Topic: HARP SCIFI

[RandalThor]

WoeRie: Have I mentioned before to you that I have been to Heidelberg? A few years ago some friends and I were there as a part of a big "Eurotrip" vacation. Very cool place. I almost bought a huge, hardback Shadowrun Germany Sourcebook there that was, of course, all in German - and I couldn't read a lick of it. Funny, huh.

Substance is always what is ultimately going to get me to play a game, but like Thos said, good-looking books will reel people in and I, too, buy books just for the art. (Alpha-Omega is one, but I also bought that because it is POST-APOCALYPTIC - and love me some PA.)

[Arioch]

Also, I can't tell you how much interior color means to me. Again, I know it is unlikely to happen, but a fella can wish, now can't he?!?

Intern color art makes a manual more expensive and very rarely improves it's layout, usually it just makes a book difficult to read.
That's why I prefer B/W interior art (I love the interior art of the old WH stuff, mostly by Gary Chalk I think), IMHO a manual with a clean layout and good B/W art is a lot better than one with interior color...

[sunwolf]

Very True I once bought the Jorune roleplaying game because of the Art Work

However, I can say that I've bought books from systems I don't even play just because the art was so beautiful(Alpha Omega for example). I think it's a very important aspect of reeling in people who are new to a game.

[Nejira]

Intern color art makes a manual more expensive and very rarely improves it's layout, usually it just makes a book difficult to read.
That's why I prefer B/W interior art (I love the interior art of the old WH stuff, mostly by Gary Chalk I think), IMHO a manual with a clean layout and good B/W art is a lot better than one with interior color...

Yeah, I am with Arioch on that one.

[Fidoric]

That's why I prefer B/W interior art (I love the interior art of the old WH stuff, mostly by Gary Chalk I think), IMHO a manual with a clean layout and good B/W art is a lot better than one with interior color...

Those were great and I used to color them myself back then...

[RandalThor]

Have you seen the D6 games? Thier interiors are B/W and very hard to read the bottom 1/4 of the page. Whether or not it is in color or B/W isn't why they are hard to read, all the underlaying imagery (forgot what that is called) is.

But, mainly I just want art that I can point to and say, "it looks like that!"

PS: I also picked up the Jorune mainly for the art, and this game called Manhunter - a pulpy futuristic game.

[munchy]

But, mainly I just want art that I can point to and say, "it looks like that!"

Actually, I think I've never done that. I always use the pictures to get inspired sort, not looking to be inspired but it happens when you leaf through the book. And I always though it would be nice to have pictures to show the player, "this is what the foe of your characters looks like" but I think I never really did because at the end of the day there was either not quite the right picture, not the time to print the picture out or to find it quick enough in the books without breaking the tension of the game. So, while I like picture and really enjoy most of them, for me, I think, they are not necessary in a gaming book, A cool cover is important to get people interested... although I have to admit that I like the cloth-cover books even better than the normal (soft- and hardcover) but then again I am already hooked to the game(s) and am in an age where you get sort of settled and look for more simplicity in things.

Another company now sells adventures with a whole booklet filled with scenes from the dungeon you are in for example. It always says "Show picture hmhmhm on page hmhmhm to the player as they enter the room or as the encounter starts." The problem with that I think is that oftentimes the pictures are not printed well enough to my taste and that the scenes in my opinion would not look like that, but that is entirely my feeling here. Generally speaking I am probably just too old and too old school by now to let go of the "I describe what you see and you imagine it the way you think it fits the situation"-supported by a sketchy map on a piece of paper. If I describe a horrible, blood-covered, dripping and oozing humanoid figure with glowing green eyes and no skin, presented open muscles to everyone looking at it in terror, I do not want a picture, that thing is probably even more horrid if the players - and I - just imagine it, yuck. I think, IMHO, that description oftentimes can be much more and much stronger than pictures.

[Arioch]

But, mainly I just want art that I can point to and say, "it looks like that!"

Still prefer BW art for that! I guess it's a matter of tastes...



PS: this is now a thread about art in rpgs 

[markc]

 I can say that I bought the original Warhammer and W40K in the 80's for the art as well as the new versions for mainly the same reason. But I also picked them up for source info or game world info.

 So I guess I am in the I like Art group.
MDC

[Nejira]

I can say that I bought the original Warhammer and W40K in the 80's for the art as well as the new versions for mainly the same reason. But I also picked them up for source info or game world info.
 So I guess I am in the I like Art group.
MDC

Oh warhammer 40k art *drools* I bought many a book solely for the awesome art from GW. Those old one page spreads were very nice!

[markc]

I can say that I bought the original Warhammer and W40K in the 80's for the art as well as the new versions for mainly the same reason. But I also picked them up for source info or game world info.
 So I guess I am in the I like Art group.
MDC

Oh warhammer 40k art *drools* I bought many a book solely for the awesome art from GW. Those old one page spreads were very nice!

 I also like the way they did adventures and handout, and I have used them for many a game. I am sort of undecided on getting them in PDF as then I might have to print the pictures or at least show the players the computer screen or a hard copy.
MDC

[RandalThor]

I still use their "Coaching Inn" map to this day, for multiple games. (DnD, RM, 7th Seas, etc.) Plus thier Temple map is really good.

[Arioch]

I still use their "Coaching Inn" map to this day, for multiple games. (DnD, RM, 7th Seas, etc.) Plus thier Temple map is really good.

Yeah, the maps inside the old WHFRP manual were realy useful!

[Right Wing Wacko]

Well,
 Art means little to me in a rule book (with the one exception of Monster books- then there should be good art of the subject matter).
 I buy a rule book for... well, for rules. I pay little attention to the art as it is. It is simply not important to me because I didn't buy the book for the art.
I am not trying to say that art isn't important, especially when advertising (like a book is doing with its front cover), but it is something I do not pay a whole lot of attention to.

IMHO of course.

[RandalThor]

I am just ready to get the book, sick and tired of looking at the pdf..........

I will buy both a hard cover (for the shelf) and a soft cover (to read & use).