Here are the first of Steve Prescott’s sketches for the Tribe two-page spreads. I really don’t have a lot to say here, Steve is truly the master of the Tribes and his beautifully designed Tribe full page pieces for WtA Revised are still a high-water mark for depictions of our Garou. Steve does point out that he’s working on incorporating the totems more fully:
Rich- here’s four that are essentially fleshed out. I ran out of
paper space and so a couple of them aren’t drawn all the way to the
feet but they’ll be included, of course.Also, I haven’t included totem animals yet – other than as motif on
their weapons or whatever. The Get guy has two wold heads on his
hammer but I can add a simple stylized wold head shape in the
background easy enough. Striders has an owl topped staff. Wendigo
has nothing so far (any ideas?!). and Fianna only has antlers on his
shoulder armor but I thought of putting a stag head either on his
little axe (running off the bottom part) or on his other shoulder
armor. Of course, I could put it as a simple graphic in the
background, too.
But, what do you folks think?
I’ll be honest, I was never very happy with the cover art for the revised tribe books so when I heard that Prescott was going to be working on W20 I was a little less than pleased.
Looking at these sketches I feel like I owe Mr. Prescott an apology. These are amazing and I cannot wait to see the finished product.
So here’s one of the cool things about the 20th Anniversary art- when I go back to an artist who we haven’t worked with for years I’m actually not sure where their art has evolved technically. Could be they’ve changed styles or techniques, could be exactly the same. So I actually don’t know where Steve is going with finishing these- but that’s a return to how things were when we first hired these guys and there’s a lot of visual magic in letting the artist free like that.
These are fantastic! I particularly like the Strider one. Extremely well done.
I’m so super excited about this product. Werewolf: the Apocalypse is a personally important game to me like no other, and it makes me giddy to see it getting the love it deserves.
We’re just getting started! Thanks!
Get and Fianna, oh my YES. Loving those. All four are great, but those two especially please me in many ways.
Glad to hear it- seems like you aren’t the only one to feel that way-
wow!!! just awesome!!!
just a question? isn’t that necklace on the fenris too much like the one the Fiana had on Revised? just wondering…
Good eyes- I’ll double-check that with Steve. Maybe they fought for it and the Get won?
The ol’ Wikipedia states that torcs came back into fashion during the Viking era, so both Get and Fianna would have them if they’re feeling cultural.
Personally, I’m fine with torcs and plenty of them all over the place. They have a great jewelry-for-the-strong feel to them.
Awesome!
And I want the Silverfangs sketches *-*
Soon.
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Wouldn’t it be nice if there could be some of the same options for this book that there was for the recent Kickstarter deal. I’d love to be able to pay a bit and get a character name in there.
Might happen yet. We haven’t worked out just how the deluxe W20 will be made available. Kickstarter, or pre-ordering tied to Grand Masquerade like for V20, or some combination. I’m guessing you’d like a KS.
To say these are amazing would be an understatement. I am very pleased to see that this edition is going to be treated with a lot of care and talent.
We’ve never just slammed an edition out- there’s always been care and as much talent as we could find. But that being said, the 20th Anniversary Editions are truly labors of love- and a lot of fun to work on!
Oh. My. God.
The art quality.
IT HAS SOARED.
Yes, yes, yes and YES! Very, VERY well done!
Thanks!
they’re just brilliant, there’s nothing much else to say.
I’ll pass that on to Steve- thanks!
Comments:
Wendigo: At first, I though the looked a bit “Mexican/South-American”, but looking at pictures of an Ojibwe, I can see it, so I’m comfortable with it. 🙂
As for how to incorporate Wendigo, well, he’s always been the toughest to incorporate in scenes for us too. How do you show an emaciated, sunken-eyed beast with an insatiable appetite for human flesh (at least by some accounts.) I can’t even find any good examples of “Wendigo Dolls” from Native Americans that could be hanging from a belt or something. Maybe a menacing shadow?
