A companion thread to the Best Art/Worst Art topics, is this question really...what games have been successfuly only because of the artwork?
 
Id blame Tim Bradstreet personally for the success of Vampire:TM, because without him, Im sure the game would have died a death the day it got published...he made vampires too cool to not want to play them
 
Oh, and Id also blame Brom for making Dark Sun appear to be a far more interesting and dark place than it really was.

We always made fun of the vampire art.

If you knew the goth crowd I did, you wouldn't be surprised that game sold itself.

I guess my vote would be third edition dragon lance. They had awesome art but cut the balls out of a lot of it.

The Red Star d20 campaign. I love Chris Gosset and his artwork and think that the comic The Red Star is awesome, but the damn campaign setting took all of that awesome and shredded it in translation.

Space Opera and Jeff Dee artwork. I so love the Jeff Dee artwork that I have bought adventures and supplements for Space Opera even though I think the Space Opera game sucks rancid dingleberries out of an asshole.

Red Star,  good spot there.

For me Warp World falls in this category. I've always liked the style of the artwork and for that reason alone it's survived all my periodic game culls. But the rules are a nightmare (not necessarily bad but very complicated) and the setting is terribly contrived. I think there is a new edition that at least does something interesting with the timeline.

Earthdawn 1e. Amazing art, great setting. Rules were clunky and not so hot.

I think its fair to say with Dan Smiff(Smith) doing the artwork for In Nomine, that good would have never flown, period.

Engel, goddamned Engel. I hear the original non-D20 version was much better. But the American Engel had amazing art and a damn near unplayable and incomplete system.

Um, RIFTS?

Quote from: Caesar Slaad;458263Um, RIFTS?

Shut up. (;

Quote from: danbuter;458257Earthdawn 1e. Amazing art, great setting. Rules were clunky and not so hot.

Ha. i loved the art and we dug the rules (after getting accustomed to them over the course of a years long campaign) but, although I really like some elements of the setting, overall it bored me my by being over full and too small.
Now though I can't stand the system either; the art is still nice though

Quote from: Lawbag;458249Oh, and Id also blame Brom for making Dark Sun appear to be a far more interesting and dark place than it really was.

Laying aside art work and game mechanics- the presentation of the 4e  fluff is far better and much darker. The original 2e box does not live up to its potential in this regard, and a lot of the interior art (Baxa's) is ass .

Quote from: Aos;458287Laying aside art work and game mechanics- the presentation of the 4e  fluff is far better and much darker. The original 2e box does not live up to its potential in this regard, and a lot of the interior art (Baxa's) is ass .

Could you elaborate on that? (Better and darker vs. not living up to potential) I haven't read the DS 4e books.

Quote from: Cole;458293Could you elaborate on that? (Better and darker vs. not living up to potential) I haven't read the DS 4e books.

Well for one thing the atlas section of the cg is 3rd person as opposed to 1st. The presentation of the first set really acts as a bar to the cool grittiness of the setting. The 4e atlas is, in my opinion, just better, and it is objectively far more concise. As far as darker goes, I think the descriptions of the cities and wilderness  and the types of things that go down in them is just hits the note better for me.  Also Brom's absence aside, the interior art is superior in the 4e books. Beyond that, the writing is just better, I guess. I really dig the creature books from both iterations, though.

Also WoTC's two and out book policy insures that the setting will not be fucked up with kruft and hope down the road.
I'd run this game with S&W WB, some house rules, Carcoasa psionics and 4e fluff.

Skyrealms of Jorune.

Fabulous art, intriguing setting, but the system was an utter mess. The second printing of the game came with a 20 page errata that still didn't make the system work.

I'm surprised Engel hasn't been republished with it's original system. I know I'd buy it.