Common meme: Art is eating our RPG books. The number of illustrations have been increasing per page. Customers won’t buy books without a lot of art in them. And this is totally new. Didn’t used to be this way. Back in the day we were willing to buy books even if they didn’t have any art at all.
Really?
Fact check time.
OD&D White Box: 44 illustrations, 116 half pages = 0.37 illustrations per page (0.75 per full page)
AD&D1 PHB: 35 illustrations, 128 pages = 0.27 illustrations per page
AD&D1 DMG: 50 illustrations, 240 pages = 0.20 illustrations per page
AD&D1 MM: 246 illustrations, 112 pages = 2.19 illustrations per page
AD&D 1st Edition Total: 0.61 illustrations per page
AD&D2 PHB: 95 illustrations, 256 pages = 0.37 illustrations per page
AD&D2 DMG: 81 illustrations, 192 pages = 0.42 illustrations per page
AD&D2 MM: 326 illustrations, 384 pages = 0.84 illustrations per page
AD&D 2nd Edition Total: 0.60 illustrations per page
D&D3.5 PHB: 68 illustrations, 317 pages = 0.21 illustrations per page
D&D3.5 DMG: 71 illustrations, 320 pages = 0.22 illustrations per page
D&D3.5 MM: 203 illustrations, 320 pages = 0.63 illustrations per page
D&D3.5 Total: 0.36 illustrations per page
D&D4 PHB: 67 illustrations, 317 pages = 0.21 illustrations per page
D&D4 DMG: 48 illustrations, 221 pages = 0.22 illustrations per page
D&D4 MM: 208 illustrations, 288 pages = 0.72 illustrations per page
D&D4 Total: 0.39 illustrations per page
Exact counts may vary. (For example, I didn’t count the 23 illustrations on pg. 21 of Volume 3 of the White Box depicting various types of construction as separate illustrations. I just counted the whole pageonce.) But the conclusion is self-evident: The number of illustrations per full page in D&D’s core rulebooks has actually decreased over time. If we want to talk about black-and-white art vs. full color art or the merits of border art, let’s have it. But RPGs have been art-rich literally since day one.
“But, Justin,” you say. “That’s just D&D. What about Traveller? The little black box practically had no illustrations at all!”
True. The original Traveller black box only has 3 illustrations in 150 half pages. On the other hand, the relatively recent Shock: Social Science Fiction has 3 illustrations in 90 two-third pages. Books that feature stark, austere layouts haven’t exactly vanished off the face of the planet.
Now, if there is one trend that has appeared in the last 20 years its the technique of putting a big piece of art behind the text. And I think we can all agree that this technique should be taken out into the desert and left to die.
But if you want to complain about how much gosh-darn art there is in roleplaying games these days?
Check your facts.
Many, many thanks for doing this research.
It would be interesting to graph out, by publication year, the ‘per page’ stats to see the trends…
As I’ve said elsewhere, I question your numbers, because I counted in the PHB 3.0 (I never picked up 3.5) and came up with an even hundred, not counting map diagrams, and counting collections of weapons as one illustration per page.
Counting the number of pieces of art per page is worthless by itself IF you are trying to evaluate the amount of art in RPGs over the years.
I will give an exaggerated hypothetical to make my point. Suppose one book has .30 illustrations per page, and another has .25 illustrations per page. Judging from that, one might (incorrectly) assume that the book with .30 illustrations per page has “more art.” But is this really the case?
In this hypothetical, the book with .30 illustrations per page contain only small, 1/8th page illustrations, and the book with .25 illustrations contains only full page, highly-detailed illustrations. In such a situation, who is going to seriously try to claim the .30 book is “more art heavy” than they .25 book?
Of course, anyone comparing the books in question will see that the art in the 1E books tends to be MUCH smaller and less detailed than the art in 4E books. And then compare the art to text ratio in 1E vs. 4E. But you already know all this, as it has been pointed out to you before.
Would it make more sense to calculate the square inches of art on each page?
This would include page edge stylings, etc., though.
I think the central point holds. The quality of art has gone up (although I loved the cartoons in the AD&D 1E DMG) but I am sympathetic to the idea that the number of illustrations hasn’t greatly changed. Even if the 3.0 PHB had a 100, it would not be a vast change over time. Heck, the 2.5 PHB looked pretty densely illustrated as well.
That being said, I find the 4th edition artwork has some tropes that I am not always delighted by. Essentials, on the other hand, seemed to be a step back in the right direction.
I’m one of those people who will probably get lynched for saying that I don’t like the OD&D/AD&D art. I don’t even like B/X. I’m a big fan of BECMI and AD&D2, and like a lot of the 3/3.5E stuff.
At the end of the day, though, I don’t play the games for the art. It is pretty rare that I pull out the MM and say “You’re fighting something that looks like this,” and I don’t ever recall a time when I used art in the DMG or PHB in game. Sure, the art helps the reader not get bored (I have a hard time with art-free rule books), but at the end of the day, it doesn’t impact my gaming all that much.
@cwhite: Nothing wrong with a preference. I’m the reverse… I hate the more recent art in the D&D books, but I would have to agree with Joseph, above, that the overall quality has gone up over time.
The publishing year is important, as well. Color art in a AD&D book, for example, would’ve been incredibly expensive. The rise of digital printing (which is the real reason for the rise of PDFs) must’ve been an incredible cost saving jump.
I find the idea of complaining so much about “too much” art bizarre- really, it’s excessive white space (touted as an advantage by many proponents of early run 4th edition products) which I find infuriating.
Good art, I find, can really communicate a sense of momentum and tone which words cannot always equal. and evoke more thoroughly than any DM primer “this is what the adventures in our game are supposed to be like.” The chapter primers in the new Pathfinder book, or even the old black and white imagery of Star Wars D6 envision a variety of scenarioes, settings, and endeavours rather than just strait dungeon hacking/stormtrooper slaying.
What I do miss is 90s era products often had short fictional extracts that were meant to inspire and teach about adventuring in a setting. I imagine these were widely deplored as wastes of space, and only a few products use this method to any great extent anymore, but I thought those also could sometimes tell you more about a game or a setting than any passage of straight rules or DM advice.
AD&D PHB: 31 artworks, covering 9 pages of 128 (7.0%). ~130k words at 1100/p.
3e.5 PHB: 81 artworks, covering 28 pages of 317 (8.8%). ~320k words at 1100/p.
4e PHB: 78 artworks, covering 30 pages of 317 (9.5%). ~200k words at 700/p.
There is more art, and it takes up more of the book, but the big change came with 4e’s (and later 3e books) growth in white space and font size. If 4e had the same fonts and page usage, it’d only be 200 pages, and then it’d be 15% art.
More art? Maybe not, but far less content in 4e for what art there is.