Quote from: Persimmon on October 21, 2023, 08:40:56 PM
A long time ago I read somewhere that most people, especially men, tend to be drawn to things they liked/appreciated around the time they reached puberty.  This could refer to movies, music, beauty or fashion trends and, in this case, RPG designs (as well as mechanics, I presume).  I find this certainly seems to be true for me.  For example, I started playing D&D with the Moldvay/Cook rules in 1981-82.  We moved to AD&D a few months later, but I always kept playing B/X.  More germane to this question, I find that I still prefer RPGs and game supplements utilizing fairly simple black-and-white art to flashy color products with glossy paper and fancu design aesthetics.  I can certainly appreciate great art, color or not, but for me a great piece of B&W art still screams RPG adventure to me.

So what are your preferences along these lines and when did you start playing and with what game/system?  Just curious as I found myself culling stuff from my collection today and most were newer things.

Like you, I started with B/X and soon moved on to AD&D (1e). I was initially drawn to D&D by the B&W art, especially that of Jeff Dee and David Trampier.




I was a comic books fan and their work reminded me of artists such as John Byrne and Barry Windsor-Smith. Without knowing what all the stats meant I was drawn in by the evocative artwork of books like Deities & Demigods and the Player's Handbook. In no time I was playing which eventually led to running adventures. If not for the art I'm not sure I'd be playing ttrpgs at all.

I know we probably wouldn't get along if we met, and he's pretty far out there as a political wacko, but I have a deep appreciation for Luka Rejec's art.





There's something that speaks to me about outlines, heavy ink, and bright colors. It's not quite a comic book. It's detailed without being noisy — a lot of woodblock-style prints and heavy inked B&W art is unreadable to me, or difficult to read since without color you're stuck for contrast options. As an unrelated note, I come from a family of artists (one of whom is rather famous) and incidentally found clear inspiration drawn from a family member's work in his art for UVG, which was a funny thing to note when someone's style and influences are so obvious that they can be so clearly spotted in another's work.

I enjoy imperial symbolism and Art Deco-inspired works, too. ACKS II's hardcovers, for instance, are gorgeous pieces. They're something I'd put on my own work, if I yet had a book appropriate to publish.

Quote from: Thor's Nads on October 23, 2023, 02:02:41 PM
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?

Waterhouse is great - but in terms of RPGs, I care much more about how the illustrations work to convey the genre and setting, rather than just independent skill. I think one of the best examples for me is the Paranoia RPG.



James Holloway's cartoons instantly convey the tone of the game, especially combined with the little sidebars and messages from the Computer scattered through the text. I think it's the example of where the illustrations really worked to convey the

As a contrast, Skyrealms of Jorune had beautiful illustrations conveying its world, but it was very unclear what the adventures would be like, so I think it doesn't work as well as graphic design for an RPG. I also liked the design of Star Wars D6 and the James Bond 007 RPG - but that's a little apples and oranges, because they're relying on the license to convey a lot of the tone and feel.

I do think Vampire: the Masquerade did a good job too with illustrations and tone, even though I don't like the game itself.

For D&D, I think Erol Otus came closest to conveying the tone and feel for me of actual adventures, but there's still a dissonance.

I was in my 20s when I discovered Heavy Gear. I think the art sold me as much as the mechanics and the overall setting (which is excellent).

Quote from: Kage2020 on October 23, 2023, 06:05:07 PM
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.

Meh. I've worked as a pro artist in video games and tabletop games for over 25 years. Few give a crap about the art or artists. Sure they might complain if it is really bad, or notice the exceptional piece now and then, but I can tell you art is a commodity. Like aluminum cans, used and thrown away, sometimes recycled.

But I like art! You might say. You are in the minority. 90% of people really don't care much. It was a hard lesson for me to learn as I've been so passionate about art since I was young.

This is why I don't care much about AI art. Since art is a commodity it might as well be produced quickly and cheaply, used and thrown away.

Quote from: Thor's Nads on October 25, 2023, 08:29:51 PM

Quote from: Kage2020 on October 23, 2023, 06:05:07 PM
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.

Meh. I've worked as a pro artist in video games and tabletop games for over 25 years. Few give a crap about the art or artists. Sure they might complain if it is really bad, or notice the exceptional piece now and then, but I can tell you art is a commodity. Like aluminum cans, used and thrown away, sometimes recycled.

But I like art! You might say. You are in the minority. 90% of people really don't care much. It was a hard lesson for me to learn as I've been so passionate about art since I was young.

This is why I don't care much about AI art. Since art is a commodity it might as well be produced quickly and cheaply, used and thrown away.

Well, I guess I am in that 10% who find it very important. Looking back, I realize that quite a few of the books I bought back in the day were because of the art. I also have some pet peeve styles that just turn me off so fast. Off the top of my head; Exalted (bleh).

If I was to choose an RPG purely on aesthetics, it doesn't get much better than Symbaroum.

Though i don't like the RPG much, Tales from the Loop has retro1980s art that looks like VHS freeze-frames. I mentioned my love of retro and the 1980s ad this is a perfect example.



