Note that I wrote "overall" - of course there's been nice artwork in SR books! Bradstreet is a prime example, though most of his pics (that I know of) could've been in a CP2020 book as well as they usually showed only humans (I think there's one pic of his with an elf but did he ever draw other metahumans?) using recognizable 20th century weaponry (that is actually still in use in the much nearer future of CP2020) with smartguns connected through external wires (common in CP2020). Mike Jackson is another favorite of mine (just think Fields of Fire).

But, unfortunately, much of SR's artwork was crap, pure and simple, peaking with SR3. What irked and still irks me most is the inconsistency: I-don't-know-how-many artists all drawing in different styles - widely different depictions of metahumans (my old beef, and I know I've mentioned it often: way to small and slim trolls), people using strangely (sometimes even ridiculously) shaped guns or vehicles that you can't find in any equipment book...

CP2020 on the other hand managed to use only a small group of artists with very similar styles, at least in the books published ~92-95, resulting in very coherent artwork and, at least to me, a more coherent picture of the game world. With SR artwork I've often had the impression that the respective artist actually didn't know the game at all and didn't even ask for references.

Artwork in SR4 has been good so far with one exception: The artist, I don't know the name, who did the full-page pic opening Arsenal's vehicle chapter. His or her spikes/antennae fetish aside, his/her pictures look like drawn in 1985! Totally dated style and not even done well. I can't believe someone could be paid for such low quality! I'm a book editor myself and if any artist I commissioned were to send me such a picture I'd answer, "Well, that's a rough first sketch. When can I expect the real piece?".

One exception? You apparently haven't looked at Runners Companion much then. Page after page of metatype variant art that looks like it was trawled from some 13 year old's DeviantArt account.

Just to be clear, the "one exception" was aimed not at that one pic but the one artist drawing that weird/ugly/obsolete style in all his/her pics.

I've heard about these RC pics but I haven't seen them myself. But I can tell you that they are considered so bad by not only fans but also the German developer and crew that those pics will be the first interior artwork that will be replaced in the German printing.

As you propably know, Arsenal, Augmentation, Unwired and Emergence have different covers in Germany. Arsenal was considered to colorful and comic-like, Augmentation and Emergence just plain ugly and Unwired, while actually a cool picture, didn't fit the German cover layout (Tigger, the German developer, is reportedly already scratching his head over the German SR4A...). The upcoming German re-release of Street Magic (with Digital Grimoire included as bonus content) will also have a new cover, with no reason given.
Plus, there have been some additional pics e.g. in Arsenal 2070 for new equipment - but never replacements. Then came RC...

I got a feeling that some of the metatype artwork was made in color and then converted to grayscale, as sometimes the features of a metatype is blending with the background shade.

Maybe, but even that doesn't explain or excuse the general looking-like-assness of that section of artwork...

I cant, in all my reasoning, take seriously the statement that says the art in Cyberpunk rpg is better than in Shadowrun. Its so bizarre its ludic.

At least concerning the SR editions I know and played (all except 4th non-anniversary one), all SR corebooks art are light-years ahead of any Cyberpunk edition (2013, 2020, 2020 '93 version) in this matter. And not only the art per se, but the artistic layout in general. CyberPunk seems a product of an era where visual layout in books was cluttered, polluted, inferior, a mix of newspaper and magazines. Not the clear and concise visual layouts of the rulebooks of today.

And I wont even cite the Archetypes art, no. It would be a massacre.

That said...


True.


True, if this "more coherent picture of the gameworld" tells of a simplist comicbook/manga-like world. Good for those who like it. I dont. I pretty much prefer the more elaborate and realistic depiction of Bradstreet, Nelson, Aulisio, Laubenstein, and Zug's work.

And with me recently picking up corporation rpg, i would say i kinda like that way of doing it...

Their writeups of the cyberware and its effects are minimal, more like ads then rules, and that gives the whole thing a kind of character.

Same with when i first cracked open castle falkenstein, and found that 2/3 of the book was written as a account of someone living in the setting...

Still, ones one build up the bulk of background material that one find in SR, and have fans that will cry bloddy murder if their favorite tech do not show up in the last edition in some form or other, the books will probably take on more of a "student reference book" appearance to fit all the material in cost effective space.