Using art in your games & stories

Imagine you are playing a game. You need to describe something to your players:

“you see this fuzzy creature ahead, it has these two fluffy things on tope of its head wich could be ears or something. You can see its many teeeth and it has a long tail. The thing has four limbs with claw like hands on the end” and so on and so on.

Now imagine doing that for every creature they encounter but have not identified or know the proper name for.

This is , for some, not a problem. But for other, trying to give a description of something like a creature can be hard, especially when you say one thing, but the players imagine something else.

So how do you get around this? The easiest way is rather than describe, to show them a picture. The above description was a simplified version of the creature below.

(Click for full size “monster” by tigon on Deviantart)

I’ll bet that what I described was not what you imagined.Why is that? Simple answer,my description was not up to scratch. Lets say I had to describe the above monster in detail.How long would it take. 5 minutes maybe to give you an accurate description? Or you could simply show them the above picture and describe the creature’s actions.

Over time you can build up a portfolio of images. It doesn’t have to be limited to just monsters. It can be for plants, cloud patterns, or even weapons. If I said you to that an orc was charging you with a chakram in his hand, without googling it, would you know what it is? (Click here to find out).

If you have skills with image manipulation you can even alter the images you have to change the colouration. Using the monster above as an example, you could change the colouration to red, signifying it was either a mutant version or maybe a leader of the species. The possibilities are endless.

Below are some good locations to look for artwork. Bear in mind that some sites will be more suitable for certain types of artwork when compared to others.