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A picture is worth a thousand words. And let’s face it, words are a commodity where role-playing games are concerned – where else would you find a term like “fluff” to encapsulate all of the text and prose that isn’t a mechanical descriptor? As players and as GM’s, we love to go on at length about various aspects of the game…unless we have a picture. Nowhere is this more true than for various characters, since an arresting image of a character is easily worth a lengthy description. And if the character in question is a beautiful woman with a spiritual aspect to her, then Sphere Productions may have what you need with Shield of Faith.
Shield of Faith presents eleven characters, all of which are sexy women. I always feel a tad chagrinned when discussing artwork which consists mostly (if not entirely) of sexy ladies, because it seems to confirm a slightly-embarrassing stereotype(s) about gamers; that said, there’s a reason why such stereotypes come into being to begin with; art of hot babes tends to sell well, after all. In this case, however, there’s an added layer of subtext to be found. It’s not too hard to figure out what it is, since the title basically admits it: these women can handle themselves in a fight while still showing so much skin – their faith is their shield.
All of the images found in this set are CG, featuring the character set against a CG background (though one or two backgrounds seemed almost photorealistic). The images are all found in a single PDF that gives each a title below her picture, as well as a final page of small counters that can be printed out for tabletop use. The pictures also come in both JPG format, displaying the same image from the PDF, and PNG format, which removes the background entirely, leaving just the girl – interestingly, in several instances removing the background changes the shading and lighting on the character, which is a nice extra.
In regards to the quality of the pictures, I was fairly impressed. Too often, CG images of characters tend to fall into the proverbial “uncanny valley” of how human they look. While I wouldn’t say that anyone’s going to mistake these girls for real people, they manage to look inviting, rather than slightly off-putting due to their sculpted nature. Likewise, the nature of the ladies is quite varied, making the set have a diversity that’s very appreciable. A drow babe, a pale winged woman, a dark-skinned girl wearing nothing but ornate jewelry, and more, the differences between the characters is a strong point, since you’ll be able to use them for wildly different people in your game. Similarly, it helps that the book’s theme is subtle, allowing it to be used outside of what’s suggested by the titles. The drow lady, for example, doesn’t have to be a priestess – she could just as easily be a rogue or fighter-type. The nature of the pics is suggested, not overtly stated.
Ultimately, I found myself quite taken with what Shield of Faith presents. The subtle thematic elements, the fact that the pics are given both with and without backgrounds, and the quality of the artwork all add up a package that is, like the women portrayed, very attractive. Shield of Faith is a great choice for depicting hot and holy women.
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