Originally shared by Zenopus Archives
Art from a 1988 Japanese D&D rulebook. Note the mustachioed female dwarf. Per Grubbiv on the Acaeum, this book uses some of the material from Mentzer Basic, but is not a straight translation. See more here:
https://www.acaeum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=16958&p=290186&c=1#p290186
Anime eyes! 😁
ReplyDeleteThat equipment list is straight up Mentzer. I saw the Japanese Mentzer Basic Box in Tokyo about a month or two before I left Japan, but my wife talked me out of buying it because she was very pregnant at the time and it would have been just one more thing to move overseas. Sometimes I wish I'd picked it up anyway.
ReplyDeleteThis was the cover of the book, from another page on the Acaeum:
ReplyDeletehttps://lh3.googleusercontent.com/HGtgwH0cL6PHeF_23r6CMKrXC0Rwa40fXQCRP7-znkgiO-qkS4YUYbb2Fa1hMh5UamkaKRNs0AxTpgMTOJpcmna3gejmpZikdps=s0
Not a criticism, but a lot of the figures look like Link from Zelda. It is an interesting take on D&D art.
ReplyDeleteLust Monster! 😂
ReplyDeleteDad would've loved those Manga babes. I am partial to the Hobbits.
ReplyDeleteJon, do you have lust monster. I think it was like a rust monster but with different tastes.
ReplyDeleteJohn Dow
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting, and reminiscent of how the Japanese animation studio behind the adaptation of Peter S Beagles blended the large eyes and character design of manga with the slightly less stylized Western look.
It is very neat to notice the influence of the original Mentzner artists on the translation's artists.
The ink heavy line shading and range of grey tones used by Elmore and Easley are what set the red box aside in the development of the game, one can only wonder how the Japanese would have translated Sutherland annd Trampier's sparser line work across the cultural divide?
(Not to mention speculation about any influence D&D might have had in the development of domestic Japanese art, similar to how it altered the face of Westetn popular culture in ways too numerous and subtle to count)
Damn, but this is super-CUTE. I kind of love it!
ReplyDeleteThe gargoyle riding a "lust monster" is definitely something I need to throw into my next adventure.
; )
"LUST monsters?!? Ohhhh my!" /george takei voice
ReplyDelete