Treasure Tables is on hiatus as of December 13th, 2007 -- after two years of daily posts, I needed a break. If you're looking for GMing material, I have two recommendations: the hundreds of posts in TT's archives, and my new project, the multi-author GMing blog Gnome Stew. Happy GMing! -- Martin

Character Portraits for Your Game

Sun. November 27, 2005 

PC Portraits Online Archives hosts images from the old PC Portraits feature in Dragon Magazine.

They work for NPCs as well as PCs, and some could even be used in genres other than fantasy (post-apocalyptic, for example).

More posts about: NPCs, Online Resources

Comments

9 Responses to “Character Portraits for Your Game”

  1. Eternalknight on November 27th, 2005 2:22 pm

    Yep, they have been used quite extensively by my group :)

  2. Frank Filz on November 27th, 2005 6:31 pm

    I’ve not made that much use of character portraits other than a very rare artistic player. I did use an image I found once for a GURPS Supers character. Oh, and of course Everway…

    I think one thing that has kept me away from them is that you can’t easily use both miniatures and stock portraits since they won’t match.

    If you used counters, it would be easier to use the same artwork both in large scale on the character sheet and in small scale or heavily cropped on the counter.

    Oh, another reason to avoid character portraits - the games I enjoy have complex enough characters that the space a portrait would take on the character sheet is too valuable for game stats.

    Frank

  3. Lilith on November 28th, 2005 1:30 pm

    Hey, I’ll do somebody’s character portrait. It’s fun! Yay!

  4. Martin on November 29th, 2005 7:32 am

    (Frank) Oh, another reason to avoid character portraits - the games I enjoy have complex enough characters that the space a portrait would take on the character sheet is too valuable for game stats.

    For my Selgaunt campaign, we used the PCs’ counters as their portraits online — they didn’t appear on the sheet, but we still got good mileage out of them.

    Lilith: That’s a very kind offer — I hope a TT reader takes you up on it! :)

  5. Frank on November 29th, 2005 9:36 am

    Martin - that’s certainly an excellent use of character portraits.

    Another way one could use them is on a tent card in front of the player on the table (which of course would also have the character’s name which would help remind some of the more forgetful folks).

    Frank

  6. Martin on November 29th, 2005 10:49 am

    Frank: That’d be handy for an exceptionally well-prepared convention GM, too.

    In most of the con games I’ve played, the players make those little tents before the game starts. Having them pre-made — and with nifty portraits — would be a pretty cool thing to do.

  7. mcv on November 30th, 2005 5:24 am

    Nice collection of portraits on that site, but I rarely use character portraits. And if I do, I make them myself. (I have a very nice one somewhere of a windling troubadour I used in Earthdawn.)

  8. Martin on November 30th, 2005 11:00 am

    mcv: If you’ve got the time and the talent, drawing your own portraits sounds like the way to go. :)

  9. mcv on December 1st, 2005 4:52 pm

    Time is the main problem, I’m afraid. I could really use some more of that.