This entry is part 4 in the series Priorities Of Graphic Depiction

This post has taken a lot longer than expected, delayed by medical testing that was like a black hole sucking in time. And there’s more of it to come, I’m afraid…

The story so far…

This is the third in a set of mini-posts that I’m writing and publishing as quickly as possible, something I’m calling a mini-blitz. My normal publication schedule will resume at the end of the series.

Each post will examine one of the specific image categories nominated in the first post of the series, dividing them up into strata of commonality.

The goal is to define a set of policies, processes, and principles that use the game value of the result to define how and how hard it is worth searching for a particular image within each category / strata combination.

Image by Felix Lichtenfeld from Pixabay. It’s even scarier at a larger size!

Monsters and Encounters

‘Monsters’ have a commonality, in game terms, proportionate to the danger level they pose. In fact, in an RPG (regardless of genre), increasing rarity equals increasing deadliness.

There is even a level above the uppermost tier of commonality where you are dealing with named and discrete individuals, which are better treated as unique NPCs. In D&D that’s individuals like Beelzebub and Odin, Hercules and Tiamat.

Encounters are a little stranger, since monsters are already covered. Weather events are dealt with in the Effects category, NPCs are in the People category, environments are in locations – there’s not a lot left.

Or is there? There’s a lot of ground between the basic level of danger represented by the bottom tier of “Monsters” and nothing at all; in fact, in some genres, almost everything will fall into that category. Deer, birds, bees, sheep, cattle… So “Encounters” is being used as a label to reference “ordinary” animals (and plants), while “monsters” is being reserved for creatures that are the products of the collective human imagination.

Encounters

With that determined, I can look more closely at the commonality strata as they apply to these different categories.

Mundane Encounters

are

  • the small creatures – birds, small lizards, rabbits, mice, and the like;
  • small fish (did you know that properly-cared-for goldfish grow 1/2″ every year and can get to 14-16″ in length?); and
  • insects.
  • And most plants – grasses and bushes.

These creatures don’t add much Game Value in and of themselves. What they do is add a living, active, ingredient to the landscape in which they appear. If you need such an illustration, it should be judged as a Location image – at least under most circumstances.

There are a few exceptions to bear in mind. The first is where there is some additional plot relevance to the animal’s appearance. The second is where the animal is somehow out of place, which lends additional significance to the very fact that the animal is where it is.

For example, recently in the Zenith-3 campaign, I used a very picturesque Elk in the middle of ‘town’ to illustrate how small and decentralized the community in question really was. A second example is the (forthcoming) appearance of a toucan in flight in the Adventurer’s Club campaign, which (in combination with some other images) should suggest an environment teeming with life.

The examples show that there can be plot value in such images by virtue of the impressions that they suggest to the players, but outside of such purposes, they have very limited utility. If you can make valid use of an image of this type, they tend to be fairly easy to find, permitting you to select the image that adds the maximum value to the campaign.

Common Encounters

The contents of the Encounters category begin to diversify markedly in the Common sub-category.

  • small creatures that are inherently dangerous – some frogs, snakes, and so on – and
  • larger creatures that are not so dangerous – goats, sheep, deer, etc.

This also includes

  • the smallest dinosaurs (up to, say, 1 foot in length);
  • apes up to the monkeys,
  • mid-sized fish – up to the size of trout, salmon, and barracudas;
  • and any plants that are shorter than a person, including those smaller plants that can be considered exotic or dangerous (Venus fly traps, orchids, etc) – which complete the category.

These are a bit of a mixed bag in terms of Game Value – some can be quite high, others not so much. Aside from the dinosaurs, you should have no trouble finding what you need, so rarity is not a real consideration.

Let’s deal with the exception noted above. If you do an image search for “small dinosaur” you will be presented with a few options; opening the source page of one of the results should give you the scientific name of the species that has attracted your attention, and an image search for that specific variety of dinosaur will usually yield a better range of results from which to choose.

The impact of the creature on the plot should guide your decisions; if the creature is not significant, you can usually live without the illustration. Exceptions are the same as for the Mundane variety of encounters. As a general rule of thumb, and to state the obvious, the more dangerous the creature is, the more likely it is that the encounter will be significant to the plot.

