D&D 4E Vote for your favorite 4E PHB cover!

Green Dragon, easily.

Why?

1) I think it shows 'adventure' the best. The second cover has a bit of 'exploration' going for it but the dragon has the best 'adventure and excitement' aspect going for it.

2) Widest Range of characters. The first two options have "A Girl and Weird Critter". While they show off a 'new' race (yes, I know Tiefling has been around, I've played one, but new to the PHB) the dragon has an elf and a dwarf in the image. It has a fighter, a swahbuckler of some sort and a magic user of some sort.

3) Dragon.

4) To me, the PHB isn't "The PC's book". Yes, it's the book every player needs. However, while (in theory though not in practice) the Monster Manual will be the book of monsters and the DMG will only be the DM's book the PHB is NOT only the PC's book. It contains combat rules, equipment lists, spell lists, feats and abilities. It even contains Magic Items now. Everyone will use that book - not just the players of PCs. In my opinion there is absolutely no reason why that cover should only have PCs on it. If anything, there should be more PCs on it. I know that in the new PHB cover there a couple of blobs in the background that are presumably more PCs, but at least you can see the elf and the dwarf in the dragon image - so 4 PCs in the Dragon fight and two PCs in the other covers.

5) Dragon. (It's half of the game's title so it deserves to be counted twice.)

6) The Character Record Sheets are a very PC focused item. So why does that get the dragon cover?

Adventurers vs. Green Dragon.

It's a fighter, a rogue, a wizard and a cleric, going up against a dragon, in a dungeon. It is D&D.

Wormwood said:

Yep. Right in the middle and occupying about one tenth of the frame.

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As women say, "size doesn't matter, only how you use it".

Page layout 101: The eye movement for a Western person (who reads left-to-right) across a page runs from left-to-right on the upper part, then across the page right-to-left, then again from left-to-right. That forms a "Z" over the page.

If you apply that to the green dragon fight (see below), your eye runs across the dark parts of the top (where the logo is to be placed), then your eye follows the dragon's head towards the adventurers on the stairs, all the way down to the elf, and then runs along with the girl and the fighter towards the dragon, lending them movement.



So regardless of his size on the cover, the human fighter is the focal point your eye is drawn to by the layout of the image.

I'm in the minority on this one – I liked the tiefling.

…Of course I was holding out for a hot drow tranny on the cover, but oh well.

I gotta go with #3. After all, wouldn't it be great for a game called Dungeons and Dragons to actually have both depicted on the cover?

Wormwood said:

Yep. Right in the middle and occupying about one tenth of the frame.

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It's not really a question of size, though, it's a question of composition. Especially with the right edge cropped a bit, the fighter is definately the focus of the image.

none of the above.

i prefer one without an image.

Jaws said:

They all suck.

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This. But 3e are was mostly sucky too and it didn't upset me too much.


glass.

Hobo said:

It's not really a question of size, though, it's a question of composition. Especially with the right edge cropped a bit, the fighter is definately the focus of the image.

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Sorry, but all I see is dragon. I must be doing it wrong

Still, I'm glad to see that all the fuss over that dopey nose horn has been set aside in the face of a common threat.

Number Three, without hesitation. What better to introduce the adventure game of Dungeons and Dragons, than a painting of some adventurers, in a dungeon, facing a dragon?