D&D Online artwork is poor

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by krunch, May 25, 2006.

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  1. krunch

    krunch moving on in life

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    I clicked on the link for the D&D Online game advertisement posted by google here on this site.

    RantTime: All I can say is that while the artwork for the Red Dragon was good, shown below, the rest of the new D&D Online artwork is poor, at best. The artistry looks like someone with real talent made the pics. But, the way the pics appear and come across with respect to Dungeons and Dragons, I would for a lack of better words to describe their pics say that the pictures are terrible. And, this is because the pictures look futuristic like in a Sci-Fi RPG, not a D&D Fantasy RPG.

    I would, however, suggest we borrow their pic for the Red Dragon, though!.. :thumbsup:

    Note: Why is a Red Dragon flying in outer space in a D&D realm? Shouldn't there be some hint in the picture to suggest the dragon is on a planet...a cloud above the dragon or a mountain peak or treetops in the bottom background [something]?
     

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    Last edited: May 25, 2006
  2. Kalshane

    Kalshane Local Rules Geek

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    The only thing that looked futuristic to me was the Iron Golem (or is it a warforged? Can't really tell.) The rest of it looked okay, though the beholder and hellhound had funky textures. I agree that dragon is awesome-looking, though.
     
  3. Lord_Spike

    Lord_Spike Senior Member Veteran

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    I guess this is something like what Bard the Bowman saw that fateful night in Esgaroth, upon the Long Lake. This is "outer space" alright...just from the perspective one sees when looking upwards into the night sky.
     
  4. Shiningted

    Shiningted I want my goat back Administrator

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    I saw an absolutely phat depiction of that once, Smaug passing by, lit solely by town in flames below...

    ... but I forget who it was by, and there are many of them ;)
     
  5. Scorched_Earth

    Scorched_Earth Established Member

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    If I'm not mistaken, isn't d&d online in Eberron? I'm not really familiar with that world but I know it is somewhat futuristic in the fact that you can play cyborg like PC's. Besides, spelljammer was in space. I'm in a pnp spelljammer campaign myself right now and that's mostly space based. With floating asteroid cities, great space citadels, and a bunch of different types of ships each with unique characteristics. Our party actually killed an old black dragon who's lair was inside an asteroid, and this is 2nd edition D&D I'm talking about.
     
  6. Lord_Spike

    Lord_Spike Senior Member Veteran

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    I think you're confusing "outer" space with "astral" space. Completely different.
     
  7. Zebedee

    Zebedee Veteran Member Veteran

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    As anyone who as ever played Shadowrun will tell you, that is a critical distinction to make. You don't want to try to go into outer space whilst in astral space. It hurts. A lot. :tombstone

    I went through pages of bad kender art to find this avatar. But that dragon picture is very well done.
     
  8. Kalshane

    Kalshane Local Rules Geek

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    Warforged aren't cyborgs. They're sentient constructs. Basically really weak golems (they don't have magic immunity, are vulnerable to critical hits, etc) with a brain. Eberron doesn't have any real high technology compared to standard D&D AFAIK but they do have more magic masquerading as technology in things like airships. I haven't played Eberron, but I've skimmed through the main book.

    Actually, he's not. Spelljammer takes place in Outer Space, though it's different from our space in that worlds are surrounded by "Crystal Spheres" and there's other weirdness going on. But yeah, it's about magic-powered starships. I seem to recall they have rules for the damage from atmospheric re-entry, which I thought was pretty silly. IMO, if a PC hits atmo without a spaceship around him he should be dead, end of story.
     
  9. Shiningted

    Shiningted I want my goat back Administrator

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    Seriously, who DOESN'T want an airship? How good was that whole 'creepy wizards who turn up in airships' bit of BG? Thats my most memorable part of the whole BG expereince.
     
  10. Lord_Spike

    Lord_Spike Senior Member Veteran

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  11. krunch

    krunch moving on in life

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    This new type of modern fantasy art just doesn't have pizzaz. To see what I mean by pizzaz, look at the eye-candy flavor of the original ToEE module art, below. It has a distinct looking feel to it.
     

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  12. Lord_Spike

    Lord_Spike Senior Member Veteran

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    So, are they more like "Data" or Frankenstein's monster?

    Unfortunate. It would have at least been less lame. No I wonder I never played it. Looked goofy then, and seems all the more so now. Aside from being 2nd Edition, which I refused to touch. The closest I ever got to space was creating an adventure where the astral plane and outer space merged in a zone where technology & magic both worked. The PC's had taken over a Githyanki outpost, and were confronted one day by several shuttle craft operated by Orion Pirates. It used the rules for Star Fleet Battles governing boarding party combat, and the space weapons from Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. The characters could have launched a counter attack & boarded the Cruiser, which intruded into astral space due to a cloaking device malfunction during combat. They fought off the intruders, & decided not to play on into a cross-over campaign...they also had a healthy respect for facing the starship's heavy weapons in a shuttle craft. I'm sure they could have made it, though. The cruiser had enough battle damage to limit it's abilities sufficiently for that scenario not to have been an automatic death sentence.

    For that matter, any pc without a spaceship around them in space should be equally dead. Unless we're talking about the space where magic works; then they'd better be able to react with appropriate protections.
     
  13. Shiningted

    Shiningted I want my goat back Administrator

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    Are you sure it was a malfunction...

    ...or were they simply able to be tracked, despite the cloaking device, because Orion Pirates come with Ranger levels?

    :jerkin:
     
  14. Lord_Spike

    Lord_Spike Senior Member Veteran

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    You misunderstand, o Shining one...the pirates had the malfunctioning cloak. But, as a reward for your effort, give this a read:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackbeard

    Quite a story.
     
  15. biobaba

    biobaba Member

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    I fought the dragon SHE supposed to be in a place called the Vault of Night. The Vault is a secret place for Dawrfs to store their treasures but then was taken over by some bad guys and the dragon.

    The dragon was indeed in outer space...."or at least some where looks like it"

    When you look down you could see an earth like planet. in other directions you can also see various planets close up. The area where you are standing to fight the dragon it looked like a "Deep Space Nine" space station.

    Though the game saysits aVault but I still think its somewhere outerspace lol
     
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