THE FUTURE IS FULL OF TERRIBLE PEOPLE

Mutants. Mercenaries. Psychic experiments. Corrupt investigators. Street samurai. Sinister businessmen.

Humanity may have reached the stars, but it has brought all its bad habits along for the journey.

Brad McDevitt Stock Art – SciFi 4 provides 25 science-fiction TIFF files, representing 24 distinct illustrations, for publishers, writers, game designers and Games Masters who need professional artwork without commissioning every piece individually.

The collection is particularly well suited to gritty science fiction, cyberpunk, space opera, dystopian futures, post-apocalyptic gaming and settings populated by heavily armed people whose employment histories would not withstand serious scrutiny.

The artwork is available for use in personal and professional projects, subject to the terms of the attached licence.

INSIDE THE COLLECTION

The supplied files depict:

• Astronaut’s Doom

• Cybernet Samurai

• Espionage Guy

• Military Image

• Mutant Children

• Mutant Woman in colour

• Mutant Woman in greyscale

• Primitive

• Sexy Street Samurai

• Sinister Suit

• Space Station

• Thug in an Alley

• Thug

• Thugs Arguing

• Vampire Thug

• Winter Trek

• Ten Punks

• Aristocrat

• Bad-Ass-Looking Guys

• Biker Chick

• Corrupt Private Investigator

• Mutant Catman

• Psi Experiment

• Sci-Fi Horror Header

• Sinister Business Guy

That gives you soldiers, criminals, spies, mutants, investigators, cybernetic warriors, social elites and several people who should not be permitted within fifty metres of a functioning airlock.

SCIENCE FICTION WITH DIRT UNDER ITS FINGERNAILS

Not every future is made from spotless corridors, elegant uniforms and serene people discussing humanity’s place in the cosmos.

Some futures are built from overcrowded stations, corporate corruption, genetic accidents, military occupation and desperate people carrying weapons they cannot legally afford.

SciFi 4 is particularly useful for projects involving:

• Cyberpunk

• Space opera

• Dystopian science fiction

• Science-fantasy

• Post-apocalyptic settings

• Galactic crime

• Espionage

• Military science fiction

• Psychic powers

• Genetic mutation

• Urban decay

• Science-fiction horror

• Independent role-playing supplements and ’zines

Use one illustration to complete a character description or draw upon the full collection to populate an entire criminal district, space station or unstable colony world.

SAMURAI, SOLDIERS AND SPIES

The collection contains several figures suited to violent or covert professions.

The Cybernet Samurai and Sexy Street Samurai can serve as mercenaries, corporate enforcers, assassins, player characters or members of a futuristic warrior caste.

The Espionage Guy might be an intelligence operative, private security specialist or somebody whose official identity bears little resemblance to the truth.

The Military Image provides artwork for soldiers, officers, authoritarian governments and campaigns where the difference between peacekeeping and occupation depends upon who issued the press release.

These figures can support:

• Corporate warfare

• Covert operations

• Military campaigns

• Assassination missions

• Street-level cyberpunk

• Criminal faction play

• Political thrillers

• Adventures involving people who communicate primarily through gunfire

A strong character image can imply training, attitude and history before the reader encounters a single statistic.

Sometimes the illustration confirms the character you have already written.

Sometimes it tells you that the character should be considerably more dangerous.

MUTANTS AND EXPERIMENTS

The future is rarely content to leave the human body alone.

The collection includes Mutant Children, two versions of the Mutant Woman, a Mutant Catman, a Primitive figure and a disturbing Psi Experiment.

These illustrations can represent:

• Genetic engineering

• Radiation exposure

• Alien contamination

• Psychic experimentation

• Deliberate human modification

• Failed supersoldier programmes

• Post-human communities

• Laboratory subjects

• Survivors adapted to hostile environments

• Entire populations abandoned by respectable civilisation

The Mutant Children may be victims, predators or the first generation of something genuinely new.

The Mutant Woman could be a player character, fugitive experiment or representative of an altered population.

The Mutant Catman might be a hybrid soldier, engineered worker, alien species or evidence that somebody’s research funding should have been withdrawn much earlier.

The Psi Experiment suggests confinement, exploitation and powers developed under extremely unpleasant circumstances.

Every experiment begins with a hypothesis.

Every good science-fiction adventure begins when the hypothesis escapes.

CRIMINALS OF THE FUTURE

Scientific progress has failed to eliminate crime.

It has merely provided crime with better equipment.

The collection includes a Thug, a Thug in an Alley, Thugs Arguing, a Vampire Thug, Ten Punks, a Biker Chick and a group of Bad-Ass-Looking Guys.

These images are suitable for:

• Street gangs

• Spaceport criminals

• Hired muscle

• Smugglers

• Pirates

• Bounty hunters

• Mercenaries

• Rebel cells

• Corporate goons

• People standing outside nightclubs deciding whom to rob

Not every supporting character requires an elaborate biography.

Sometimes the Games Master simply needs somebody dangerous-looking to guard a door, start a fight or offer work that sensible people would immediately refuse.

These illustrations give minor characters enough presence to become memorable—and enough personality to become unexpectedly important when the players decide to follow one of them home.