This and other Tronpunk art.

As much as I like MERP, I also think The One Ring did a good job with the aesthetic. It's not at McBride level, but most of the art (at least at the start) fit Tolkien's Middle-Earth very nicely. For instance, if you read Tolkien, you'll notice that he pays attention to nature (more than most fantasy writers) and of course languages and scripts were a big deal. I like the inclusion of Tolkien-runes on the dice as well.

Quote from: Thor's Nads on October 25, 2023, 08:29:51 PM

Quote from: Kage2020 on October 23, 2023, 06:05:07 PM
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.

Meh. I've worked as a pro artist in video games and tabletop games for over 25 years. Few give a crap about the art or artists. Sure they might complain if it is really bad, or notice the exceptional piece now and then, but I can tell you art is a commodity. Like aluminum cans, used and thrown away, sometimes recycled.

But I like art! You might say. You are in the minority. 90% of people really don't care much. It was a hard lesson for me to learn as I've been so passionate about art since I was young.

This is why I don't care much about AI art. Since art is a commodity it might as well be produced quickly and cheaply, used and thrown away.

This is depressing but true.

I published several RPGs, only one with actual professional, original art. It didn't seem to make a difference at all in sales, reviews, etc.

Nowadays I avoid AI art because I prefer to encourage actual artists, but I think it is inevitable.

Artists take time and money, as they should, but you cannot compete with machines working 10 times faster and cheaper if the buyer doesn't care about the difference.

I give WotC a year to go full AI. Heck, average AI is already doing better than most professional, digital-assisted WotC art.

Quote from: Thor's Nads on October 25, 2023, 08:29:51 PM

Quote from: Kage2020 on October 23, 2023, 06:05:07 PM
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.

Meh. I've worked as a pro artist in video games and tabletop games for over 25 years. Few give a crap about the art or artists. Sure they might complain if it is really bad, or notice the exceptional piece now and then, but I can tell you art is a commodity. Like aluminum cans, used and thrown away, sometimes recycled.

But I like art! You might say. You are in the minority. 90% of people really don't care much. It was a hard lesson for me to learn as I've been so passionate about art since I was young.

This is why I don't care much about AI art. Since art is a commodity it might as well be produced quickly and cheaply, used and thrown away.

Where does someone like me go on the list? I can see the art and art-like layout work for Mongoose makes the products prettier. But I like the simple original Traveller rules just as much. And would rather the money be spent on cleaning up errata. Which is why I prefer Stellagama and similar products.

And I'm someone who appreciates art - as art. I was visiting a then-girlfriend and her mom. And they had a bunch of artwork from a kindergarten class. I took one look and said "It looks like a project on Mondrian." Her mom only knew I was a computer programmer and studied Aikido, and she was very surprised I knew anything about art.

For my wife and I, AI art meant we could do small, fun pieces for our weekly blog. We couldn't even find someone who advertised prices that we could remotely hire or that would be available routinely, that didn't look like they were using AI for it anyway. (Unlimited changes for $20 means you're using AI, yes? LOL) We have Stable Diffusion at home and will be getting Adobe Firefly at some point.

We picked this sort of style for our blog https://casasent.blog. It fits the delightfully weird, slightly humorous style of our writing.

Quote from: Eric Diaz on October 27, 2023, 09:30:16 AM

Quote from: Thor's Nads on October 25, 2023, 08:29:51 PM

Quote from: Kage2020 on October 23, 2023, 06:05:07 PM
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.

Meh. I've worked as a pro artist in video games and tabletop games for over 25 years. Few give a crap about the art or artists. Sure they might complain if it is really bad, or notice the exceptional piece now and then, but I can tell you art is a commodity. Like aluminum cans, used and thrown away, sometimes recycled.

But I like art! You might say. You are in the minority. 90% of people really don't care much. It was a hard lesson for me to learn as I've been so passionate about art since I was young.

This is why I don't care much about AI art. Since art is a commodity it might as well be produced quickly and cheaply, used and thrown away.

This is depressing but true.

I published several RPGs, only one with actual professional, original art. It didn't seem to make a difference at all in sales, reviews, etc.

Nowadays I avoid AI art because I prefer to encourage actual artists, but I think it is inevitable.

Artists take time and money, as they should, but you cannot compete with machines working 10 times faster and cheaper if the buyer doesn't care about the difference.

I give WotC a year to go full AI. Heck, average AI is already doing better than most professional, digital-assisted WotC art.

For myself, I do not care much for digitally produced art of any sort, so AI produced or not it is all kind of the same to me. Real meatspace drawings and paintings is the only way to compete with and overcome AI art. Digital rendering is digital rendering whether by a human or AI, it all looks kind of the same. Real art beats a digital rendering any day.

Of course, it's hard to argue against an RPG book which is written and illustrated by the same guy, who also came up with the entire world in question. I'm talking about Artesia here.

Found a nice scan of 1st ed Runequest cover. It was colorized on 2nd edition, but I like this version too.

I have to admit that aesthetic of Talislanta, with all its colorful weirdness, has always piqued my interest.