Free RPG Day poster art is a homage to Luise Perrine's RQ2 cover

[MOB]

The Quickstart for the new Chaosium edition of RuneQuest will be released on Free RPG Day 2017 (Jun 17).

Andrey Fetisov's art for the official Free RPG Day poster is a homage to Luise Perrine's much-loved cover for the classic 2nd edition of the RuneQuest rules:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MOB]

Here's a better look at the Free RPG Day poster art, by Andrey Fetisov:

[Mankcam]

Very cool !!!

[BigJackBrass]

That's superb. 

[Pentallion]

Dang, she's got some choppers.

[Noita]

1 hour ago, Pentallion said:

Dang, she's got some choppers.

Been making plenty of offerings to the Grain goddess. She's long limbed too, looks tall. As mentioned elsewhere a very pulpy feel. It's grown on me. The Rock Lizard looks like a man in a rubber suit from an early godzilla tv show.

[M Helsdon]

 

Both good pieces of art, but of the two, Luise Perrine's is the more practical, with possible padding under the helmet and armor, and extra protection exactly where the design of the cuirass makes it most vulnerable. Her cuirass is also of a more practical length.

Rummaging through the scrolls at the local Humakti temple, the following was stated in one:

Despite numerous pictorial representations (mosaics, wall paintings, erotic Imtherite cheese boards etc.) to the contrary, the armor worn by female warriors differs from that of males only in basic shape. The shoulder-to-waist ratio and the outlines of the torso will be different but padding under armor reduces apparent gender differences.

Cuirasses including breast-shapes, or conical breast-plates worn with scale or mail, are impractical because armor is designed not only to protect from blows but also to deflect them. Pronounced breast-shapes increase the likelihood that a blow will slide towards the center of the chest, striking directly at the most vulnerable organs.

Such armor may be worn in ceremonies and parades but not in battle, unless the wearer is more concerned with appearance than survival.

Pictures of Yelornans and other ‘amazons’ wearing only hemithorakion half-armor are also the product of the artists' fevered imagination.

8-)

 

Edited March 15, 2017 by M Helsdon

[JonL]

I like the angle of view more in the original, but I love her posture in the new one. She is poised to wreck that thing.

[Sayerson]

Another from the same artist.,

[M Helsdon]

14 hours ago, Sayerson said:

Another from the same artist.,

Apologies to the artist, but: Some serious problems with the warrior's elongated anatomy, the armour, and with the composition. A creature as large as the leaping/falling lizard will, at best, knock her off her feet due to its mass and momentum. An image a faction of a second later would show the warrior crushed under the weight of the lizard.

Edited March 16, 2017 by M Helsdon

[g33k]

6 hours ago, M Helsdon said:

Apologies to the artist, but: Some serious problems with the warrior's elongated anatomy, the armour, and with the composition. A creature as large as the leaping/falling lizard will, at best, knock her off her feet due to its mass and momentum. An image a faction of a second later would show the warrior crushed under the weight of the lizard.

Actually, because of the "freeze frame" nature of the piece, we can't tell WHAT the lizard's momentum IS:  if she did a duck-and-roll forward, under the beast, and it were leaping forward... that could work (maybe, depending on the apparent "grip" it has on the shield).

Also, we don't know what rune-magic she may be wielding.  Maybe she can withstand the impact, even fling it off her...

[Yelm's Light]

If its momentum is horizontally-directed, she could simply duck and possibly get a shot at the (soft?) underbelly.  The attitude of the body looks more to me like the down side of a parabolic leap, though.  In that case, I'd prefer a side- or backstep to a duck-and-roll, especially if our toothy friend could get solid purchase on the shield.

(The rock lizard, that is. )

And I prefer the more classical-era sword to the guarded one.

Edited March 16, 2017 by Yelm's Light

[M Helsdon]

5 hours ago, Yelm's Light said:

If its momentum is horizontally-directed, she could simply duck and possibly get a shot at the (soft?) underbelly.  The attitude of the body looks more to me like the down side of a parabolic leap, though.  In that case, I'd prefer a side- or backstep to a duck-and-roll, especially if our toothy friend could get solid purchase on the shield.

She's going to be dinner - squashed canned dinner.

I suppose I should explain what detracts from the larger image for me:

The anatomy isn't convincing, the figure being 'nine+ heads' or so in height, more reminiscent of fashion art than fantasy; the armour is wrong - almost form fitting (the cuirass extends far below the waist limiting the range of movement of the wearer, the greaves and helmet are too 'tight' for any padding, and having armour without padding over bone (be it skull or shins) means that trauma will be projected directly to the bone, with unpleasant consequences - RQ helmets like real-world helmets would include some integral padding, and if her hair is braided up as padding there's no room for it under the helmet) with an awful lot of ornamentation which will guide instead of deflect blows with a sword or spear; the sword doesn't seem to be connected to the hilt; the beastie appears to be dropping from the cliff above, and the warrior simply won't be able to withstand the weight. It's a bit like assuming that if a cow or horse was dropped down on you, you'd walk away.

The smaller image is better, because it fixes or disguises some of the problems. 

Now, as general fantasy art, it isn't awful; the use of colour is effective.

So I'm perhaps being pedantic, but RQ is the game that was almost called Limb Quest for the gritty nature of its combat?

Of course, it's ultimately a question of personal taste: both Chris Achilleos and the late lamented Angus McBride have produced excellent artwork, but even when illustrating fantasy, McBride's armour was more realistic. For that matter, Mark Smylie's Artesia comic depicted armour that was increasingly accurate and realistic when the decision was made that nudity would be depicted when and where necessary for the story, and as a result after the first issue or two, when characters wore armour, they wore the entire panoply, without bits left out...

Edited March 16, 2017 by M Helsdon

[M Helsdon]

Here's a piece of fantasy art by Angus McBride. For him, there's a fairly high fantasy quotient in the armour, but the bell cuirass worn by Penthesilea isn't unrealistic.

Edited March 16, 2017 by M Helsdon

[metcalph]

4 hours ago, M Helsdon said:

She's going to be dinner - squashed canned dinner.

Not necessarily.  The creature could be lighter-than-air for example, like a living balloon.  

[Richard S.]

7 hours ago, M Helsdon said:

She's going to be dinner - squashed canned dinner.

Casts Strength

[soltakss]

On 3/16/2017 at 8:45 AM, M Helsdon said:

Apologies to the artist, but: Some serious problems with the warrior's elongated anatomy, the armour, and with the composition. A creature as large as the leaping/falling lizard will, at best, knock her off her feet due to its mass and momentum. An image a faction of a second later would show the warrior crushed under the weight of the lizard.

That is clearly the "Before" picture, the "After" picture might have her crushed under the rock lizard.

In any case, casting Strength or Great Parry would ward off most of the effects of a jumping rock lizard.

[M Helsdon]

10 hours ago, Richard S. said:

Casts Strength

Strength may be a variable spell, but I doubt it would help very much against a falling SIZ 30+ lizard...