I Like Things Black & White

It is ironic, really, that under normal circumstances “life” would be intruding upon my “RPG time” but now that my circumstances are anything but normal, “RPG time” seems to want to intrude upon “life.” That I am writing this at all is an indication that my less than normal circumstances are less dire, but I certainly do not have the time to make this a habit, yet.

There are several things that have wormed their way into my attention: Dwimmermount, Basic 5e, various controversies and a survey by Frog God games asking me for my opinion on whether or not they should go full color or not. All of these have made me feel nostalgic and I have occasionally pursued the blogverse. Therefore, I found a nice little piece at Hack & Slash On the Visual History of Illithid that allows me to, somewhat, easily address the last of these issues.

You will find an interesting comparison of Githyanki art by Russ Nicholson:

and Wayne Reynolds:

Whereas one can lose yourself in the Nicholson piece, the Reynolds piece is a bit, well, boring. This, despite all its cool color, detail and action.

Given Frog God Games’ interest in going Full Color, I got to thinking. I found myself wondering why I find that the static pose and details are better in Reynolds than in Nicholson, but I want to look at the Nicholson art, not Reynolds. So I decided to see if it was the color that got in the way (BTW, for a more philosophic take on my opinion about F/C vs BW art look here). So I did a little Photoshop on Reynolds and found this:

Yes, the color did get in the way. Suddenly, here is an illustration that seems to move. It draws me in and I am trying to fill in details of why, where, what and how. I am sold.

Black & White is what dreams and fantasy are made of.

The Feast of St. Prokopius and an Update

Today is the Feast of Prokopius the Great Martyr, for whom this blog was originally named and as I did my morning prayers early today I was reminded that I have left this particular area of my life fallow for quite some time. For that I apologize (especially to those who have encouraged me or tried to get a hold of me and fell victim to my shortcomings despite my best intentions).

The reality is that I haven’t been playing or much thinking about playing for the past year. Medical issues have plagued my family. I had to go through some physical therapy (nothing serious) but my daughter is currently in a hospital two hours from home and will be there for the foreseeable future. Thus, when my schedule is dictated by driving to and from the hospital to be at my daughter’s bedside all the while supporting the rest of my family, playing any kind of RPG let alone maintaining a blog about it really doesn’t even show up on life’s radar.

I pray one day I will have the time and freedom to return to this part of my life, and will be especially interested in how the landscape has changed in the meantime.