D&D 4E Women in 4E

[Moon-Lancer]

see Klaus, look what you started...

gah, I have an updated version of this someplace...
http://www.sheezyart.com/view/1372841/
oh no... my girlfriend is showing too much leg! She in fact likes sexuality in fantasy art btw.

 

[Giorgio]

Should I start posting pictures of men who have a lot of female fans in order to balance the Lux porn talk?

As a male gamer (and DM with a female gamer in the group) I would be interested in seeing what female gamers find attractive in D&D/fantasy art. Either here or in a separate thread. So far the discussion and shared art have been enlightening.

Never have seen that Mirumoto Shiryu picture before, and I like it. The image to me invokes a handsome and deadly warrior defending the mountain path to the temple/monastery behind him; with a “you shall not pass” combat stance. Have any more pictures like this?

George

 

[Geron Raveneye]

Oh yeah, that Mirumoto pic looks plain great. Who wouldn't want to play that kind of bushi in L5R (Dragon Clan or otherwise)?

I remember the Dragon crew actually mentioning they wanted to equalize the beefcake/cheesecake ratio a little with that cover, and I think it's pretty well done.

That last one...ugh. :lol. I'd really prefer a Conan picture instead of that, but that's me, and I'm nto female. Something like this B. W-S. version, for example, where he doesn't look like a barrel of bulls.

April Lee has a few good ones in her gallery, too.
http://members.tripod.com/~AprilLee/printgallery.html

And while we're at L5R, how about this?

 

[Gloombunny]

I'll be in my bunk.

Uh... what Wormwood said.


It's really tiresome to be called puritanical over and over in these discussions. Is it really that hard to understand that a person can like sexy art but still think that chainmail bikinis look stupid?

 

[Geron Raveneye]

Doesn't always have to be chainmail bikinis either.

By the way, I still think artwork in RPG books is meant to make the potential player want to play that character, and not to make him stand around drooling stupidly at some skin-art in skimpy armor. And well...aesthetics are hard to please to begin with. Taste and all that.

 

[Moonshade]

As a male gamer (and DM with a female gamer in the group) I would be interested in seeing what female gamers find attractive in D&D/fantasy art. Either here or in a separate thread. So far the discussion and shared art have been enlightening.

Well, I'm a fan of April Lee's art (Geron Raveneye linked her gallery, unfortunately it hasn't been updated in years). For example, I think this character is handsome and this one's a beautiful badass.

Michael Komarck's illustrations of Jaime Lannister from A Song of Ice and Fire are good. Here's a monk with a nice body and another, older Mirumoto who could be used to illustrate a confident warrior-type with roguish charm.

And while we're at L5R, how about this?

IMO, that is a good depiction of a big, strong man that remains reasonably realistic when it comes to muscles. It helps that he doesn't have an "Argh, kill you all!" expression like a lot of other big fighters in art.

ETA:

It's really tiresome to be called puritanical over and over in these discussions. Is it really that hard to understand that a person can like sexy art but still think that chainmail bikinis look stupid?

I agree. I think it'd be nice to see more handsome men in D&D art, but I wouldn't want them to wear chainmail loincloths, thongs, whatever. My reaction to such pics would be more "Ouch, that's gotta hurt!" than "Ooh, hot!".

 

[Hypersmurf]

I guess its slightly better than Alias' armor however, as at least theres soemthing to absorb the blow.

To be fair, that was the point - that painting matches the description of the ceremonial armour Alias was dressed in when she was due to be sacrificed with a knife to the heart, and mention was made in the text of the deliberate gap in the armour.

-Hyp.

 

[SteveC]

So can we have incubi like this in the Monster Manual? Or would it lead to a lot of whining from fanboys unable to handle the sight of men that women actually find attractive and whose sexiness is emphasised? Not just gross half-naked Schwarzeneggers or men who happen to be showing some skin, but men who are meant to be good-looking.

An unfortunate number of male posters on fantasy boards do seem to be prudes. They'll defend the bikini babe but freak out over pictures of attractive men. They're effeminate, they're pathetic, they're not heroic enough, and so on. The amount of hate that, for example, Vaan from Final Fantasy XII gets! And yet that game also has a playboy bunny in leather and a princess in a tiny skirt, so it's not unfairly lacking in female eye candy in any way.

Should I start posting pictures of men who have a lot of female fans in order to balance the Lux porn talk?

In looking at what you posted, I think that it might be just a little bit too far out there for people to look at in the MM, but I'd also say that I would make the same claim about the equivalent photo of a woman. I certainly think with a bit of creative license, you could do something like that. I certainly don't see anything wrong with beefcake in addition to cheesecake. EDIT: I'm away from my Monster Manual at the moment, is this the equivalent of the succubus picture? If so, then what the heck!

Heck, you should feel free to show some pictures that you think are equivalent to the cheesecake we've seen here to give people an idea of where you're coming from.

My thoughts on this are, just to summarize:

Keep the books at a level where parents of teens won't feel uncomfortable buying the books. I would say that the WotC books for 3X followed this fairly well.

Keep the characters dynamic, engaging and competent. That means no passive bondage stuff for either gender, thankyouverymuch.

Make them good looking for members of both sexes.

Take a deep breath and relax about the whole thing.

...and I think that works out for everyone.

--Steve

 

[Doug McCrae]

What should a female barbarian look like?

 

[Rel]

I, for one, judge Red Sonja, not on the way she looks, but on the way she treats other people.