Would you hold it against a book if...

[jgbrowning]

Re: Re: well

Somehow, I think spellcasting, especially at DnD power levels, would prove more disruptive to medieval Europe than weird people with spikey hair.

yes, but not as much as weird spellcasting people with spikey hair, huh?


anyone else wanna be pithy and insulting because they dont like my opinions?



joe b.

 

[jgbrowning]

It does make me wonder. How many people actually run Western European based games as opposed to generic fantasy like FR, Grayhawk, etc.

I tend to think those are generic western european based games. The concepts of the game generated from WE history. There are parts of both worlds which are obviously not WE, but the majority of the world's base assumptions are at least european.

joe b.

 

[jgbrowning]

Re: Warning, lots of linked images.

What's wrong with this?

Or this?

My only beef with this picture is that it is obviously not a human head. If its a picture of a non-human thats cool, but if its supposed to be human, uh-uh. And its not that i dont think the artist cant draw a more accurate figure, i think he can, it's just the style often demands such lack of proportion.

I'm pretty flexible as to the art style's I like. I still love Todd Lockwood's work, but I know a skilled artist when I see one, and I appreciate such skill, regardless of the style an artist chooses to practice.

Me as well. I do think that art should be appropriate to the subject. Anime cannot be separated from its cultural origins. Just like renaissance art cannot be separated from its cultural origins. The quality of art is not really the issue here, it's whether or not people think its appropriate. I obviously don't think animesque style is terribly appropriate for most DnD games, but thats just my opinion.

joe b.

 

[Bendris Noulg]

It does make me wonder. How many people actually run Western European based games as opposed to generic fantasy like FR, Grayhawk, etc.

I'd say mine is a "total world" based game; Regions feature aspects that are Celtic, Norse, Aztec, Nigerian, Nubian, Egyptian, Roman, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Polynesian, and any other culture I felt like tossing in. Generally, though, I draw from periods of history that are prior to the rise of the Holy Roman Empire (i.e., the predominance of Christianity in Europe). It's relatively low-magic (being rare but potent), but undeniably Psi-Centric (prefering Evolution/Psientific themes over Creation/Magical themes, more in the vein of Dune than H&W or Salvatore).

Of course, I've got a few "alien" cultures tossed into the mix, usually isolated from the other cultures, but the bulk is undoubtably Earth-based beyond any means of deniability.

That's half the fun, I'd say: Watching the PCs shake things up and bring different cultures into contact with each other. If I ever close up shop on the current campaign and set the clock up a few thousand years, things won't likely be so Earth-like, based more on what the PCs cause to happen than anything else.

 

[Desdichado]

(Brief aside: To those who think that anime/manga style doesn't fit the medieval fantasy genre - you're wrong. You may not like that particular art style, but to say it doesn't fit the fantasy genre is patently false. )

Nope, sorry, you're the one who's wrong, clearly.

Please. You have to be able to do better than that. Personally, I don't have a problem with the anime style, although I prefer anime influences on a more western comic book style, if I'm going in for that look, but the style is, unfortunately, tainted by the fact that it belongs to anime. I really tried to like anime -- people who liked a lot of the same stuff I do really raved about it, but as much as I tried, the best stuff I could ever find was only OK. Nothing was so good as to compell me to continue to seek it out. Now, if I see anime style art in a book it would turn me off, because I'd associate it with all the mediocre at best anime that I watched when I tried to "get it."

 

[Dark Jezter]

I'd perfer not to have anime art style in my D&D books. Imagine, Mialee in a schoolgirl outfit, Regdar as a nerdy teenage boy who attracts lots of beautiful women, Lidda as a catbabe, and Tordek as a 60-foot-tall mech. Oh, and guess what the mind flayer is doing with his tentacles?

(Note that I don't hate anime, there are actually several anime series and movies that I've enjoyed. I just like to poke fun at anime stereotypes)

That being said, I'd much rather have illustrations akin to Frank Frazetta, Luis Ruyo, etc. in my D&D books. I've seen several excellent pieces of anime artwork, but I think that putting anime-style art in D&D core rulebooks just wouldn't be as good as capturing the "feel" of D&D. But I wouldn't skip an excellent book entirely if it used anime artwork.

 

[Oni]

I'd perfer not to have anime art style in my D&D books. Imagine, Mialee in a schoolgirl outfit, Regdar as a nerdy teenage boy who attracts lots of beautiful women, Lidda as a catbabe, and Tordek as a 60-foot-tall mech. Oh, and guess what the mind flayer is doing with his tentacles?

Suddenly I'm feeling very inspired.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Do any of you who don't like anime art enjoy any console fantasy videogames?

I call thee upon thy question! Since most fantasy videogames are rather heavily influenced by the anime style.

But if there's little to no overlap, I just say to those of you who can't stand the anime look:

A LOT of the art in the recent WotC books are slightly anime-ish, even. Something like the incarnate golem from the Savage Species art preview to me just screams "Hey, that's anime in 3d!"

I think people get a bit too caught up in biases. I think you just need to produce art that's good. To the moon with style.

I think Joe B's a bit overbiased. And so are many members of the board (of which I'm probably not excluded). But to me, style and substance are important, and whether it's rennaisence oils or medieval woodcarvings or anime spikey-hairs or whatever, as long as it looks good, I'm happy with it.

 

[hong]

Re: Re: Warning, lots of linked images.

My only beef with this picture is that it is obviously not a human head.

Obviously. Because it just DOESN'T HAVE ENOUGH TENTACLES, dammit!

ALL my clones have at least three tentacles apiece. I don't know about everyone else, but the complete lack of tentacles in representations of humans in fantasy artwork has always been a terrible source of frustration and annoyance to me.

Anime cannot be separated from its cultural origins.

What a coincidence! Are you thinking about tentacles too?

 

[jgbrowning]

Re: Re: Re: Warning, lots of linked images.

Obviously. Because it just DOESN'T HAVE ENOUGH TENTACLES, dammit!

ALL my clones have at least three tentacles apiece. I don't know about everyone else, but the complete lack of tentacles in representations of humans in fantasy artwork has always been a terrible source of frustration and annoyance to me.


What a coincidence! Are you thinking about tentacles too?

aha... the return of the funny hong!


joe b.