and over again, in 3E. I know I wasn't alone in this feeling. I'm not sure how much mileage you get out of merchandising something when some percentage of your player-base strongly dislikes it.

CountPopeula - Does that make 3E the "Friends" of RPGs? I could see that.