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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 3238782" data-attributes="member: 2067">Word.I do enjoy those black-and-white images above, but they're ornate woodblocks. They'd be useful for images that the characters may see, but they don't do a lot for illustrative purposes. I see a lot more illustrative artwork in 3e -- showing you how things would kind of actually look in the game world -- and I think this is a good thing. I'd still probably like to see the occasional woodblock-style item, but when the pagecount is limited and you're introducing new concepts, I can't fault them for going with a more illustrative style.The only reason a hero suffers a setback is to show their heroism in overcoming it. If they don't overcome it, if the situation is out of control and they can't dominate the situation, they aren't heroes, they're meatbags. In a game of heroic fantasy, the archetypes and expectations are that you will  be the heroes. The heroes are shown being heroic in various ways to encourage the players to be heroic, too. Jumping into the mouth of a dragon might not always be instantly deadly becaue this is a game of heroism, not of character-slaughter.  Heroes will encounter trouble, and they may die, but the trouble is there to be overcome, and the death is there to make room for the next hero. The villains may gain victories, but the good guys win. If it works for Lord of the Rings, for Paradise Lost, for 90% of narrative writing, why shouldn't it work for D&D? I mean, it's not a game of tragedy or comedy or postmodernism...the message of the game is "Be a hero, wield the magic, slay the villain, save the day." It's a good message for the core books to have, and the artwork does tell that same message.That Otus cover shows the same message. Those black-and-white woodblocks, while beautiful, don't really communicate very clearly (the first one seems to be saying "this game has ornate cities and Moses and Lizardfolk," the second one seems to be saying "dancing by the lake can bring a dragon with a halo up from the deapths"). Even the picture of Vaan says "this character is easygoing and young," and the picture of the Malebranche says "this scary monster will effin' kill you."This pic of Devis and Jozan from Cityscape?<img src="http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/Cityscape_Gallery/101110.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />It says "tragedy happens, and your cleric friend will be there to console you."How can you tell? It looks kind of like a girl in a bad '80's anthropomorphic animal cartoon.</blockquote>

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