Columbob said:

Yes, there is.  Technically, they're called Onoit (onoits?) in the Terrinoth setting.  I suppose they could still be referred to as "halflings" by most people and the term "onoit" is their native name from up north or something.

Pete C said:

I recently picked up Tomb of Ice expansion and the artwork reminds me a lot of the Talisman artwork back when I was playing Talisman 2nd (or 3rd, don't recall) about 15 years ago.

Like I stated before, I love the new art style. It really brings the game up to date and with the times. I do a lot of web design at my job and that includes re-skinning out dated websites and the art work certainly needed a revamp. Don't get me wrong, love the old art style but that was D1e.

I've only played a couple games of Descent 1.0, but am familiar with the FFG proprietary  fantasy world Terrinoth and own Dungeonquest, and this seems to fit well with that - but more modern, refreshed, clean etc. Keeping in mind this FFG fantasy setting has always been characterized (at least to me) by the use of mostly clean, bright, primary colors. IMO, the characters look the same as in 1.0, but with more dimension; they look equally 'cartoony' to me - just with more light/shadow contrast - kind of like they have a japanese anime style influence maybe?  I've always felt they decided to go with an aesthetic that a younger demographic would relate to…why not try to reach a wider audience i guess

that being said, i've never really liked their aesthetics and prefer something like Rackham's Aarklash universe much more, with its dirt/grime and less saturated colors.

I'm curious. Where did you get this info?

Steve-O said:

This info, that is.

The Dread Polack said:

I believe that they got it from Runebound: Frozen Wastes expansion.  If you go to the http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/Runebound/rb_fw_rules.pdf you will just have to type in the word and it will do the searching for you.  I hope that this helped. 

I like the new cartoonish depictions of the heroes exempting the backgrounds, which are just blue, yellow, etc. behind the hero. In the original they actually looked like they were questing in a particular setting and were more in action. Also do not like the lieutenant drawings. Not menacing enough.

This artwork gripe is in the similar vein as my original gripe with Wiz-War's art, which ends up being an unimaginably fun game to experience. So long as Descent 2e is so much fun to play, the art as it is now accomplishes its job.

The Dread Polack said:

Ravenstorm nailed it, at least as far as this particular discussion is concerned.  The name "onoit" comes from a culture of halflings described in the Frozen Wastes expansion for Runebound.  The fact that Okaluk and Rakash is (are) a hero from Tomb of Ice forges a thematic connection to the northlands.  Also, it can't just be coincidence that the only halfling hero in D1e has a wolf for a companion and the Frozen Wastes talks about how the Onoit have forged a symbiotic relationship with a race of sentient wolves named the Ulfen.

A while back I sat down and milked all the games in the Terrinoth setting for every drop of fluff I could find and compiled it all in a single document.  The onoit are just one of the fun things that dropped out.  That document is currently available on BGG, if you want to take a look at it.

I'm still debating on whether I should incorporate the new fluff from D2e into that document or start a new "2e" document.  Lots of things are changing now, but then again, lots of things also changed with Runewars and that didn't cause me to reboot the fluff docs. =P  Fortunately, that's a decision that can wait until I actually own 2e to be made.

Steve-O, I know for one that my OL would love all of the fluff info.  He is not the best with just coming up with campaigns, so he likes to have some more background info to aid him.

thumb up for new art style

I also dislike the new artwork, or more specifically,m the art direction.

Seriously, who thought it'd be a good idea to have 3 heroes in the almost exact shade of turquoise? The first thing I notice is the color. Descent 1 had a nice, varied palette for both heroes and monsters. Descent 2 seems very drab and uninspired in comparison and forces me to be creative if I want my set to look good and more or less true to the artwork. Sure, I could just invent my own color scheme, but I don't like my hero cards to clash with the minis :)

Personally I think it's a smart and very calculated choice by FFG. It's very WoW-esq, which is never a bad thing. "What's an essentially free way to get the attention of a crap-ton of people? Well we have to do art anyhow, how bout my evoke WoW player responce with art that looks alot like WoWs? Great idea, ship it!" - Unnamed FFG exec to unnamed FFG Art director, 2011-2012.

I certainly don't hate the new art style (far from it), but I definitely prefer the art in 1e.  It's got the old-school fantasy feel I grew up with.

 The color palette isn't very pleasing to me, it seems limited. Overall though I expected a 'fresher' approach to the art work this time, as someone else said it might bring in a wider audience. The backgrounds, or lack rather, bothers me. I miss the feel of the 'caught in action' look that the old hero cards had. The villager tokens are my biggest gripe though, specifically the male side. Maybe I'm not as educated on hats as I should be but I feel like it's from a completely different time period/world than Descent V2 seems to be set in.