Nostalgia is a thing (I spent most of yesterday playing Castlevania) but we can appreciate new things too (Dark Souls, for me).

I love B/X and BE but I see some value in 5e.

If we are talking "Preferred Design/Visual Aesthetic", 5e is AWESOME. The layout, background colors, how images "flow" into the page with no hard lines, etc.

But I love the OS aesthetic too. Russ Nicholson is a favorite for B&W art.

Angus McBride is awesome, Brom, DiTerlizzi, Caldwell...

OS art seemed more evocative somehow. This is how I picture D&D, despite recognizing the new books look good - and some books that I like look bad (including the DMG and the RC; 2e revised PHB hss especially horrible despite the colorful and somewhat pleasing design).

Among artists/illustrators with a more sketchy style, I often agree with those who find considerable charm in Luise Perrin's work, of Runequest fame. Here are a couple of pieces you might not have seen before.

Quote from: Persimmon on October 22, 2023, 09:13:32 AM

Quote from: Trond on October 21, 2023, 09:52:35 PM
My first RPG had an awesome box cover based on Moorckocks Elric.
But shortly after this I fell hard for the art of Angus McBride, and I suppose that was around the time I hit puberty. And to be honest he was technically brilliant in every way. I actually looked at several RPGs at the time, and McBride's covers was probably a big reason why I picked Rolemaster. One day, I'll run a campaign where characters and places are based on his MERP/RM covers.

Totally agree on the Angus McBride covers.  The interior art for ICE was more inconsistent and they tended to recycle it, but there are still some great black and white pieces scattered about.  I'm currently re-reading some MERP adventures for a possible campaign next year and it was these visuals that prompted my query.

I remember one or two internal art pieces, particularly in RM Classic (well after their heyday), that were just downright confusing. There's a piece where it looks like some people are just hanging out at a birthday party, except that there's another guy standing on the table with a dagger in his back. I was scratching my head and wondering WTF is going on.

I have a bit of love for the Fiend Folio that can be directly attributed to the art of Russ Nicholson. Certainly it isn't the monsters, many of which are a bit lackluster.

90s black and white style like SLA 1e.

I'm not sure that I agree with the general sentiment of the OP about where preferences are determined.

Aesthetically, I find modern materials more pleasing than those of the 80s and early-90s. As DTP software came into the fray, layouts and general design of RPGs improved dramatically. For someone with even a nonce of knowledge, you can create good-looking products. If there's anything that I don't like about the current state of play in layouts is the semi-move to digest-sized publications (paralleling the adoption of "lite" systems, maybe?).

In terms of systems, the ones that I played back in my teens are not the ones that I play--nor would want to play--now. WFRP and AD&D were my first and, while WFRP still has an appealing setting, none of the subsequent games have turned me back onto using their system over a generic one. (GURPSHammer is, for me, far better. But then again, I like GURPS.)

Among newer publications, this is what I call a great cover. I recognize the style of Mark Smylie (Artesia) here. He's contributed some art to a couple of different RPG products, and I believe he's always been a fan of Runequest.

anime art. 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2010s, 2020s. any is good.

Nostalgia might cause me to buy some books, but it doesn't influence which games I actually play. The first rpg I really dove into was AD&D 1e when the DMG was released in '79, but my friends and I started to play many other systems as they became available, such as Traveller, Top Secret, Call of Cthulhu, and James Bond. However, I now mostly play The Dark Eye and Savage Worlds - games I didn't learn how to play until about five years ago.
As for art, I find most of the interior illustrations in WotC books to be absolutely dreadful. Paizo and Kobold Press have better artists and I can only guess that WotC selects its illustrators on the basis of connections or their woke credentials. I also wish that Angus McBride had produced more rpg covers, but I do own several Osprey books that he illustrated.

I like evocative art and minimalist design.

The art I've found evocative includes different aesthetics, and is more about the specific artist for me: Trampier, Otus, Parkinson, Brom are my dudes.

I don't think this is nostalgic. I started playing in '77, so even Parkinson and Brom were "later" for me.

And I was thinking about the design aesthetic of 1e, which I loved as kid, precisely because it's a mess. Those books, with their tiny print, purple prose, infinite detail, and systematic chaos, are decidedly not minimalist. They felt like ancient tomes of arcane knowledge themselves, that needed to be sifted through for clues, details, and everything put together somehow to create ... magic.

I'm still a huge fan of Errol Otus.

Quote from: Trond on October 21, 2023, 11:42:30 PM
This thread needs art. Personally, I think Angus McBride was technically (and some might say aesthetically too) the best illustrator RPGs ever had.

You may be right.

May tastes have changed quite a bit over the years. I thought Parkinson and Brom were the pinnacle of RPG art at one point. Now my taste is more Ralph McQuarrie and Moebius. Going back in time I don't think there has been a better fantasy artist than JW Waterhouse. Can you imagine an entire RPG with art of this caliber?

MERP: "Hey Angus. can you make a spooky cover illustration? It's just an adventure module based on Tolkien's Mewlip monsters that live in swamps"

Angus McBride:

This thread has made me realise that I don't really pay that much attention to the artists in game books. I mean, the only artists that I remember are from Games Workshop products because they almost seemed to have their own cults behind them, e.g. John Blanche.

All the others that have been mentioned, with the exception of Bromm? Never heard of them.

Seems to me that I should pay more attention to the unsung heroes of many TTRPGs.