So are you color or black & white?
Either is fine, as long as the layout is good and the pictures are clear. Of course good color art will always draw the eye a bit more--but it can likewise also be distracting from the text and if it isn't GOOD art or isn't well laid out, it can be garish, unpleasant, does nothing to support the text.
Likewise, if the black and white art is well done and clear (not too dark overall) it can supplement the text without being distracting. It should be black and white that is DESIGNED to be black and white, not color art that got desaturated. It can if not well done be extremely bland and serve little purpose.
I must say overall, if the content and quality is exactly the same, and you show me a B&W book and a color book, and the B&W book is significantly cheaper, I will buy the B&W book.
If the art is absolutely stellar and worth paying for on its own, I might fork over the extra for the color art, but it's extremely seldom. (And if you have a crappy set of rules with beautiful color art, and a great set of rules with mediocre art, I will still buy the latter--even if/while complaining about the art.)
color
Good Color Art > Good B&W Art > Not-good B&W Art > Not-good Color Art.
That's a silly question :-P Color, of course.
I prefer good color art BUT as Majuba indicates, I prefer good black and white art over bad color art. For an example take a look at GURPS 3E vs 4E; the former usually had decent B&W, the latter has quite a lot of bad color art (some is really good, of course). I love GURPS, BTW, not knocking it.
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It honestly depends upon the artwork. Most things look better in color, but there are those lovely ones that look best in B & W.
I think quality is the main concern. weather it's color, or b&w means little to me.
Color by far, but as noted above, quality of the artwork is just as important.
I would prefer black and white if the price was significantly lower than for a color equivalent...
...but then again, color pictures might attract more players, particularly the younger ones.
Does anyone remember Ghostbusters International, by West End Games? The gaming engine was childishly simple. It was fun to read, and fun to play. And it had practically no artwork.
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In certain products, like more "old school" sword and sorcery style games, I think I prefer B&W. In more "high fantasy" games, color is more evocative of the style that I imagine, but B&W does it just fine (if not better) for some things. Big bad sorcery and such.... color. Dark, evil, subtle, gritty stuff? Black & white please! Also, bloody imagery, in my opinion, is better in B&W. We don't need to see all that red to know it's blood.
Good Color Art > Good B&W Art > Not-good B&W Art > Not-good Color Art.I agree with this, good color art is the best. But I would rather have bad B&W than bad color art.
Same.
An example of GOOD b&w art would be the content that Monte Cook included in some of his Malhavoc lines. That I have no problem with.
It almost depends on the genre. The Ravenloft stuff had some excellent and very genre-appropriate B&W art that was perfect. Somehow, it doesn't seem as if color photos wouldn have been as impactful.
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Depends upon the product and individual image and the emotion being conveyed.
But this one would not do the scene justice in BW
This one works great in BW since it was a white tiger
This one would be meaningless in BW
and ummm... just a warning if anyone goes digging down to my profile, it is NOT Safe for Work.
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Um whats not work safe? cause saying that just makes me want to look. :)
lol
THESE pics are all safe. I made sure to only pic safe pics as references. But based upon the link, you can dig back to my profile and then there are some art nudes I have done as well (seems to draw traffic to the profile). But I generally do not post my stuff here because of that. Maybe I should have just pointed to other people's work instead.