Last month I received a free PDF copy of Mythic Design’s Adventure Art Issue #1 as part of a Twitter contest. In exchange for the free PDF, I simply had to promise to write some things about the product.

The 20-page PDF consists of 13 pull page drawings, 12 single-character sketches, plus one scene of two characters facing off. They also use two pages to give some flavor text called “Initiative Intros” for each image. For the Dungeon Master these would serve well as the initial descriptions of these Non-Player Characters.

Overall, the art is gorgeous, and the characters have enough interesting details to help plant some interesting ideas if I were to use them for a PC or NPC sketch. These details also aid in making a character more than simply “an elf with a bow” or “a dwarf with an axe”.

Over the years I’ve probably played more dwarven characters than any other race, so I found the cover image particularly interesting. It shows a tattooed dwarf removing a plain mask, while a dog stands alertly next to him. If I were to use this as a character, I would make him either a ranger or druid, though he might also work as an arcane caster of some sort.

While this is a gorgeous product it’s not the type of thing I would have purchased for myself. When playing my games I generally use miniatures, and even if I wanted to use images in this way, there are enough free images available from online sources.