What were they thinking? The RPG art cringe thread :D

[SHARK]

Greetings!

Geesus. So, what was wrong with the artwork for Halflings back in...3.5E or 3E? I'm thinking of the voluptuous redhead Halfling Rogue on a cover of Dragon Magazine, and as I recall, highlighted throughout various game books. She was smoking hot, and definitely put a different spin on how Halflings could look. Whenever I used that picture to show how a Halfling female could look like, it definitely opened up my player's imaginations and perspectives. There were also some dapper-looking male Halflings as well, and it got Halflings out of the "Fat Farmer" look that had generally prevailed as their appearance, at least in the minds of many players. I thought that whole period of artwork was meaningful, while maintaining older traditions, it still stretched margins and provided some scope for interesting differences.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

[Godfather Punk]

Geesus. So, what was wrong with the artwork for Halflings back in...3.5E or 3E? I'm thinking of the voluptuous redhead Halfling Rogue on a cover of Dragon Magazine, and as I recall, highlighted throughout various game books. She was smoking hot, and definitely put a different spin on how Halflings could look. ...

No kiddin'

http://www.jeffcarlisle.com/node/270

The modern moral crusaders would have a fit!

[Omega]

It was I believe the MM for 3 or 3.5e D&D that totally turned me off it after looking through a players book. I thought d20m Gamma World had bad art direction. This was somehow worse.

Both that MM and the d20GW MM look like both no one actually read the monster descriptions. And someone decided to assign the wrong people to do each piece. How the hell do you misuse Tim Trueman??? Oh, yeah. White Wolf. And that D&D MM looks like an advertisement for Anorexics-R-Us. ugh!

[Pat]

Found some images of the core book for Godlike and if that is any indicator then I am rather surprised that they did not use the better art style of the 2 comics or the 3rd ads better photo renders.

Someone threw alot of money into this if the page count and plethora of supplements is right. So why did they skimp on the illistrations? Weird.

Because the person who did the illustrations was Dennis Detwiller, the author, who was obsessed with WW2 and wanted it to be authentic, and probably didn't get a lot of negative feedback because he basically self-published it (with friends), and had a lot of followers who thought he could do nothing wrong after Delta Green.

[Omega]

Why is it every other time I hear about or interact with Pagan Publishing or people related to it... its not in a good way?

Though regarding Godlike. It makes no sense to spend money on the comics and then toss it out. Unless they somehow lost the artist. Which might have been the case. Seen it happen before. Course maybe the photomanip art was intended all along and they just splurged on the initial two and a half spreads of ads with no intention of using it like they did some of the other add parts.

We will never know of course what went on.

[Blankman]

Geesus. So, what was wrong with the artwork for Halflings back in...3.5E or 3E? I'm thinking of the voluptuous redhead Halfling Rogue on a cover of Dragon Magazine, and as I recall, highlighted throughout various game books. She was smoking hot, and definitely put a different spin on how Halflings could look. ...

No kiddin'

http://www.jeffcarlisle.com/node/270

The modern moral crusaders would have a fit!

I mean, Lidda was cool, but pretty much every other iconic adventurer (they had at least one for each class) looked like shit. Take the iconic sorcerer Hennet.

Nice outfit made almost entirely of belts there guy.

Lidda meanwhile just looked like a human. You could only tell she was a halfling if she was standing next to a human or a dwarf (unless all those belts around her abdomen are there to hold her halfling gut in).


I can see why they wanted halflings to not just look like humans but half the size. It's just that they chose instead to make them look hideous and deformed a lot of the time. Of course this piece is also from the D&D 5 PHB, and the halfling in it looks fine, I think.

[Omega]

Yes that pickpocket Halfling piece is pretty good really and one of the few exceptions to the rule in 5e.

[Blankman]

Yes that pickpocket Halfling piece is pretty good really and one of the few exceptions to the rule in 5e.

They've toned down the "big head, spindly legs" thing in releases after the PHB as well. This one from Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes still shows the design element of a bigger head than normal, but otherwise isn't bad I think.

[Omega]

Yeah though theres still something off with it. Almost like he has no neck.

[Reckall]

"The Book of Erotic Fantasy" for D&D 3E was unusually well written (IMHO of course) but the decision to use "classy photos" for the interior art was the very essence of "what were they thinking?" It still remains one of those gifts that always keep giving.

[Blankman]

"The Book of Erotic Fantasy" for D&D 3E was unusually well written (IMHO of course) but the decision to use "classy photos" for the interior art was the very essence of "what were they thinking?" It still remains one of those gifts that always keep giving.

Yeah, that was certainly a ... choice. Agreed on both the text and the art.

[Trond]

Yes that pickpocket Halfling piece is pretty good really and one of the few exceptions to the rule in 5e.

They've toned down the "big head, spindly legs" thing in releases after the PHB as well. This one from Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes still shows the design element of a bigger head than normal, but otherwise isn't bad I think.

I'm left wondering what's actually happening here. Is he pleasantly surprised by the fish? 😀

[Godfather Punk]

I think he's throwing the heaviest fish back, making it skip 3 times.
Animal cruelty! 

[Brad]

So this thread prompted me to make a post because something has been seriously bothering me about Old School Essentials, specifically a style of art prevalent throughout the book. The Peter Mullen stuff exudes the exact sort of atmosphere I would expect from a B/X-derived game (derived..? Exact replica?). Case in point, the DM's screen is pretty cool and gives me that melted weirdness of Erol Otus, exploring underground caverns and killing goblins for treasure. Contrast that with the image I attached...that is just NOT what I want to see. It is far too whimsical and reminds me of some kiddie bullshit. When I first started playing D&D way back when, I was indeed a kid, but fuck if I wanted to be treated like one. Who does this sort of art appeal to? I certainly do not like it whatsoever. Nope.

[Ghostmaker]

Greetings!

Geesus. So, what was wrong with the artwork for Halflings back in...3.5E or 3E? I'm thinking of the voluptuous redhead Halfling Rogue on a cover of Dragon Magazine, and as I recall, highlighted throughout various game books. She was smoking hot, and definitely put a different spin on how Halflings could look. Whenever I used that picture to show how a Halfling female could look like, it definitely opened up my player's imaginations and perspectives. There were also some dapper-looking male Halflings as well, and it got Halflings out of the "Fat Farmer" look that had generally prevailed as their appearance, at least in the minds of many players. I thought that whole period of artwork was meaningful, while maintaining older traditions, it still stretched margins and provided some scope for interesting differences.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Heh, I thought you meant this one, actually. http://www.larryelmore.com/store/TSHT/tsr--halfling-thief

The only way you could tell she was a halfling was by looking at the furnishings nearby.