Yeah, same here. Don't even get me started on Vancian casting and spell stacks. I was so frustrated with the whole thing I ended up reading Jack Vance's "Tales of the Dying Earth" just to see where the hell it all came from.

Turns out it makes sense in a SF-fantasy book, but not so much in a pen & paper game. Guess some people never learned not to add up apples with oranges.

Caveman batman XD Not surprising since he is way more interesting than that other supposed protagonist.

I really like Diterlizzi's art. He actually recently released a book of his RPG art, for D&D as well as some others. Link: https://www.amazon.ca/Realms-Roleplaying-Art-Tony-DiTerlizzi/dp/161655732X

I recently encountered this guy's work. I really like it: http://www.petarmeseldzijaart.com/

Fantasy art is in a pretty bad way these days. It drives me crazy whenever I see another book cover which is basically just a model or two in a cheap "fantasy" outfit standing rigidly in front of some fictitious city or a dragon or something. Absolutely no sense of movement or dynamics of any kind.

Excactly my sentiment.
There's no sense of wonder or excitement, just some LARPers dressed for Cosplay, and all in 50 shades of brown.

What do you think of these pictures from Warhammer Fantasy:

Empire vs Warriors of Chaos:

https://i1.wp.com/nivelul2.ro/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/1-104.jpg?fit=1920%2C1200

High Elves vs Dark Elves:

http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammerfb/images/2/23/Warhammer_High_Elves_Sundering.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20161105090156

Dwarfs vs Greenskins:

http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammerfb/images/7/72/Orcs-VS-Dwarfs-1440x2560.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20150718232846

They're ok, I think I like the Dwars vs Orcs one best. They're not as good as most of the others mentioned here so far, but that may be just my impression- I never liked Warhammer's style all that much. It's funny, I always liked Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay a bit more than D&D in terms of rules and gameplay, but in terms of the mood, the art and all that stuff I always liked the high adventure of D&D much more. Which is why when I run a game it's usually Warhammer rules but with a very not- Warhammer style adventure :D

Oh, some very nice artwork there. Really good. And yes, that thing about book covers- pretty much exactly my point. Walking around the fantasy section of a large book store used to be a awesome experience in itself, now it's almost sad most times.

You know, when I was looking for examples for my first post I found this site with supposed "worst covers" and I though immediately that they are really not that bad most of them. Some are even ok, and even the bad ones are at least interesting and weird. They are something, not some bland stock photoshop.

yes i understand what you're saying - in the 80s and 90s art was at its peak with good movies, good music etc. but now it's all about the cash, keep it in a stash, some niggers talk shit with they ass - i see through em LIKE GLASS! :-/ you still mad at me for some shit i did in the past... you don't like me at first?! i'mma grow you like a rash! in dis rap shit i got it to smash, i'm build to last, feel the wrath i bust that ass... SIT BACK AND LAUGH... :'(

Yeah, that's what I call art and not that photoshoped shit we see nowadays.

Some game covers:
Hard Nova
Ishar
Ishar 2
Ishar 3

Luis Royo

If you really dig that kind of stuff, you should directly head to a good second-hand bookstore as they generally have a good range of old novels with art covers and they sell it for the price of a postcard so it's cheap to "collect" them (naturally you'll need some free space in your house). Coz in the end it's better to have the real stuff in your hand rather than recalling them on the web.

Attached picture: a fresh photo of my books for the sake of example.

On the left you have the classic 80's fantasy style with some influece of "Conan the Barbarian" for the looks of warriors. It's also amusing that in this era, the term "fantasy" was still underground in France so it was sold in the sci-fi ("science-fiction") collection.

In the center, two sci-fi books with the upper one with the typical 80's heroine look and the lower one is the classic "Neuromancer" by William Gibson (the current covers on Amazon are boring)

On the right, there are two books from a famous French pulp criminal novels series but those editions from the early 70's are the best because the covers were all done in an old-school style (reminescent from the 50's magazines) by the same artist. I have nearly all of them just for the sake of art (and because they're fun to read too ^o^)

I agree. I always liked the fantasy art in the old AD&D 2nd edition handbooks which were exactly in this style. Here is one of them for example.
No, I believe that is the one that was supposed to be the cover for Golden Axe III but was replaced with a very similar but different picture from another artist before release.

I laughed when I saw the picture titled "Mothers Love" though. I immediately recognized it as the cover art of Eric the Unready. I didn't know that was by Vallejo too though the style should have tipped me off immediately. But that site only has pictures of his art which they have for sale so it is far from complete. The cover from Dragon Wars wasn't there for example.

Oh, I go to used book stores all the time. I buy a lot of books, and most of those are second hand books. When I can get a nice looking edition of a Arthur C Clarke novel for a fraction of the price of some new crappy looking book by an author I don't even know (but the blurb on the back assures me he has a lot of likes on facebook!), is it any wonder I choose the second hand stuff?

Sadly, the used bookstores market is dying over here. Bookstores have been closing one by one for years. There used to be so many in my city I could visit a different one every day for two weeks within walking distance. There's only a handful left. The used books market exists mostly on the internet now, on eBay and it's local equivalent. Which is useful, yes, but it's not the same as hanging around real stores and shelves full of those books.

I was always a fan of the concept art in the Warhammer rule books, more the line drawings then the coloured stuff but some of that was good too.


This is one of my favourites though. And [url=https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/15/4f/2e/154f2ea657dd0cc6383380bf0ad40b77.jpg]this


I have to say I'm not really a fan of most old style fantasy book covers...I always felt they were a little goofy and generic, especially when half the time they had nothing to do with the contents of the book..