The Black Blade publishing effort is pretty cool.

We need to go there and buy their stuff.

I am saddened by the quality of the latest DCC stuff for 4th edition.

I love Goodman Games, but bad art is bad art...particularly the interior art, which is the muddy yech you get from printing color artwork as black and white.  (Also, the quality of the artwork inside the one example I own is childish...worse than 2nd Edition AD&D artwork.  It makes 2nd Edition stuff look good by comparison.)

Computer maps are not better just because they were made using a computer.  They need to go back to their 3rd Edition quality work.

misterspock wrote:Which art did you hate the most?

All of it

Especially the stuff that looked like it should have been airbrushed on the back of a jean jacket or a conversion van... which was most of it.

misterspock wrote:
I thought there was some really good stuff in 2nd ed...granted not all of it was.  But I can think of a number of modules and books that were really well done.  I know TSR was re-using a fair amount into other later-issued adventures which kind of bugged me.  Which art did you hate the most?

I am referring specifically to three prominent features of 2nd Edition art:

1)  Silly Hats:  The apparent competition among illustrated figures in the core hardback books to see who can wear the most ridiculous helmet.

2)  Blue Clip Art:  The Barbie Magic Playhouse blue pieces of clip art that made 2nd Edition books look about as butch as Legolas' boyfriend.

3)  Just Plain Bad Art (bad in concept, bad in subject matter, bad in execution):  My personal favorite is called "Attack of the Geriatric Orc Society."  My second favorite is, "Out of Shape Guy Suspects a Dragon."  Or, the covers of the black cover hardbacks, which should be titled, "Who Can Show Up With the Least Likely Set of Muscles?"

and  (although I only typed 3 above)

4)  The Larry Elmore "How Bare Can My Thighs Get?" phenomenon.

OK, that last one is not just a 2nd Edition thing.

As for Goodman....photocopy color pictures and you get the results I see.

Photocopy color computer maps and you get the maps I see.  

Why?

Another rarity sighting: Gator Games in San Mateo, CA has a shrink wrapped copy of DCC #35 on the shelf. They also have a copy of DCC #17.5. I'm not really sure how they got that one since it was a DunDraCon special but they're local to the con so maybe they picked it up in person. Store info is on my retail locator.

Random side note - none of the 4E interior art is done in color then downsampled to B/W. It's all native B/W. You're welcome to dislike it, just dislike it for the right reasons, and downsampling isn't one of them.

FormCritic wrote:


So, I've been back here 15 minutes and I've already dissed and offended two publisher guys.  My personal Jerk-O-Meter must be pegged to the max at the moment.  

The product I am talking about is Mists of Madness.

The fellow on the cover would fit nicely in one of the 2nd Edition core books.  He appears to be struggling to see out of his ludicrous helmet.

The cover art also appears in two places inside the module, slugged into black and white.  The whole picture is only visible on page 20.  

The other interior art, with the exception of page 9, either isn't very good or did not reproduce well.  The maps look like scenes from Perry Mason, filmed at night.

OK - I'm commenting on a $2 module.  So, I do admit the jerk factor here.

Thing is...I really like the Dungeon Crawl Classics, which is why I'm inclined to blather about them like a mean drunk.

This module was my introduction to the 4th Edition product line.  

I'm a map guy.  I'll buy a product just becaus the map looks cool, as if I can't use the actual "module" part, I still have a cool map to recycle for my own use. I haven't liked the 4E maps so far, they are somewhat "off"....too murky in some, and very obviously computer generated. Nothing wrong with that, but one of the things I really liked about the 3E DCCs (besides the covers) were the organic-looking maps. Give me a classic blue white old school map and I'm all over the item, no matter who wrote it.  

Maybe the funky helmets are a tribute to Lord Otus?

Mike B.

Badmike wrote:I'm a map guy.  I'll buy a product just becaus the map looks cool.

Pretty much the main reason I own any Judges Guild product.  One look at those Wilderlands maps and I was hooked.  

FormCritic wrote:
I am referring specifically to three prominent features of 2nd Edition art

I have to agree. When I bought the new 2nd Ed. PHB it was hot off the press. I opened it up and my first reaction was that TSR had indeed destroyed the game simply by selecting that horrendous artwork. I could not believe what I saw - and even when I crack a 2nd Ed. PHB these days my reaction is the same. That color artwork is beyond terrible. It is outright garbage.

And please note, that at the time we getting deluged with TSR hippie artwork. Every damn npc/pc portrait featured beards and feathers...DL featured that style prominently.

Badmike wrote:Maybe the funky helmets are a tribute to Lord Otus?

I haven't seen any of it, but if they are also wielding their weapons left-handed and at least one person in every picture is pointing at something, then I'd say there's a good chance it's a tribute.

Many of the DCC modules have a chart at the back showing that.

It is a listing of PC levels, then the DCC Modules (By number) published for that level of PC.