Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Darth Shoju" data-source="post: 3234736" data-attributes="member: 11397">Well I think our positions are actually pretty similar. I do think there is a style to each edition that emphasizes the focus of the game at the time (as I outlined previously). I'd also agree that 3rd edition had a definitive art direction that was meant to reinforce a new motif to the game. I'd suspect 2ed had a pretty deliberate style as well. 1ed -I would guess- was more haphazard, likely arising more from the game designers seeking illustrations of adventurers entering a dungeon, rendered in a fantasy, sword-and-sorcery style. IMO this resulted in a variety of styles combining within in a similar theme (dangerous dungeon-crawling). This theme and the variety of styles has a varied effect depending on the viewer. Some like it, some love it, some hate it. That is where the personal preference comes in. This brings me to one of the reasons I dislike 25-30% of the 3ed art; as a previous poster mentioned there just doesn't seem to be as much variety. I'd say at least part of this is due to to the icons; in previous editions you got to see many different adventurers in many different scenarios. Now every picture has an iconic in it. I don't have any particular dislike for the design of the iconics themselves, but I'd like some more variation. Combined with Lockwood being moved to the novel line and WAR doing all the Eberron covers (which I love) and the main books become that much less varied, not so much in style but in subject.I guess what I find the most frustrating about this discussion (not really from you though RC) is that 2ed and 3ed art is written off as soul-less, stiff, commercial and cheesy while 1ed is claimed as "magical" and dynamic and "fine art". When some level the criticism that the art of 1ed was often amateurish or goofy looking, it is claimed that this was done on purpose and labeled as the reason it evoked the TRUE spirit of the game. The dynamic, fantastic art of artists such as Lockwood, Brom, Reynolds and O'Connor are disregarded and bizarre claims of mohawked/tatood/pierced big-thighed elves are tossed about with no examples. But I guess I should have known better than to get involved in one of these threads in the first place.</blockquote>

Verification