The pirate lady on the Minrothad Gaz would be neat, or maybe the red box dragon.
Is anyone else displeased by our forums Icon? The other forums have Icons of Npcs that really speak of the charater of their worlds. We got that halfing terd from the last product.... Shouldn't we have a more Iconic Npc like Rad? or maybe the art from one of the Gaz? Or even a map of the known world. Or something besides that gits face! Anyone have a good replacement suggestion?
It used to be the blonde lady from the cover of Gaz1 (which I always assumed was Aleena). I think that one was better than Joshuan. No offense to the old halfling, but he cant been a girl like that
Havard
If we want something else, I suggest the image of Stefan Karameikos during the Marilenev Rebellion as seen on p. 37 of K:KoA's "Explorer's Guide". It's a very pretty picture, and love him or loathe him, there are few characters more iconic to Mystara than Stefan.
Otherwise I might suggest a picture of Haldemar, but I don't think we have a really good one. The image of the Princess Ark from the front cover of "Champions of Mystara" might also be appropriate, since it's very clearly unique to Mystara.
I might also go for the image of the Karameikan School of Magecraft (K:KoA p. 120 or Dragon 207 p.40).
Now, I realise people will moan that this is mostly AD&D stuff. The problem with much of the OD&D material is that the illustrations are not often good or else always in black and white. Some of the gazetteers have nice covers, but they don't always represent stuff well (drow on the cover of the Alfheim gaz, for example - what was that about?). The adventures seemed to use mostly recycled art. The AD&D stuff had mostly original art in color, however.
I really don't mind Joshuan so much. Sure, "Joshuan's Almanac" was crap, but I always liked Joshuan himself. That said, it is true that he is not particularly iconic insofar as representing Mystara.
Agreed on both accounts. Joshuan's not a bad guy, but representing Mystara? Sounds like he made that decision on his own ;)
If we want something else, I suggest the image of Stefan Karameikos during the Marilenev Rebellion as seen on p. 37 of K:KoA's "Explorer's Guide". It's a very pretty picture, and love him or loathe him, there are few characters more iconic to Mystara than Stefan.
Excellent suggestion!
Otherwise I might suggest a picture of Haldemar, but I don't think we have a really good one. The image of the Princess Ark from the front cover of "Champions of Mystara" might also be appropriate, since it's very clearly unique to Mystara.
I think the CoM cover wouldnt work very well since it is sort of small, but its a cool one, I agree.
I might also go for the image of the Karameikan School of Magecraft (K:KoA p. 120 or Dragon 207 p.40).
I didnt really care much for that one.
Now, I realise people will moan that this is mostly AD&D stuff. The problem with much of the OD&D material is that the illustrations are not often good or else always in black and white. Some of the gazetteers have nice covers, but they don't always represent stuff well (drow on the cover of the Alfheim gaz, for example - what was that about?). The adventures seemed to use mostly recycled art. The AD&D stuff had mostly original art in color, however.
If its gonna be OD&D art it would have to be from a gaz cover. I agree that some things there cant be considered representative, but the covers from Gaz 1, Gaz3 OR DotE would work...
Havard
People always ***** about the drow on the cover of Gaz 5 Alfhiem, but is it a drow? Can't elfs have different skin tones like humans? Maybe she just black! Some elfs are albino, can't the opposite be true?
Isn't that in the same category as dwarven wizards? Just kidding... ;)
I think of elves as always of a lighter tone than (caucasian) humans, so there would seem to be no blackskinned elves on Mystara, since the shadowelves - being the Mystara equivalent of drow - are all very pale.
That said, could there be dark-skinned elves like there are dark-skinned humans? There doesn't seem to be any particular reason why not, but then how many black-skinned humans do we see in Mystara?
The thing to remember is that in the real world we see people of all skincolours in most western societies, because those nations are multi-cultural and blend without restriction. But it was not always so. People with black skincolour tend to have an african origin, while caucasians have a european background a few generations back.
Since Mystara is still in what compares to the real world's past, there would not be such a big migration of people with various skincolours across the various nations, and Mystara usually focuses on the south-eastern corner of Brun.
Mystara does have people with black skincolour on the Pearl Islands, for example. Since the Pearl Islands are part of Thyatis, some of their people get to mingle more than most and may be seen in other parts of the empire, including the Thyatian mainland and thus on Brun. But they still are unusual in that sense. It's more "hey, they have black people in Thyatis" than it's "oh, so Thyatis has black people too".
And the Pearl Islands are far to south of most of the Known World, close to Mystara's equator. The chances of finding black-skinned people would be far greater in the northern areas of Davania, I'd imagine.
There could be black-skinned elves if they live in those areas (on Davania), but we've never heard of them, and the elves tend to keep to their forests anyway, where they would be rather protected from the sun.
I mean, the Thyatian Hinterlands are mostly jungle, and the people there aren't all black-skinned, either...
The added benefit of using one of these pics is that other gamers recognise the images just may be inclined to take a peak inside.
Roger
I agree with Marc, the icon should be a cameo if either BECMI or GAZ covers and Thorf's Gaz-style logo.
Roger
I'll add my vote to this. Otherwise I'd suggest the guy riding the dragon from the cover of the WotI Codex book.
I gotta say, though, if I was a WizO and a group of forumgoers wanted me to change their forum's icon, I'd be a lot more impressed if they sent me a precrafted 40x40 pixel JPEG of the icon they wanted adopted, and maybe a link to a forum poll showing 20-30 people all voting in favor of the change to boot. Grease the wheels, so to speak.
Roger
Shane
I could definitely dig a clip of an Elmore dragon as the Mystara forum icon. For what it's worth, cast my vote in that direction.
I gotta say, though, if I was a WizO and a group of forumgoers wanted me to change their forum's icon, I'd be a lot more impressed if they sent me a precrafted 40x40 pixel JPEG of the icon they wanted adopted, and maybe a link to a forum poll showing 20-30 people all voting in favor of the change to boot. Grease the wheels, so to speak.
yeah if people come up with a definite suggestion and we can perhaps show popular support for it then I'll push our case forward.
Cut to Stefan's face, that is...