Art and Design Feedback - Last Stand of the Dream Gaurd

[cyancqueak]

Last Stand of the Dream guard is a tragedy adventure for @6d6Fireball It’s nearly done, so here are some art previews, on which I’d like some feedback. Does my intention come through? Is the art tragic and/or dramatic?

As the characters are toys, it made sense to use a sprue to represent pieces that should be put together. This also mimics the way 6d6 2nd Ed builds characters from component parts.

The fourth phase of the adventure is about the enemy trying to break into the character’s stronghold. This image is a colourised version of a street art that said “shattering” to me. The text is placed so that it is breaking onto or through the page.

Here, the microbe menaces the text into the bottom right corner. In phase 5 the enemy are every closer and their number are innumerable. I like how the microbe both crowds the text but there’s still white space on the page.

A simpler graphic for phase 6, in which the final attack begins before the sun rises. We’ve gone for a literal graphic to represent the phase title.

In the end, we come to Dawn and the Aftermath. The flag is upside down to unsettle you and make space for the text in the lower third.

[Radmad]

My gut reaction is that the gritty/graininess of the chargen and phase 4 pages clash with the high clarity/photos of the next chapters. I think either can work for communicating a message, the grittiness can show a pain and suffering to the text, while the photography and stark graphic design of phase 6 can communicate an unyielding reality, something that can be struggled against with no hope for change.

Seeing as majority of the art previewed gives me the latter feeling, I would lean towards replacing the earlier art with more photorealistic images: instead of fuzzying the sprues perhaps increase the contrast so that the shadows become sharp and deep. For phase 4 perhaps replace the street art with an actual photo of shattered glass + red filter.

Just my 2 cents, I would love to hear more about your intention and how close I was to grasping it.

[Nickwedig]

The shape of the flag in the last image visually reminds me of the famous map of Napoleon’s campaign (which has been called the best infographic ever made): https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/29/Minard.png/1920px-Minard.png

Which seems to tie thematically into the game, what with it being a doomed military campaign as well.

So it reads as dramatic and tragic to me, for that reason. But I don’t know if anyone else would make that connection in their head when seeing the image.

[cyancqueak]

When the layout was started, a grainy, reduced greyscale was selected but as the work progressed, more imagery was found that worked better when sharp and at a full greyscale. I’m gonna chat with my collaborators about switching fully to sharp.

[Chall]

I like the sprue for the character creation graphic. However, maybe find one that has humanoid parts? Like something from a robot model kit. The graphic itself suggests I’m building a vehicle for my character, but not the charter themselves.

It is, however, otherwise evocative, as are the other graphics. Other than than what I commented above, I think they’re fine choices.