I'm a visual person.
While it's not hard for me to imagine strange aliens, frightening monsters, colossal starships and unearthly vistas, I do enjoy a good illustration, painting or other artistic depiction of these things. I am more easily and thoroughly inspired by artwork than I am by music or even the written word (though I do love a good written word).
IMO, the art in most American RPGs is, well, disappointing.
Not all, but a lot, and certainly that of the most mainstream of them. Now I am leaving out licensed RPGs here, as they usually have the benefit of using art from the comic books, computer games, TV shows, or films they're based on. I am talking about D&D, Pathfinder, Traveller, and many, many others. Their art just doesn't do much for me.
Especially not when, for example, Traveller can look like this:
Ok.
The Fifth Frontier War
Japanese Edition
and this...
Traveller Box Set
Original Cover Art - Japanese Edition
Yeah, I'm a little miffed that we get this...
And they get this...
I mean, it's not just more, and better art, it's the design skill that goes into it, the quality of the printing, and just the overall presentation, and format of the books. They just look great.
Check out these pictures of Wares 1092, an artbook made for the Wares Blade RPG that actually has game content in it! Let that percolate in your brain juices for a second. This is not a game book with some nice art; This is an artbook with game information! Do we do that? No! Why don't we do that?!
Our Superhero games tend to look good, especially M&M, DC Adventures and Marvel Heroic (again though, licensed products), though not so much Champions. Why? Why is the art of Champions still so weak sauce in 2014?
Anyway, in conclusion, the coolest looking RPG products I own are all from Japan.
Enjoy...*
Wares 1092, Front Cover Art
Map Fold Out in the Inside Front Cover
Locations on the Map
This picture came out badly due to my crappy camera.
The following pages of this section list various Mecha of the setting, how powerful they are,
how much they cost to operate and maintain, and other details useful in game play.
Some pages, like this one above, show how the cockpit and control systems
of the various Machine Soldiers look.
*The camera on my phone stinks. Doesn't do it justice.
AD
Barking Alien
Sorry this came a bit late. We had our first session of our new Bushido campaign today. A character creation and prologue session, it took longer than intended.
Fret not, a post about the results will be forthcoming.
Fret not, a post about the results will be forthcoming.
I thought the US cover of Fifth Frontier War was pretty cool. I like some of the rest of your choices here but I'm not sure I rank that one as an improvement.
ReplyDeleteReally? It was OK, but for me, the Katoh cover is much more interesting looking. Those fighter designs are so distinctive.
ReplyDelete