The Silent Strider looks good. I personally would like to see a little more of the “Jackal” look (sharper, longer nose?) of Anubis, but the ears certainly do give the same connection, so it’s hard to mistake it. 🙂 Then again, Garou =/= Jackals. ^.^
Get of Fenris… I am blown away by. I’m totally in love with it. It has a comic-book cover look to it, and I love the pose and attitude. I look forward to seeing how the mood of those shadows and the likes translates when it becomes colored, but I’m guessing it’ll be quite impressive.
The Fianna (other than the tartan around his chest) doesn’t really scream out “Fianna” to me, but I’m sure as soon as we see that rust-color on him, it’s going to scream much more vividly.
In the end, my only real concern is, “How will the text flow around the image with these pictures?” They seem to be designed with a full-page illustration in mind, but they all seem quite wide/square. However, if Rich decides to give each Tribe a full page spread image for the Tribes on top of Ron’s full page pieces, I certainly am not going to complain. 😀
Those sketches look very nice.
I think the wendigo could have maybe a breeze or northern lights, but they’re not entirely northern tribe as they do have kin-members among the Navajo and Apache tribes among others.
Points taken- I think we can do some sort of spirit misting around the heart- is Wendigo still a cold spirit? Could have frost and ice particles swirling around the heart- I’ll check with Ethan.
As for layout- yeahhhh. It’s going to be interesting. If necessary, I’ll just cut random bits of text. (That’s just to see if Ethan is reading my posts.) My guess is that I’ll need to get creative with just where on the page these guys are positioned and use the non-text space on the edges a lot.
Wendigo is still a winter spirit, you cheat.
These are wonderful. Truly awsome guys. I was wondering if they are going to be in colour or remain a pencil sketches. Personally I think they look fantastic as they are, with irregular pencil strokes – gives them a lot of charater. If they are to be coloured in – i hope they will not loose their appeal as Revised tribebooks covers did.
Like I posted above, we’ll just see how Steve finishes them. I do think that we can use just the sketches as they are somewhere- there is always a wonderful energy to Steve’s sketches- check out his sketchbooks if you’re ever at a con where he’s showing his work.
Ooooh, like Gen Con? *plug plug* 😉
I commented on the pics itself but to keep it short here:
I love the Get and Strider, but I am not so jumpy about the wendigo and Fianna.
The Wendigo head looks like it needs a lot of work and I do not like the whole hearts offering pose.
The Fianna looks blant. I was hoping to see the 2 faces of the Fianna. The rage when they go to war and the beautiful storytelling when at peace.
I play a Fianna myself atm and I am all about passion and that seems missing here.
Good points and we’ll talk more about the other side of the Fianna and how to bring it out.
Sweet, I really like all four of these. I’m glad the Strider doesn’t look completely like a jackal, so I hope that doesn’t change.
I’m pretty happy with the Strider’s look.
I want to thank you for pharaohbeard! Made my day!
In all seriousness, these are beautiful. I can’t wait to see these in the final book.
Glad it did! More sketches later today-
Too much Crinos, not enogh Homid and Glabro!
Nope. Sorry, Crinos is what you want for Apocalypse. In Forsaken, Uratha can only enter Crinos for short bursts, but showing off being Gaia’s chosen ghazi in Apocalypse is all about being in Crinos.
Yes, ’cause Garou do everything in Crinos– except they really don’t, because they have to care about the Veil. After more than a decade of playing these games– homid and lupus, the two non-taboo breed forms, are the forms most characters spend most of their time in.
Crinos Crinos Crinos Crinos really sends the wrong signal about the game, in my opinion. Sure, this a lot of ragey combat; but the bulk of the roleplay centers around not ragey ragey combat, but roleplay within Garou society, stuff like moots, talecraft, dealing with spirits, dealing with Kinfolk, navigating mortal society, etc. Don’t lose the human element of the Garou by focusing on Rage Rage Rage. That reduces Werewolf to the combat monkey magnet most of it’s detractors paint it as.
After having read some of Ethan’s comments: Make Fianna a homid female, since your reasoning for Fianna being Crinos was that you couldn’t decide on a male or female. You need more basic representation of females in your listed lineup, as these sketches show that all the Crinos depictions here look decidedly male.
