I had stopped my subscription to Dungeon and Dragon for a few months and I just picked up the first Age of Worms adventure... when did all the interior art begin to focus on the same characters?
I like the idea of having the same characters portrayed throughout the adventure path (very similar to the "iconic" D&D characters). But the same party is fighting in the art throughout the other adventures as well.
It's a nice touch but I have to ask: Why this particular party?
One of the editors wrote a while back (on these very forums) that they've found it easier to give directions to artists by always using the same characters.
As I understand it, they have a set of instructions/character descriptions and model sheets to provide the artists.
Apparently, many of the artists they hire aren't entirely familliar with D&D.
Creative Director
|
I had stopped my subscription to Dungeon and Dragon for a few months and I just picked up the first Age of Worms adventure... when did all the interior art begin to focus on the same characters?
I like the idea of having the same characters portrayed throughout the adventure path (very similar to the "iconic" D&D characters). But the same party is fighting in the art throughout the other adventures as well.
It's a nice touch but I have to ask: Why this particular party?
We started using an iconic party in issue #114 (which was the relaunch/redesign of the magazine). At that time, we only had 4 characters designed (ranger, sorcerer, paladin, and rogue). With the start of Age of Worms (issue #124) we added a cleric, a fighter, and a bard. We'll probably be adding the last four (druid, monk, barbarian, and wizard) sometime in the future.
John's right, though. We did this to make ordering art easier and to give the magazine more of a cohesive personality.
As for why these particular designs were chosen... we pretty much just came up with rough descriptions (a human female cleric of Wee Jas who uses a morning star; a half elf male rogue who fights with two blades, etc.) and sent them to Wayne Reynolds and he drew up some cool designs and they stuck. We wanted to pick some classes and races and portray them in decidedly different ways than "standard D&D" since PCs are never dull or boring. There's always someone in the group who wants to play a minotaur bard or something like that. We didn't want to go THAT crazy, but that's why we made the fighter a tiefling or the drow a bard.
Aside from race and class, though, that's pretty much all we've designed. Two of the charactters (maybe three) have gone on to inspire PCs in our in-house playtests, but they don't have official names or levels or stats.
I didn't even think about the logistics of ordering the art from freelancers and the such. That's a great idea and as I said I find it to add depth to the magazine.
Perhaps there could be a contest that would allow for readers to have their character rendered in the art of Dungeon for a year.
Oh, Yeah! I REALLY like this idea!
As I understand it, they have a set of instructions/character descriptions and model sheets to provide the artists.
Apparently, many of the artists they hire aren't entirely familliar with D&D.
Oh, our artists are pretty familiar with D&D, but we wanted to be able to say to any of them -- we need a fighter, we need a paladin, we need a cleric, and be able to send them immediate reference for what we wanted. As well though, we liked the idea of having our own iconic characters popping up in the magazine from time to time, because we're cool like that.
It was also a great excuse to give Wayne some more work.
As well though, we liked the idea of having our own iconic characters popping up in the magazine from time to time, because we're cool like that.
Any chance on Iconic minis? Or maybe AP Villian minis?
ASEO out
