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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Raven Crowking" data-source="post: 3235937" data-attributes="member: 18280">(I hate having to parse back the quotes-in-quotes!   <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":]" title="Devious    :]" data-shortname=":]" />  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> )I suggest that you examine the context of the statements.The first quoted statement is causitive; it describes the motives that lead to the second statement.  I make no argument that WotC wanted to promote indulgence of players in the actual game (if they had, the DMG art and the PHB art would be in synch, rather than giving diametrically opposed messages).  I make no claim that a WotC conspiricy wanted to ruin the game....which also would hardly make sense given that the bottom line is...well...the bottom line.The second statement is the effect caused by the marketing goal.  If a special snowflake is, as I understand it, something unique that stands out from all others similar to it, then using a lot of kewl poses implies special snowflake status to me.  Perhaps you use the term differently.  If you care to tell me what "special snowflake" means to you, I'll let you know if I'd say the same using your definition.Please point out the pictures in the 3.0 PHB that show that the PCs are in serious danger.  Is it serious danger because a cigar discolors Lidda's face some?  Because Jozen steps on Krusk's face?  Because a dragon has trouble with swallowing Tordek because Tordek's just too tough to swallow?Finally, if you remove all background detail from the illustrations, this implies a seperation from the world.Now if you still want to say that "it sounds like you're scraping the bottom of the barrel for yet another reason to complain about a perceived distinction of 3E as pandering to players over GM's", go back and read my comments about the art in the 3.0 DMG.  The PCs get bloody trounced in that book.  Go ahead; take a look.  Then scroll back and read the full posts your excerpting from.The thesis is very specific (and very oft repeated):  The message in the art between two specific books is dichotomous, and that is going to color the way people view the art.There is no edition of D&D that doesn't say "My character is a hero" with its artwork.  I examined every picture in the 1e PHB & the 3.0 PHB, and discovered that while the 1e PHB did imply (frequently) that seriously bad things could happen to adventurers exploring mysterious regions, I couldn't find a single illustration in the 3.0 PHB that implied the same thing (with the possible exception of the Tordek/Dragon picture, which the caption defines as the dragon having trouble).  Those are very different messages.To me, if you are doing something supposedly very dangerous, yet every illustration of it shows how you will triumph over that danger, the implication is very clear that it isn't really all that dangerous.  But then again, I am probably thinking this through too much for the Internet.   <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> I listed each picture used in my analysis, and where they fit into the analysis.  If you (or anyone else) would like to refute me on that basis, it ought to be bloody simple....if I am wrong.  You need only point out the counter examples.  It would be the work of 5 minutes and a single post.  I suggest that there is a very good reason why that post hasn't appeared yet.RCEDITS:I consider cartography to be art.  When I first saw the 3.0 DMG, I loved that I recognized the example dungeon....and the picture of the skeleton/water trap.   <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> Dragon is pitched to both players and DMs, and one assumes that people who buy Dragon have already bought the PHB.  The art in the PHB is presumably designed to get someone to try the game....if you are already playing, and have any inclination in that direction whatsoever, the odds are you're going to buy the new books.</blockquote>

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