I've bought games and supplements with no or minimal art, such as the generic Tri-Stat rulebooks and the Hero System Advanced Player's Guides.

Based on that, my rule of thumb is that the more generic and mechanical a product is, the less it needs art, while good art can be a very good tool for conveying setting, mood, and style.

Yes, I would consider it.  Like someone said upthread, I'd prefer no art than bad art.

Naw. It's not that I can't enjoy a page of text, but when it comes to rules I prefer some artwork.

Quote from: Trond on April 10, 2025, 09:01:00 AMPerhaps if it has some theme that I am very interested in, but mostly no. I'm quite visually oriented in many ways. In many cases I feel I can come up with a decent system and setting myself, but good art is a big inspiration. Over time, I have come to recognize the importance of this (to me at least) so I'm thinking more about using art from some favorite RPG/fantasy artists as a springboard for a new campaign.

I tend to put art in my own stuff. Downloaded pics of monsters and adventurers and whatnot to spruce up my notes.

Quote from: Steven Mitchell on April 10, 2025, 07:26:46 PMThere are some talented 8-year olds with crayons that can produce better art than I.

What's their rate and email??

Quote from: Cathode Ray on April 10, 2025, 04:52:06 PMi disagree.  I love the bad art in older games.  There's also art that aren't bad, but amateurish.  A lot of smaller DIY games had art by people who had some skills, but lacked the discipline to make something that looks professional.  There's an oldschool charm to that kind of art, in my opinion.

I'm not willing to pay a premium for ugly crap filling pages unnecessarily. There's no "charm" for me in that. I'd rather have plain text.

Frankly a decent index is more important than artwork.

Quote from: RNGm on April 10, 2025, 08:49:25 PMThat sounds like a minimalist system and I'm a relative fan of them as well (though I'm not particularly familiar with Pocket Fantasy other than downloading it and looking at it a while back).   I'd be fine with that especially given it's free.

Pocket Fantasy is much better when you get the optional classes expansion that takes it from the classic 4 up to a total of 14 classes. 

I like to use PF as an example of a minimalistic RPG, yet has all the features a full RPG needs.  Therefore it's a full RPG, with one quirk being it's a fairly flat progression curve. 

I used it in this thread as an RPG without art, which isn't really true.  Each class uses a single public domain/stock image.  Hell, recently the author created a fancier version with proper art, layout, and more images.

Rules lite games often ditch art to keep the size down, or cost, or both. I've only seen a few with page counts into the hundreds that don't use art, and even then it will still have a cover artwork.

I've read a good number of RPG books and I can say that a good 60% of them would have been better with less art.  The best ones I've read have very little art.

I might buy it if I knew the author's work, or I'd heard good things from those whose opinions I trust. Otherwise, probably not.

While I appreciate the people that would buy an RPG with no art at all... I suspect most RPG's with no art would be massively hampered in sales potential.

Assuming there is no art, would mean some intensely good writing, design and layout to overcome the lack of art, just for appeal. And that means it has to cater to a pretty rarified number of GM's that would be willing to plow through the text and be inspired enough by the tone and design of the system within the text to warrant the purchase.

Then comes the marketing etc... again with no art... is a hard sell for the masses.

I suspect that this concept would work (from a time/money perspective) mostly with established systems and/or mini-settings with lite mechanics.

Another interesting option would be: Would you opt-in for a cheaper version of an RPG with art, if you could get it without art from a crowdfunded campaign?

Quote from: tenbones on April 11, 2025, 01:43:48 PMWhile I appreciate the people that would buy an RPG with no art at all... I suspect most RPG's with no art would be massively hampered in sales potential.

Assuming there is no art, would mean some intensely good writing, design and layout to overcome the lack of art, just for appeal. And that means it has to cater to a pretty rarified number of GM's that would be willing to plow through the text and be inspired enough by the tone and design of the system within the text to warrant the purchase.

Then comes the marketing etc... again with no art... is a hard sell for the masses.

I suspect that this concept would work (from a time/money perspective) mostly with established systems and/or mini-settings with lite mechanics.

Another interesting option would be: Would you opt-in for a cheaper version of an RPG with art, if you could get it without art from a crowdfunded campaign?

I think a few carefully selected and used art pieces go a long way to helping a product sell itself.  It's nice to see a cover piece or a intro picture that helps me see what the game designers are going for.

I have seen a lot of products that have really bad art design, generic slop, or art that sets a different tone from what the game is going for.  I think in the end that this hurts more than it helps.  I would rather see a rather stark product than a product with art that doesn't work.

Some games almost require art to be a complete game.  I know that Palladium's Rifts game would probably not work without art.

However, most fantasy RPGs can probably get away with no art.  Lamentations of the Flame Princess has a free version without art, and that's fine by me.  I've seen the version with art, and I actually prefer the version without pictures due to how bizarre and graphic those pictures were.

Quote from: grimshwiz on April 10, 2025, 08:29:54 AMYes if the content, layout and editing is good enough. At this point in my life I can picture fantasy, sci-fi, historical, etc. art.

I don't really need to see generic warrior fighting monster or animals.

Agreed. These days I just want a book that is easy to read. Layout is so damned important.

I just bought the $10 reprint of the original Traveller. Maybe a few pictures in the whole corebook but it's really a neat system.

Quote from: Kiero on April 10, 2025, 01:45:20 PMBetter one with no art, than one with bad art.

So true!!!