During my days as a 3rd Edition DM I had my share of sea adventures. In the Nameless Realms there are two great oceans, the Halo and the Mardras, and both have had their fair share of adventures set both upon and under their waves. To help meet those requirements, I often turned to the WotC product Stormwrack and it added a great deal of content to each adventure.
Today I pulled down my volume and took a look at the artwork. Produced in August 2005 with art direction by Karin Jaques, it certainly seems to be right in the bread basket of WotC's vision for the future of D&D. It sticks to the traditions of the Lockwood and Sam Wood concepts for the 3rd Edition launch while also bringing more digital art into the fold. The book has some very fine shots and some that look like artists in this period were just learning their digital craft, which of course they were.
I'm certainly captivated by the cover art by Jeremy Jarvis and this shot does not completely do it justice as it actually wraps fully around the cover. Jarvis had a good understanding of movement here and the sea monster is stunning.
Inside, you find a bevy of fine artists creating smaller color illustrations including Chris Appel, Wayne England, Lee Moyer, Jim Nelson, and even Sam Wood himself. They bring a depth of talent to the smaller names that appear alongside them and on a whole Jaques did an admirable job putting this book together.
I'd also like to give a shout out to the writing of Richard Baker, Joseph D. Carriker and Jennifer Wilkes for creating a thoughtful supplement with come great additional 'stuff' for a great sea campaign.
Artistic Rating: 3.5 [out of 5]
