Probably one of the most important elements when choosing a game is its rules system. However, artwork plays an equally important part in immersing the player in to the game itself. Excellent artwork helps convey characters, situations and adds to the overall enjoyment of the game. I see it much like how decent special effects nowadays in films help with a dramatic and believable action scene.

The following artists are some of the best I’ve seen. Some of you may agree or disagree and I hope that you’ll pass on your thoughts in the comments section below.

Steve Argyle (www.steveargyle.com  / Deviant Art Profile: steveargyle.deviantart.com)

An artist I admire simply for his skill in creating some seductive fantasy females. You can find his artwork in WIzard of the Coasts products such as Magic the Gathering. This talented artist already has a growing following in amongst digital artists

 Innistrad – Magic The Gathering – Steve Arygle

Larry Elmore (larryelmore.com)

A name which goes hand-in-hand with classic Dungeons and Dragons. His artwork inspired generations of fantasy artists and his paintings for D&D are incredibly iconic such as the cover of the Red Box starter set back in the early 80s. Artist Ralph Horsle recently did the updated Redbox art in 2010 which was directly inspired by Larry’s original masterpiece.

 Classic Red Box Cover Art – Larry Elmore

Check out these other D&D artists:-

Keith Parkinson  - www.keithparkinson.com/main.php

Clyde Caldwell - www.clydecaldwell.com

 Advanced Dungeons and Dragons – Clyde Caldwell

Paul Bonner (www.paulbonner.net)

Paul works exclusively in water colour and has provided art for Rackham, Games Workshop and FASA in the past. Bonner’s paintings are incredibly detailed and contain rich narrative inspired from folklore and legends. He still works for GW on a freelance basis and creates illustrations for World of Warcraft.

Paul Bonner

Mario Wibisono ( www.mariowibisono.com Deviant ART Profile: raynkazuya.deviantart.com)

Oriental flavour to the proceedings with Mario’s exquisite fantasy art for AEGs Legend of the Five Rings CCG and RPGs. His digital artwork offers a dynamic realism which is quite unlike most artists in the industry I know of.

Honourable Mentions

Franz Frazeta (frankfrazetta.net)

The Grandfather of Fantasy Art and not necessarily table top games artwork . His excellent reputation for me comes from his work on Conan which supplied the template for most artists when approaching fantasy artists. Again, ‘pin up’ style women with equally buffed up strong men were the staple. Frazeta’s work portrayed the brutally and romanticism needed to bring Robert E Howard’s Conan world alive. Frazeta died in 2010 but left a huge legacy of work for future artists to admire.

A more refined version of Castle Ravenloft, which was the first in the groundbreaking series of the D&D boardgames from Wizards of the Coast.

You select a scenario (or download or make one up yourself) and set up the dungeon tile decks based upon that adventure. It’s pretty much a build the dungeon as you go along type of game. The tiles deal with it various encounters and monsters. The game can be played both solo or with a group of friends. The trick to this game system is that the monster cards provide a certain behavioural pattern and this allows them to have their own sort of A.I. The card artwork is pretty plain, but the tiles have a nice feel to them reminiscent of old GW Dungeon Floor Plans series.

Mostly an enjoyable set of figures to paint. Great detail to them. A great tip for those with crooked figures is to dunk the figure in some boiling hot water. This will reset the plastic. The horned devils I had in this box were so bent over that they were almost leaning onto the tabletop. I put them in a jar of hot water and watched them reset to an upright position. I then rinsed the figures in cold water. I have to admit that I did find the multiple of the same figures a bit of a chore towards the end (3 snakes, 3 kobolds, 3 cultists,…)

Overall, a good tweak to Ravenloft in terms of better treasures to help you out and somehow the monsters don’t feel like they are endlessly generating and swarming you. After punching out all the tokens, I found that I couldn’t fit things back in the box again. I purchased a deck pack to keep the cards in and to free up some space in the box for the minis. Another good tip is to get hold of those smaller sized ziplock bags. They come in really handy for keeping the tokens in. Some have gone an extra step and gone for the Plano boxes with separated compartments.

