Let's start with some Wayne Reynolds Paizo stuff. With a big, stronk waman, hearing her roar. Cool dragon, though.
Quite honestly, this art was probably associated with some trance mix I was listening to or something, but I like this superimposition of some scenery with big, exaggerated stellar elements in the sky, like moons that are hundreds of percent larger than real life, and galaxies, and crap like that. Cool stuff. I wish our sky looked that cool.
Barsoom! The banth killer! That outfit looks really, really uncomfortable in the snow. Yeah, yeah—the naked people running around is part of the gratuitous appeal of Barsoom (especially with the Frank Frazetta illustrations) but they don't dress like that at the poles, even in Warlord of Mars which takes place about half at the north pole.
I'm not quite sure why cyberpunk is so Japanese, but Japanophilia and cyberpunk both peaked at the same time in the 80s, so maybe it was just an accident of timing. Anyway, here's futuristic cyperpunk Japan, I guess.
Because I prefer the plots of spy thrillers and crime novels to those of typical fantasy save the world quests and certainly to dungeoncrawls, this kind of stuff is right up my alley. The Godfather and Robert Ludlum in a fantasy setting. Layer in some Lovecraft and Stoker and we're good to go.
More cyberpunk and more Japanese symbols on the signs. I wonder if in the 80s we thought Japan was going to take over the economy or something. Certainly it seems much more likely now that China is poised to do so, although of course China's economy is actually rather fragile.
Another stronk waman! Sigh. It's a nice picture, but c'mon. As much as people bleat what they're told by their brainwashing to bleat, the reality is that feminine women are attractive, as are masculine men. Masculine women and feminine men are at best off-putting, at worst contemptible.
The world can always use more great ghost stories.
I'm not quite sure what's going on here or why that guy's running, since he doesn't seem to be in imminent danger of having junk dumped on his head, but this is still a really cool picture.
More ghost stories, in specifically D&D milleu.
Some Warhammer art; some of the death angels of Nagash's army attacking a big monster of the ogre kingdoms army. Or maybe the new Age of Sigmar equivalent, but I can't be bothered to relearn the names.
When ghost riders in the sky come down out of the sky...
See what I mean about feminine women and masculine men? Although this is a slightly foppish interpretation of Solomon Kane. James Purefoy's interpretation in the movie, although not exactly canon compared to the stories, was still excellent. Purefoy is not a traditional pulpy, square-jawed type of hero, but he seems competently masculine enough to pull it off.
I liked him as the crown prince in A Knight's Tale too.
WAR's new Paizo GM's guide cover.Stronk waman again. Sigh. Although she does appear to be the villain here.
WAR's new Paizo Bestiary cover. Love that undead dragon, and the morlocks or whatever they are are pretty cool. The snakeman is OK. But I'd rather have had the dragon with some heroes, honestly. I know, I know—bestiary covers just need the monsters. But as a work of art specifically, I would have prefered the ghost dragon with some heroes.
A reminder that fairies are not really very nice. I haven't given a lot of thought to my otherworldly cosmology since I wrote the following many months ago, but here it is again, slightly edited: "I had earlier kept Faery apart from the world as an excuse to not really have elfs or dwarfs running around; but after reading the Feywild chapter of 4e's Manual of the Planes and having it remind me strongly of Jim Butcher's take on Faeries, which of course, is closely based on Celtic folklore about them, I'm rethinking that strategy. Elfs and dwarfs (and every other type of faery) will not be appearing as player character "protagonist" races, but as monstrous foes, they work very well. There won't be any Elrond or Galadriel or Legloas, there will be King Oberon, Queen Titania, the Erlking, etc. Although I don't love calling them Sidhe, which is an Irish word that actually means "mound" (the full title is Daoine Sidhe or the Aes Sidhe, or people of the mounds) there aren't a lot of alternatives that are sufficiently well-known that they work as well, so I probably will anyway. I'd prefer to go with the Scottish equivalent, because I'm much more partial to the Scottish over the Irish, but that word is Sith. Although pronounced [shee], no native English speaker is going to see that and think of anything other than Star Wars. I do wish that the older pronunciation of Sidhe (sheathuh) was still in use, but it's not and most people wouldn't recognize it anyway.)"
Another minieature; this one isn't specifically supposed to be a ringwraith, but in point of fact, it sure as heck looks like one.
More ghosts from Games Workshop.
And finally, the big old ghost chariot, or coffin wagon, to be more specific, although it works as a chariot. I want to do something with this image in my setting, but I'm not sure what. Some local haunt or something or other is betting to look like this.
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