And yet more PHB pics

Again, I didn't realize just how much artwork was in the Players Handbook.  Art in the early D&D versions was important.  There was no Internet. There were no smartphones.  The publishing industry itself, like much of the commercial sector, had not exploded into its vast and sprawling dimensions that exist today.  A huge Barnes and Noble was inconceivable then.  Except for Walden's Books in a shopping mall, most book stores were still rather tiny affairs.  Outside of major cities, the choice for obtaining publications was, compared to today in the post-Amazon world, extremely limited.

And so a game based on using your imagination needed some visual aids.  Even if some might lament the artwork as the beginning of canonizing what certain things were supposed to look like, the art was still important.  Especially for those, like me, who came into the hobby from outside the 'fantasy/wargame' circle.  Many things referenced even casually in those books would have gone over my head.  I hadn't discovered medieval history, and didn't care much for fantasy, so I couldn't have understood some of the references (see my post about the Wight and how I imagined it the first time I heard the term).

And in terms of helping, the PHB actually has many great pieces.  Today, thought I'd slip in a large collection found through the spells section.  Since I didn't play spell casters, ever, in any game I was involved with, I didn't usually pay much attention to this large hunk of the book.  But now, being the DM, I've been forced to read up on the different spells.  I already mentioned a couple pics from the section. Here are the others.

This little gem sits at the beginning of the section.  It's sort of a hodgepodge of different images.  Nothing altogether special or imaginative.  A ghost, dragon on a perch, Quasit on his shoulder, and something really, really scary in the background.   Sort of a composite mural like the Monster Manual cover.  But unlike that bulky and patchwork piece, this one works.  Perhaps it's the  black and white, or the arched window bathed in moonlight.  The wizard is well drawn, and the all important tome carries with it that feeling of a large, almost intimidating, medieval codex.  For whatever reason, though, it invokes a feeling of spell caster delving into forbidden arts in a dank, dark corner of the castle, or monastery, or other such structure.  And for the section it is introducing, that's all it needs. 

Two Magic User spells.  Shield and Dancing lights.  The shield pic almost has a sense of comedic, with the sneering imp, again on the wizard's shoulder.  The detail is first rate, and the small trinkets and tiny accessories dangling from the wizard's outfit adds depth.  That's one effective shield spell, by the way.  

Underneath is the Dancing Lights spell.  On one hand, the picture doesn't really convey the usefulness of this  spell.  We can see they are only lights, not torches or anything we might be fooled into thinking.  On the other hand, it shows what the spell does do.  Perhaps it looks fake now, but once it goes further down that dark staircase, whatever is at the bottom will imagine a torchlight procession and spring the ambush.  Because it shows exactly what the spell does, it works.  

Black and white, pen and ink, sometimes have their benefits.   Sometimes, however, they are limited.  And some of the spells would be difficult to visually convey in the best of circumstances.  Mirror Image and Massmorph are two such spells.  Just try to visualize in your own mind how they would work.  And then with the limits of the medium at hand, attempt to show it in a book.  I don't think these two attempts are horrible, they just fall short as probably most attempts with such restrictions, and at such a point in history, would have done. 

That's Leoumund's Secret Chest.  Not overly inspired, but it does show an otherwise uninteresting little container appearing extremely valuable to the individual portrayed.  I always wondered if that was supposed to be the famous Leomund himself.  

Neither cleric nor druid spells account for many illustrations.  In the cleric's case, it may be the more defensive, and miraculous, nature of the spells.  Cecil B. DeMille aside, it isn't easy to wrap one's brains around miraculous occurrences.  When we do, we usually fall short of what they really are, and because of that, tend to dismiss them outright.  The sole cleric spell illustration was the already referenced Locate Objects.  The Druid doesn't do much better.  Here are Fire Trap and Warp Wood.  

The Fire Trap illustration is so-so.  Yeah, he's in it now.  He opened what shouldn't have been opened and something bad has happened.  The problem is, there's a disconnect.  Is he just shocked?  Scared?  About to get scorched?  This picture was almost there, but nto quite.  The Warp Wood, on the other hand, nails it  That's what Warp Wood does - it warps wood.  Though almost tucked in a bottom corner and easily missed as nothing but decorative bordering, the illustration does an excellent job of fleshing out the spell description.

Another 'blink and you miss it' illustration.  Those are insects.  And while I wouldn't want that bunch coming at me, I'm not sure it captures just how horrible the spell is supposed to be.  The spell is in the process of forming.  Yet I can't help but feel the picture sells short the spell's effects. 

One of only a couple Illusionist pics.  Illusionists themselves have always been a tough sell, and quite frankly, I've had a hard time managing illusionist based spells.  My most effective was when my party went through a haunted manor home for an October Halloween themed (and timed) adventure.  Otherwise, they've been tough to get my head around.  This illustration for Demi-Shadow Monsters, different in style and presentation than most of the spell illustrations, somehow works.  No particular monster from the books (a devil perhaps?), it still suggests 'shadow' as much as monster.  But getting that into a verbal game description, now there's the challenge.

We're getting into higher level Magic User spells with these.  In my Greyhawk world, magic is rare, mysterious, and suspicious.  Higher level spells for any class are difficult to come by.  Some are practically non-existent.  So I don't have to worry about these for a while.  Still, they are a good contrast.  The top one, Shape Change, doesn't really show the spell.  It shows a big, nasty, fanged frog jumping at a sprite maybe?  We're to assume it's a shape changed Magic User.  The frog that is.  Or perhaps the sprite.  Or maybe it's both.  Not a bad illustration, but it doesn't tell enough.

The other is Otto's Irresistible Dance.  Spells and formulas that made people dance unwittingly go way back, and old Otto might just be based on one of those legendary examples.  Here, however, you have an almost childish portrayal.  That's an Umber Hulk.  What is really a big, bad, terrifying original creature.  Here, it looks downright goofy.  Not because of the dance, but because of how it was drawn.  I think it would have been more effective had the Hulk been better detailed, then the dance's effect would have been better.  As for the characters, I've never figured out if the fellow in the front is pondering what he sees, or holding back the giggles.  Either way, it's not the most inspiring of the pics, though it does do the important job of showing what the spell actually accomplishes.

That's Gate.  A demon, probably a Balrog Type VI demon.  That's what Gate does.  It summons demons.  The pic doesn't really show the Gate in action.  There are no inscriptions on the floor or in the crossroads with dragon's coils flashing across the sky.  There's just this.  A demon.  That's what Gate does.  Who uses this at all but to summon demons?  If my Greyhawk world is low in magic, it's high in superstition and in its connections with the supernatural.  Everyone is always trying to summon demons or devils, because that's how you get some of the biggie spells.  Especially the Wish granting Arch Devils.  Wishes don't grow on trees in my world, not now in its present era.  So you have to climb a mountain, cross a sea, or summon something either gracious enough to bestow a wish, or diabolical enough.  And remember, if you try, this is what you'll see.

A fitting end to the Spell Pics section. It illustrates the Write spell, an odd spell that seems to be a way of dodging the rules based restrictions for accumulating spells.  It's a fine illustration, tucked neatly away at the bottom of the page.  The barely discernible runes or letters, some form of an illustration, perhaps a hand.  It does nicely, and invokes that notion of an arcane tome possessing some form of ancient power.  And that, kiddies, is just what all this magic stuff is about in the first place.