THE PEOPLE WHO OWN EVERYTHING

Science-fiction dystopias require more than street criminals.

They require respectable criminals with offices.

The Sinister Suit, Aristocrat and Sinister Business Guy provide artwork for corporate executives, political operators, wealthy patrons and members of the ruling class.

They may be:

• Corporate directors

• Colonial governors

• Crime bosses

• Intelligence handlers

• Aristocrats of a revived imperial order

• Owners of private planets

• Representatives of powerful institutions

• People who have never personally committed murder because they employ departments for that

The Sinister Business Guy may offer the characters a lucrative contract.

The Aristocrat may require protection, rescue or removal.

The Sinister Suit may smile politely while explaining that the characters’ present difficulties are entirely their own fault.

The most dangerous people in science fiction do not always carry weapons.

They own the people who do.

INVESTIGATION AND CORRUPTION

The Corrupt Private Investigator is ready for noir-influenced science fiction, criminal mysteries and investigations in which nobody involved possesses clean hands.

He might be:

• A disgraced police officer

• A corporate detective

• A blackmailer

• A fixer

• An information broker

• A reluctant ally

• A professional who sells the same evidence several times

• The only person willing to investigate a case everyone else has been paid to ignore

Pair him with the Espionage Guy, Sinister Suit or criminal characters to create an immediate web of suspicion.

Who hired him?

Who bribed him?

What did he discover?

Why has he not told the characters everything?

And, most importantly, who is paying him more?

BEYOND THE CITY

The Space Station, Winter Trek and Astronaut’s Doom broaden the collection beyond character portraits and urban encounters.

The Space Station can illustrate:

• A campaign base

• An isolated colony

• A commercial waystation

• An orbital prison

• A military installation

• A decaying independent port

• The location of an outbreak, siege or murder mystery

The Winter Trek suggests survival upon an ice world, expedition across a frozen wasteland or flight from something that regards the cold as perfectly comfortable.

Astronaut’s Doom offers a ready-made image for isolation, hostile environments, alien attack or the discovery that advanced equipment provides only limited protection from the unknown.

Space is vast.

Unfortunately, it is not empty.

SCIENCE-FICTION HORROR

The collection includes a dedicated Sci-Fi Horror Header, along with several images easily suited to darker projects.

Combine it with the mutants, psychic experiment, doomed astronaut or vampire thug to support:

• Derelict-spacecraft adventures

• Laboratory disasters

• Psychic horror

• Alien contamination

• Body horror

• Corporate experimentation

• Mutant outbreaks

• Isolated colonies

• Survival scenarios

• Campaigns in which the distress signal should have remained unanswered

The future offers countless new ways to die.

Science-fiction horror merely takes the time to examine them closely.

STOCK ART AS AN ADVENTURE GENERATOR

Good stock art does more than fill an empty part of a page.

It creates questions.

What doomed the astronaut?

Who built the Cybernet Samurai?

Why are the mutant children together?

What happened during the Winter Trek?

Who is arguing with the thugs?

What escaped from the psi experiment?

Why does the private investigator look corrupt before he has even spoken?

What exactly makes the Vampire Thug a vampire?

Why is the businessman smiling?

Choose an image.

Decide what the subject wants.

Determine what prevents them from getting it.

Connect the problem to the player characters.

That is enough to begin an encounter, adventure or entire campaign.

PROFESSIONAL ART FOR INDEPENDENT CREATORS

Commissioning bespoke artwork remains the best way to obtain precisely what a project requires.

It is also expensive.

Independent creators often need to divide limited budgets between writing, editing, layout, printing and the increasingly optimistic hope of paying themselves.

Stock art provides a practical alternative.

It can help you:

• Illustrate characters, creatures and locations

• Break up dense pages of text

• Establish the tone of a setting

• Complete short adventures and supplements

• Provide images for chapter openings

• Build a library for future publications

• Reserve commission budgets for essential bespoke pieces

• Finally replace every box marked ART TO COME

One good illustration can transform a page.

Twenty-four distinct illustrations can populate a considerable portion of the future.

FILES AND VARIANTS

The collection contains 25 TIFF files representing 24 distinct subjects.

The Mutant Woman is supplied in both colour and greyscale, providing additional flexibility for different layouts and printing requirements.

The collection otherwise consists primarily of black-and-white science-fiction illustration, well suited to traditional tabletop role-playing layouts and economical print publication.

Choose the version that best suits the project.

Do not deform an entire layout to accommodate one image.

The mutants have suffered enough already.

READ THE LICENCE

The artwork is supplied for use in personal and professional projects under the terms of the attached licence.

Read the licence before publication and ensure that your intended use, alterations and attribution comply with its requirements.

Some illustrations also appear in other Brad McDevitt collections where they suit several genres. Science fiction naturally overlaps with horror, modern gaming, cyberpunk and urban fantasy, so mutants, criminals and sinister businesspeople may reasonably appear in more than one themed pack.

You can explore the complete Brad McDevitt Stock Art range or browse the other science-fiction collections.

The future is crowded.

The corporations are corrupt.

The experiments have escaped.

Give them something to look at.