NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercule" data-source="post: 1400891" data-attributes="member: 5100">I'm guilty of using the term "dungeonpunk".  I'm not sure that it has any definite meaning to me.  I knew I didn't like the style of the art in 3E, but couldn't put my finger on it.  When someone else used the word, it just kinda stuck in my mind. The most concise explanation I can give for my use of the term is because the pictures make me think of that tag from Cyberpunk (anyway, that's where I first heard it) of "Style over substance."  Just flipping through the Classes chapter of the PHB, all of the illustrations (except maybe Vadania, Tordek, and Lidda) look like they're preening and posing for a camera.  They're all a bunch of pathetic posers. Even taking my favorite picture in that chapter, Vadania, I realized that one of the things that draws me to it is that it actually looks like she's doing something.  Same with Lidda.  Tordek looks like he was standing guard and someone did a drive-by photo-op.  Page 240 has Jozan fighting a succubus -- another picture I like. When I imagine my characters, I don't imagine them posing for the cover of a magazine.  I imagine them in action.  Most of the pictures I mentioned are pretty much the antithesis of what I'm looking for.  The same could be said about the covers of Dragon (although those have been better lately, IMHO). I like background.  It adds context to the picture.  It also makes them feel more complete.  Having some pictures w/o a background is fine, but not too many, please. I really, really, really hate the drawing style of anime/manga.  I used to think it was just the big eyes, small mouth, etc., but there is more to it that that.  Anime, IME, tends to have a lot of this posturing that I was talking about.  There's also 'action' shots that have a background that is blank or looks vaguely like Star Trek warp speed.  I'll admit that the actual shape of the drawings in 3E isn't anime, but a lot of the poses are similar.  Add to it the cartoony feel and I can see why people would say it looks like anime. Throw it all together, and you've got some negative (perceived) traits that are very hard to put into full voice because they are only a bit here and a bit there.  The basic feeling, though, is obvious to those of us who dislike it, and that makes it really easy to throw quick, generalized, close-but-not quite quips about the art. There's art in 3E I like and there is art in 3E I strongly dislike.  The average across all art in 3E is, IMO, not as good as in 2E or even 1E.  There were some bad bits in previous editions, but they weren't as offensive -- probably because it was immediately apparent that it was budget work.  There are some good bits in 3E, but they really don't "wow" me like some of the work done by Elmore, et al. I'll take the silliness (and it is silly) of an airbrushed lady in a chainmail bikini, where I can see muscle definition and action, over some watercolor cartoon of a prettyboy barbarian preening for a camera anyday.</blockquote>

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