Winterwords wrote:
ROFL. Yeah, but remember 3e was meant to streamline & simplify things

Reminds me of the time Congress passed a "Tax Simplification Act" a few years back--the bill was something like 3000 pages long and added   several hundred pages to the Tax Code!!

Remember--"Congress" is the opposite of "Progress" as someone once said!    

sleepyCO wrote:
Remember--"Congress" is the opposite of "Progress" as someone once said!    

FormCritic wrote:
Ah, yes....the Fiend Folio.  Definately a mixed bag.  Some classic monsters mixed in with with the bizzare and the useless.

A nice collection of nuisance monsters....except that nuisance monsters are...a nuisance.

One of the best pieces of art in AD&D is in the Fiend Folio....the warrior with the claymore fighting the lizard men.  If

only there had been some challenging lizard men in the book (besides the lizard king, that is...and not very useful since he's supposed to be a unique type encounter).

Interesting how the classics from that book have survived...and some of the worst have also survived as jokes.

Mark  

bah fiend folio is one of my fave books and i dip into it with regularity in my games.

mark: youre right with the warrior pic - classic art. i agree that some of the creatures in it are pretty silly, but generally, i think a fair number of them are cool for quality encounters.

i still despise the WSG and the DSG. you won't ever get me to agree that they are worthy of any use, at any point of the day.

Al

FormCritic wrote:
The Fiend Folio was so...British.  It struck Americans as rather lurid and silly.  Early White Dwarf was like that a lot.

Mark

I could respond that a lot of lurid & silly things have come from the US too, but it is their lurid & silliness that is the point, not their nationality.

sleepyCO wrote:
Nice to know that someone likes the "golf ball"--I also have two of those along with a d5, d7, d14, d16, and a few other unusual ones.  I also have a stuffed (plush) d6, d10, d12, and a large d20; when I asked (innocently) what they were used for (why would one need a d20 that's about the size of a NCAA women's basketball ), I was told that it could be used to throw at a sleeping player or DM to get their attention (roll 5 or more on a d20, no Dexterity bonus to the attacked one, automatic surprise   ).

I have one of those huge plush d20s, as well as a whole tube of smaller plush dice.  I am in jealous awe of your d5, d7, d14 and d16, though.  Too cool ...

No worries Mark - thanks.  In retrospect I ought to have put a smil-ey or wink-ey thingy at the end, deadpan responses can look very serious     And of course, yes, there are plenty of silly names there  

Okay, I have absolutely no clue as to exactly what this is, but this has to belong in this thread:



http://cgi.ebay.com/Buttery-Wholesomnes ... dZViewItem

Hey Mark.

I am not an art historian, but I think that human/animal hybrids, or humanoids which are mostly human with some animal features have been a feature of art for millennia.  Think ancient Egyptian art with the part-human gods displayed in carvings on temple walls.  I reckon that in these cases, we invest the creature with the characteristics of the animals in question - so the Minotaur was strong like a Bull etc...  Move up to depicting Tolkien's orcs, and the piglike noses make sense, these are dirty, omnivorous, stupid*, squalid beasts - like pigs.  You could imagine them with (for example) hyena faces, too but not with say, cat or cow faces.  Generally the more intelligent a creature is the more human appearing artists have tended to depict it - for example, many of the artist renditions of the trolls from the Hobbit are more humanlike than the depictions of trolls from the Lord of the Rings.  Why, because they talked, had a discussion and thought (even if a bit dimly   ).  In the Lord  of the Rings, the trolls are just huge killing machines, so they are tend to be depicted less human-like in appearance.

As to what is happening now - well you are on your own there mate.  I don't buy video games or watch many hollywood (fantasy) movies or even buy lots of new 3.5E games, so am not really following what is happening.  It does seem that gaming art is more detailed and lavish - no more thin line sketches, it's all colour 'wham' on the page. It also follows an increasingly narcissistic trait, where every physical figure is 120% perfect in appearance.  Very comic-book.  Which is kind of ironic, as many countries slide into widespread obesity, our depiction of human(like) figures is becoming more idealised and physically 'perfect'.  

Any help?  Do let us know how your thoughts develop, I agree, it is an  interesting area, perhaps we tend to focus on rules too much rather than art - which actually has a strong impact on how people play.  


* yes, pigs are more intelligent that cats and dogs, it is the impression not the actuality that is being transferred.

bclarkie wrote:Okay, I have absolutely no clue as to exactly what this is, but this has to belong in this thread:


** expired/removed eBay auction **

It's a supplement to the Hol (Human-Occupied Landfill) RPG.  Hol and Buttery Wholesomeness take place on a somewhat nasty planet.  The interior pages are insane.