There are three basic reasons people pick up and leaf-through a gaming book.

  1. The cover caught their eye
  2. It's a new release of their favorite/one of their favorite games
  3. Pure curiosity (What's This?)

Recently, on the Harnlist the topic of art and artists came up. This is one of the many topics I should have included in my previous rant.

Art and artwork are paramount in role playing material in my humble opinion because they help us suspend our disbelief and accept the gaming world, if not the gaming mechanics, at a glance. Without art it becomes difficult to invision the different races (goblin, ork, or gargun - describe the differences in 100 words or less), equipment (illudium q36 space modulator looks like what again) and places (exactly how deep in 12000 feet).

Art also provides a means to break up text and give the eye a rest from constantly moving from left to right across the page. Color art allows us to see shadow and pretend the image has a third dimension, which makes it appear even more realistic. We use art to identify and brand items with logos or seasonal clip art, for example. Art has a prominent place in the publishing industry because it is eye catching and if it appeals to the buyer, may just sell the book on its merit alone. Come on - how many of you haven't bought a gaming book just because it was pretty. Discovering it was also cool later doesn't count.

So art is important.

Style is the next important factor in art. Style helps define the subject matter for a piece of art and it is the most popular item of contention about Art on the Harnlist. The reason this topic came up this time is Auran's newly released Web of the Widow - a sort of computer-aide for a role playing game. It includes 3d graphics, lots of adventure stuff, etc. I've never seen it, but the Auran web site provides a nice overview.

It seems not all the hârnfans like the art presented in Web of the Widow. ... how to say this nicely?

You can please some of the people some of the time
But not all of the people all of the time.

... whew. That took a few attempts.

Hârnfans have been suggesting their favorite artists who create in a "Hârnic style" in their opinion. I, for one, have no idea what a "Hârnic style" is. I like the works of Richard Luschek and Eric Hotz; both of whom have developed a Hârnic following. Richard has done numerous artworks for fan pages, fan publications and Columbia Games and Eric Hotz has had his name associated with Hârn for as long as I can remember.

All that aside there is much contention over the "style" of Art. The most vocal of the list members seem to feel Harn is a gritty and dirty low-magic kind of world. The style they want to see should, in their humble opinion, reflect this. So the general preference seems to be stained glass and woodcuts, as these are at least historically-acurate representations of art at the time. In that vein I suppose tapestries would also be appropriate.

I, however, am not a big fan of either stained glass or woodcuts. Being a child of this century, I like realistic art. You know people with more dimensions than two? I really don't care about the historical accruacy in a fantasy-role playing book when it comes to art; although I could make an argument that the composition (the items in the style) should be at least accurate to the game world. i.e.: if there are no longswords in your world, then having a longsword-weilding anything would be wrong.

What I most want to see would be something different; and that seems to be exactly what Auran is doing. While their image of Olek, the Stealth Hero is realistic and rather than saying its bad because it is resemblant of something that would appear in a Wizards of the Coast (i.e.: Dragon Magazine, 3rdEd, d20) publication, I say it is good for the exact same reason. A similar effect was produced with the imagesof Kandian Military garb, of which, by the way, I am a big fan.

Other examples of realistic art include the covers for HarnMaster Magic, HarnMaster Barbarians, HarnMaster Religion and Arak-Kalai (my review of which is available here). These last are all Columbia Games Ltd products by the way.

This more-realistic style does not bother my ability to suspend my disblief, in fact new and fresh perspectives help to keep the older ideas fresh in my mind. My own image of Harn is based loosely on earth culture and technoloigical of the 13th century, but the cultures are a fairly unique mix. Adding magic and religion to the mix makes it a healthier and happier place than, perhpas it should be were I to strictly keep to the Earth-model that so many on the Harnlist espouse.

I own a copy of almost everything Columbia Games Ltd has published and I am tired of the dirty, gritty, pixilated images. I want to see smooth lines, shadows and depth, realistic features of clean people in good clothes and, perhaps once or twice, a color image. The easiest way in my mind in varrying the art style that appears in a book is to vary the artists. And there are thousands of artists out there.

Micheal Whelan has always been a favorite of mine, mostly from the numerous book covers and calendars he has done. In fact he has a desktop calendar that you can download once each month for your computer screen. It's a nice sampling of his work and gives you something pretty to look at on your computer.

Larry Elmore was suggested, and immediately shot down. While his work is more closely associated to high fantasy than what most Hârniacs want to see, the man does draw beautiful works; and most of it is quite varied.

Mike Mignola was another interesting suggestion. A search on google brought up a long list of artworks and comics that bear his name.

There's also Brian Michael Bendis, Scott Hampton, Dermot Power, Carl Critchlow, Duncan Fegredo, ... as well as a host of "unknowns", a number of which can be found at the Illuminators Guild.

The article for which the art is designed best describes the need of the art. In a recent work of mine I had Richard draw me eight images to illustrate it. He took the images almost directly from the text. While some are woodcuts, there are also more current-day styled images; all of which help better describe the article. I susupect that Columbia Games Ltd has normally only gone with one artist because of friendship, price and availablity. It can be quite difficult to negotiate for an artist if you don't have the money to pay them. Yes folks, I paid Richard for his work for me.

All this to say that, while arguing over ones preference in art seems a bit ... of a light topic ... for the Harnlist it is obviously something very near and dear to people's hearts. I strongly doubt that whatever Auran, or Columbia Games Ltd does, it will please everyone. I am certain, however, that whatever art they choose will fit the piece it is designed to illustrate. Whether it be historically acurate, and consistent with other art in the various publications is not, to me, as important as it obviously is for some. I would much rather time be spent assuring it is world-accurate to the published material, rather than any one GM's view of Harn; including my own.

This has been my 2d on the topic.
Take em, test em, spend em.

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