A Bit More On The New Fire

Image by Ryan Lord

This is one of the numerous, lavish images in Jason Caminsky's New Fire RPG, which is set in the pre-Columbian Aztec world. My hardcover full-color copy of the game arrived today; the art is just amazing to behold. The artists really did their homework, but I suspect they also received strong, focused art direction from Mr. Caminsky.

The artistic feel of the book is quite unified. There are three types of illustration:

• Individual portraiture for important character types (for example, the illustrations of Eagle and Jaguar Warriors)
• Scenes (such as the one pictured above depicting a battle) as well as many depicting common aspects of everyday life (e.g., chinampa agriculture, temple interiors, modes of transportation, the Patolli game, and the Mesoamerican ball game)
•  In-culture illustrations such as might be found in one of the Aztec codices

The three types of illustrations work together to convey how the world looks and how people saw it themselves. This is also reinforced by many small details in how the book was arranged. Each text box providing additional context on the game world is bordered on the left by a Vision Serpent, a very classy and appropriate touch that promotes immersion.

The details help one get inside the culture. I also like the fact that on page178 all the glyphs for the day signs are arranged in a column with their corresponding English name just to the left of the glyph.

More to come as I start reading the book