Have her playing a flute or a bodhran or something, or maybe a guitar. Fianna are the Tribe that most prides themselves on their role as bards; you need to put some musical representation into their fullpage spread.
I’ve got two homid/Glabro females sitting in my inbox right now. Patience.
As Ethan posts, we have more sketches with more variety of forms coming- today, in fact. There is certainly a balance that we’re looking to achieve in how the Garou are depicted that needs to be in step with how folks want to play them.
I do want to say something very briefly about WtA detractors and what they may or may not think of the game: Screw ’em! This book is about the WtA lovers and fans and what they want- that’s what we’re working hard to deliver!
Finally, Ethan- what do you think of the addition of a musical instrument to the Fianna to represent the bardic side mentioned above as well?
Yeah, nuts to the detractors. If they’re gonna buy copies then they can complain, if not who cares?
The main thing I wanted to avoid in tribal spreads were characters that could have been vampires, or mages. I don’t want to see a Homid werewolf that could be mistaken for a Verbena — and no, that doesn’t mean “you put a glyph on him/her! Now it’s a picture of a werewolf.”
I’m ambivalent to the musical instrument. It leans a bit on the lines of the stereotype but I suppose better a musical instrument than a mug of beer. That said, the Johnny Cash-style metis Fianna from the Tribebook was one of the best things ever.
So- what do you think, Ethan? Harp, flute, guitar? What would be a particularly Fianna instrument?
richt: “I do want to say something very briefly about WtA detractors and what they may or may not think of the game: Screw ‘em! This book is about the WtA lovers and fans and what they want- that’s what we’re working hard to deliver!”
You, sir, have just won the internet and the respect of every WtA fan on the planet!
P.S. Steve’s sketches rock! Can’t wait to see them (and W20) finished!
I like drums. Drums are great werewolf instruments and can be played in Crinos form if need be.
Are drums particularly right for Fianna? (And I sort of figured he’s have an instrument on him, but we wouldn’t worry about the mechanics of playing it 🙂 )
Maybe a harp or guitar or something slung over the back, crossed with a sword/klaive slung across opposite, so the two form an X?
Because they depicted vampires.
[/obvious Vampire trolling]
Vampiric Trolls?
… I thought embracing Fae made “Dead Elves”. 😉
[/tangent]
Wow. It’s amazing to see how much Steve Prescott’s style has evolved in the years since he’s been working on W:tA. I have to say it’s definitely a positive change!
One tidbit, though… is it just me or does the Strider seem to have a bull-neck ? Might be the perspective, but damn, that’s one beefy neck 😛
What? The Get gets a torc but the Fianna doesn’t?! 🙁
Hmm instruments…
How about a Carnyx? Could be held or on the characters back.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnyx
Or a horn?
Also, as Fianna are known for their extreme passions i thought it would evoke that feeling if the character looked angry (which it does) but had tears falling from his eyes…as if something really bad had just happened and now he’s getting angry (like i Star Wars when Anakin finds his mother and gets angry at the sand people when she dies. Sorry about the example, it’s the first that came to mind 😛 )
Overall though, great pics 🙂
Yeah or a Dorn. They would fit the Celtic wolves even better than a lyre or lute.
Hi! I’m from Brazil and manager of the RPG Pará Portal.
I would like to translate for you guys the commentes from our visitors about the sketches.
Here’s them:
“WTF!!! This gonna be the number one in my list. I need to purchase” – gugagurgel
“I’ll create a Get of Fenris with two silver axes… UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!” – Gilson
“This book is gonna be perfect” – Dudu
“Wow!!! I was scared when announced that Ron Spencer wouldn’t be the illustrator of the Tribes. But whem I saw that sketches, I wondered by the perfection of the details of the Crinos and Glabro (remenber a lot the Werewolf: The Forsaken). I congratulate Ron and the White Wolf by the great work you are doing” – Nícolas.
Thanks, man- great to hear comments from all over.
In fact when someone doesn’t understand afterward its up to other people that they will help, so here it takes place.