Archive | March 12, 2013

The art and illustration used in role playing games is, as it has probably always been, a contentious subject. Everyone has their favorite icons and it’s going to be hard to find 100% agreement anywhere. That said, the art and illustration issue still needs to be addressed.

As I reviewed recent Traveller products, like Zozer Games’ somewhat-ballyhooed Orbital, I began to shudder at all the use of Poser and Photoshop-type artwork. It is, sadly, ubiquitous in the current OSR Traveller scene. The art produced for the Mongoose Traveller series is, at best, forgettable and, at worst, lamentably boring. If it wasn’t done using a cheap computer program, then its total lack of any discernible charm or personality indicates that it might as well have been.

Is this really the best we can expect?