What is the most evocative art you've seen in a TTRPG?

[MintRabbit]

What it says on the tin: what art have you seen on the cover or inside of a ttrpg that you feel did an exceptional job of communicating what the game was about?

What do you think it was about the art that made it work?

My personal favourite is the cover art for i'm sorry did you say street magic by Caro Ascersion, illustrated by Shannon Kao. I think it has the right combination of whimsy and mundanity, and communicates the possibilities inside the game.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

I'm partial to Munkao's art in the recently-defunct range of A Thousand Thousand Islands products. A shame we won't be seeing any more from that creative pairing.

For a more available example, Tony DiTerlizzi's Planescape artwork has always struck me as perfect for the setting, to the point where it's hard to imagine anyone else replacing him. That entire product range benefited greatly from its unified art style IMO.

 

[overgeeked]

The cover for Eat the Reich is pitch perfect.

Several variant covers for Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG are spectacular.

The interior art for Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG is quite varied and definitely gives of a particular vibe.

Pirate Borg’s cover and interior art are amazing and pitch perfect.

Same with Fabula Ultima. Amazing stuff inside and out.

Just about everything from Free League.

 

[Fenris-77]

All the art for the Symbaroum books from Free League is amazing.

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

This is Free Trader Beowulf, calling anyone. . . Mayday, Mayday. . . we are under attack. . . main drive is gone. . turret number one not responding . . . Mayday. . . losing cabin pressure fast. . .calling anyone. . . please help. . . This is Free Trader Beowulf. . .

Mayday. . .

 

[soviet]

Angus McBride's covers for MERP.

 

[pawsplay]

Fabula Ultima, cover to cover. Not just representative of the JRPG/manga genre, but better than most of it. Just beautiful.

The cover to Warhammer Fantasy Role-play 1e is just perfect. It's very "metal" but hasn't quite gone overboard with stylized elements. It tells you what exactly is inside; dwarfs with axes cutting into nearly indestructible trolls. And then open it up, and it's exactly as promised.

The Thrall on the cover of Talislanta 2nd edition is, in fact, secretly my husband. Just the fighter-est tattooed fighter there other was. PDBB just makes such beautiful art.

 

[J.Quondam]

I enjoy Luka Rejec's art in Ultraviolet Grasslands; as well as Andrew Kolb's illustration for his Neverland and (especially) Oz setting books.

For a more available example, Tony DiTerlizzi's Planescape artwork has always struck me as perfect for the setting, to the point where it's hard to imagine anyone else replacing him. That entire product range benefited greatly from its unified art style IMO.

Absolutely agree. I was going to say the same of Brom for Dark Sun.

 

[aramis erak]

What it says on the tin: what art have you seen on the cover or inside of a ttrpg that you feel did an exceptional job of communicating what the game was about?

What do you think it was about the art that made it work?

My personal favourite is the cover art for i'm sorry did you say street magic by Caro Ascersion, illustrated by Shannon Kao. I think it has the right combination of whimsy and mundanity, and communicates the possibilities inside the game.

For a whole line, The One Ring 1e from Cubicle 7. The common style amongst the illustrators was key; Jon Hodgson's art setting the style used through most. Paintings, not renders.

For an individual work, that's much harder. Star Trek Adventures Core Rulebook, The Traveller Book, and Talisman Adventures all work quite well. STA, everything looks like either scanned painting or digital painting (as in, two styles, one trying and failing to properly mimic the other but getting close). TTB - B&W and B+R&W line art. Considering the year - 1981 - that was pretty darned slick. The full color cover was a slipcover, not actually the hardcover, and mine died in 1985.... Talisman Adventures, like TOR and STA, has a mostly consistent art look,

Gorilla Games' Battlestations! gets an honorable mention While 1e was 2004, the line uses mostly line art with color covers, color tiles, color cardboard figures... It runs the ragged line between RPG and Board Game....

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm partial to Munkao's art in the recently-defunct range of A Thousand Thousand Islands products. A shame we won't be seeing any more from that creative pairing.

Have you seen his new adventure? The art's as good as ever, maybe better.