A Question for the Ladies
So yesterday I talked a lot of trash about, depending who you ask, looking women in the eyes, Conan, roleplaying, or Michael Jordan. So today I want to return to the topic of women in RPG art, but with a different focus and much less from me, Mr. Mouthy.
Ladies, what RPG covers (or interiors) have you seen that involve a woman in the art that make you say, “I want to play that” or, just as good “I want to play her.” Or that make you feel like it is a game you could like, or be included in by a group of guys you’d never met and whose maturity you didn’t neccisarily know?
In other words, can you name for me (with links when possible) RPG art of women that has not just been passable but has actually attracted you to the game?
(Yes, guys, I know we have opinions too. For this one post keep em to yourselves. This post is inspired by Mary Wollstonecraft who many years ago suggested to the mouthy men that if they wanted to know what women thought they should 1) ask the woman and 2) shut up and listen.)
So ladies?
Okay, that’s an interesting question, which caused me to go on an impromptu survey of our gaming shelf, because I couldn’t, off the top of my head, think of any particularly inspiring art. Our rpg collection has been severely culled over the years, and of the ones that survived, it’s interesting to me that most of them are games with symbols on the cover: Ars Magica, Nephilim, Changeling, Everway. Call of Cthulu has Cthulu on it, and Nobilis and Kult have abstracted human figures. Of the rest, nearly all have men doing stuff on the cover.
The exceptions are Exalted first ed., HeroQuest, The Shadows of Yesterday, and Spirit of the Century. None of which feature characters I’d want to play, although, apart from TSoY, I don’t find them overly sexualized or offensive (TSoY’s woman is wearing some really unfortunate, ill-fitting bikini-rags).
I do kind of like the woman in green armor, who is in the background of the Exalted First Ed. cover, and more prominent on the gm screen:
As for interior art, I’ll have to go looking. I do remember liking some of the old WoD art, but hating some of it, too.
Crap, that image link totally didn’t work. Howabout I just give the link: http://www.diversions-online.com/catalog/images/exalted%20storytellers.JPG
Heh. The Roseblack (woman in Green Armour) was one of the few that I could think of off the top of my head, too.
I also looked in the book, and found this awesome illustration with her: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v738/peaseblossom101/exex1.jpg
It’s a little busy, so I mucked with it a bit here so you can see her better: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v738/peaseblossom101/exex2.jpg
Look at the size of that sword! Ahem.
The only illustration I could find that I can remember actually inspiring me to play a character is this one: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v738/peaseblossom101/chex1.jpg Honestly, there was no way I was going to not play Changeling anyway, but the art did help.
Oo! I’ve got one! I love the cover of “Amber Diceless Roleplaying.” She’s powerful, she’s clothed (in fascinating stuff!), she’s pretty, she’s not triple-D… And the painting is just plain well-done. And there’s a lot to consider in it.
Oh, and I remembered while driving down to a party yesterday: The cover of “Dogs in the Vineyard” is actually pretty awesome. She’s surly and suspicious, and she has a cool coat. She reminds me of a cool girl I gamed with in high school.
Oh yeah! I meant to put her in too.
Hmm. The Roseblack was one, and while I never wanted to play Harmonious Jade, she weighed in to persuade me I might want to play Exalted. Although it takes a lot of effort to get past the noses, Artesia has a cool cover, and some kickass art. I frequently liked the women in Tribe 8. There were also a couple of kickass girl pirates in 7th Sea, and some of the noblewomen, even if the majority of women in the book are in corsets (which is sexy, but could have varied out more).
Oh! And Unknown Armies has some neat stuff. Like the woman on the cover of Hush Hush.
I’ll start by (cheating and) pointing to two sourcebooks for licensed settings: The Black Company RPG (Green Ronin) and The Authority RPG (Guardians of Order). Then I like the nation sourcebooks for 7th Sea by Therese Nielsen, such as Avalon, Vodacce, and Eisen. I can also think of many books with interior art I liked in its depiction of women, especially the old Jeff Laubenstein and Janet Aulisio art for Shadowrun 1 & 2 and Earthdawn 1, and the Brian Snoddy art for L5R 1. But finding covers with good female characters is a bit harder.
Just a heads up, I liked your idea so much I turned it into a meme. I’m collecting posts on this thread, so if any of y’all have your own space (blog, livejournal, website, whatever) and want to participate make sure to submit your link!
This is a great question with some great responses. You should try it out at Gamer Chicks Rule, and you might get even more responses - http://www.gamerchicksrule.com/