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OTU Only: Traveller Art

How important is the art in Traveller to you?

For me, I've found that I am more attracted to Traveller editions when I like the art. Or, I should say, when I think the art "fits" my mind's eye of what Traveller should be.

The reason that I bought my first set of Traveller rules, Starter Traveller, back in 1982, is because I saw that cover art and said to myself, "Man! That's cool! Look at that..what is it? An autoshotgun? An autorifle with a flash suppressor or sliencer?"

It didn't hurt that the more silhouetted pics at the bottom, with the lens-flare flashes, reminded me of the blasters used in Battlestar Galactica--a show that I loved back in 1982 (even though it had been off the air for a couple of years).

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Then, opening the box and flipping through the books....I just love that B&W art.

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This last pic is one of my favorites of the interior art. I remember getting the boxed set, seeing that pic, and then trying to figure out what equipment the character was wearing.




After some self reflection, I realize now that art has something--not everything--to do with why I never got crazy about too many other editions of Traveller.

The box cover for MegaTraveller, I love, but I never felt the art in MT was as consistent as it was with CT.

TNE? I really didn't like that art at all. It's a completely different style. It looks...i don't know...less realistic, I guess. This was just one of many things that turned me off to TNE. Although, today, I'm a bit intrigued by the rule system--that's the reason I never sold my TNE stuff (and I have a lot of it--never played a single game).

Marc Miller's Traveller? I adopted it. I played it. I played a long campaign of it. I liked a lot of what I read inside the pages, but, man, I never liked that art. None of it was ever as cool as CT.

Traveller 20? Haven't seen a lot of that art. Did like the line drawing of the updated scout vessel quite a bit. But, the cover? Naw.

Mongoose Traveller. Never really gave it a fair shake, to be honest. But, man, don't like the art. Not at all. I don't think it fits Traveller at all.





I still like the art in CT to this day. I'll be flipping through a CT adventure or supplement, see something, and my creative juices start flowing.

The art picked for CT (at least for me) really described a lot of the universe for me, complementing the rules.



What about you?

How important is art to you when it comes to Traveller?

 
For the ships, specifically, I find that the more art exposure a ship type has, the better anchored in both Canon and likelihood of play it becomes. This is only partially a Chicken-Egg relationship, but there is feedback.

Artwork involving alien races can be the same way. Vargr and Aslan dominate alien PCs and NPC for many reasons, and variety and volume of art is one of them.
 
For me, David R Dietrick, Bryan Gibson, and Rob Caswell brought the game alive for me. Recently it has been Ian Stead and Robert Pearce. If I only had a gram of their talent. One thing I am certain of is that they put a lot of effort into their work, and it shows.
 
I really dislike the artwork in T4 which has nothing to do with the products it's used in.
 
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