Easy game to get into and the reference card holds your hand along the way when you start your first few games. Longetivity could be thrown into question once you have exhausted all the scenarios in the pack. Some of the smaller adventures can be played in around an hour. The specialised rooms help break up the usual explore, encounter monsters, fight monsters routine. I can only imagine Legend of Drizzt will further enhance the variety.

Buy Wrath of Ashardalon here

You might think Role playing games are a huge part of the video game market. Final Fantasy, Mass Effect, World of Warcraft and Elder Scrolls, just to name a few. As exciting as these games are, you don’t really have full control your character, and what happens to it. In a limited way you can choose how to respond in some games according to what the programmer has coded into the game. You constantly hear about artificial intelligence in these games yet the best intelligence is the human mind.

This is one of the reasons that table top role playing games (RPGs) are still a large staple of today’s entertainment industry. Most of the games are based to some degree on Dungeons and Dragons, which is essentially the patriarch of the role playing world. Dungeons and Dragons (or D&D), is a game that you get to choose your character, its skills, and how you can build your own personality. Designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Ameson back the Seventies, the D&D brand has certainly endured over the decades. Now published by Wizards of the Coast and in its Fourth Edition, D&D was streamlined into an accessible game for us curious folk. Hardcore fans may baulk at the suggestion of condensing rules but if it means more people exploring D&D and other role playing games, who am I to argue with that!

The game is run by a Dungeon Master (DM or Games Master in other cases), who lays out the story of what happens in the game. The Dungeon Master will tell you what happens, and then players can choose whatever they want to do. A player must describe his or her response to any given situation. For instance, if the Dungeon Master tells you that you see a dragon, and you want to try to teach it to play fetch, however ill-advised that may be, you can do that. (Or at least try). While you will probably end up with your character burnt to a crisp, at least you had the option to try your crazy idea; good luck getting a video game to let you do that! So with role playing offline so to speak, the player gets almost full control of his or her actions.

In most table top games, the success or failure of actions is determined by a roll of the dice. There are a set of rules defined, usually in a set of guide books, that determine what numbers equal failure, and what numbers equal success. For example in D&D, using the basis of a 20 sided die, when you try to throw a stick at the dragon, if you roll a one, you will drop the stick on your foot; if you roll the maximum 20, you will successfully entice the dragon to chase after it. This is a simplified version of events but it illustrates the significance of rolling your dice well. Failure to do so could be the difference between life and death for your character!

The success of a good game is essentially down to the Dungeon Master. This person must create a great story (or choose one of the hundreds of pre-made ones sold) which is played through the game session. The DM must also think about the story tone and when to add drama to the way the story is told. The DM usually plays the non-player characters that inhabit his or her world to draw the players in. They can add character voices, music and visual handouts to spice up the adventuring experience. It is truly a social gathering where the DM will ‘host ‘ the perfect story telling party. The most important thing is that DMs should not necessarily let the evening get bogged down by rules but allow it to flow organically through the players. Role playing games can be tremendous fun when done right and no, you don’t have to dress up like your character either!

There are tons of table-top RPGs being designed including ones around popular series like: Battlestar Galactica, Buffy, Star Wars. Warhammer RPGs and Doctor Who. In addition there are RPG worlds for vampires, werewolves, and even downright evil zombies. If you enjoy RPGs, chances are, there’s a role playing game out there for you. To play, you need like minded people and there’s plenty of clubs around cities that offer RPG, Board gaming and Card Gaming sessions. Here’s a resource to find out where in the UK: http://botw.org.uk/Games/Role_Playing/Clubs/.

Resources

• The ultimate Dungeon Master’s games room: http://www.acaeum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8714
• Wizards of the Coast: http://www.wizards.com/DND/