Specific Encounters
  • …start with the mid-sized hunters – eagles, hawks,
  • jaguars and most of the big cats,
  • wolves, wolverines, etc,
  • all the way up to and including alligators and crocodiles;
  • And the really big herbivores, including elks, moose, elephants, hippos, etc.
  • Most dinosaurs also belong in this category, all the way up to multi-ton plant-eaters.
  • The larger apes, excluding the really big ones (gorillas, orangutans) are also part of this category, as are
  • fish up to the size of dolphins.
  • and plants that are bigger than a person and shorter than a house. That includes virtually all the fruit trees, vines, etc.

Basically, anything that’s left that isn’t in the fourth subcategory, below.

As you can see from the listed contents, these creatures tend to be a lot more attention-getting and potentially quite dangerous (at least in most game systems). That makes them much harder to ignore, from the perspective of the players, and that translates into a high Game Value for an illustration (from the point of view of the GM).

In D&D, these are the sort of encounters that you use to let the PCs blow off a little steam without doing much to reduce the emotional intensity that has built up. Used in this way, the image has considerable Game Value.

I would be prepared to spend 5-10 minutes ferreting out an image for one of the encounters on that list. Maybe less for the fish, depending on the Story Value. Not that it should take that long, as most of these images will be broadly available. In fact, in many cases you may find yourself spoiled for choice.

Unique Encounters

Any animal that can’t be ignored, even if you are in a safe place.

  • Raptors, T-Rexes, etc,
  • Lions, Tigers,
  • Gorillas, Bears, arguably Rhinos,
  • Kangaroos and Cassowaries,
  • Great Octopi and Giant Sea Squid,
  • Whales, Sharks, etc.
  • Plus trees taller than a house.

Everything said in the last section holds true for this category except for the last paragraph.

Some of these have loads of images to choose between, but there are some that are surprisingly hard to find. You will either strike gold very quickly or you will need to get creative. And that won’t be as easy as it sounds in some of these cases.

Monsters

Attitude counts for a lot in this category, as does sentience, because it allows creatures that have more tools at their disposal than they are endowed with by their nature..

Mundane Monsters

Anything small than a man in weight that is not intelligent.

While a few examples, like Blink Dogs, may have sufficient plot value to justify an image search, these will be rare exceptions. More often, the depiction in your monster sourcebook will be as good as anything you can find online.

Common Monsters

Anything up to man-sized that is intelligent, and anything that can be considered inherently magical that isn’t in one of the two higher tiers. Like Unicorns.

It’s far easier to find interesting images online for most creatures in this category, and that (coupled with obvious plot relevance) yields obvious Game Value that justifies a search.

These include some of the favorite choices of subject matter for many artists. Which brings me to a useful tip: adding the words “fantasy art” to your search term can open up whole new worlds of results for your inspection, as can adding the words “concept art”.

Specific Monsters

Anything man-sized or larger that isn’t in the fourth category, excludes anything that is not considered sentient. That’s all your Ogres and Trolls, Ents and Elves, and a great deal more, besides.

Unfortunately, these are less popular as image subjects, so the increase in Game Value is matched by a decrease in image availability. Accordingly, you will often be in for an extended search of 30 minutes or more before you find anything useful. Fortunately, those image search tips offered in the previous section are still valid.

Unique Monsters

Beholders, Dragons, Mind Flayers, and anything of similar cache. Like the top tier of Encounters, these are the creatures that can’t be ignored, even if you think you’re in a safe place with respect to them. That would also include your higher-type Demons and Devils, of course, and Djinn, and Greater Elementals.

These are all creatures that should be treated as top-level NPCs, but often aren’t, even by experienced GMs.

On top of that, anything special brewed up by the GM as a featured monster – like the menacing Halloween creature used as an illustration at the start of this mini-post – also goes into this sub-category, which suddenly seams almost bursting at the seams.

Some of the most popular subjects for fantasy art occupy this category, but that can be a mixed blessing; two artists can have different visions for the same subject that are wildly incompatible. This can completely undermine the verisimilitude that justifies the image search in the first place, if you aren’t careful!

Sometimes it can be more valuable to do the image search first and create the encounter second, drawing upon what you find for inspiration.

Next: Vehicles!



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