Are Avalanche Press products good?

[Teflon Billy]

All Canadians with "Help Me" written on their foreheads say that. Categorically even. ..

....

Crap. You've got me there. when you are right, you are right

 

[jaerdaph]

I'm really not all that politically correct. I just want women to keep dating me.

 

[Barastrondo]

Ethan: I understand your view on the art (as another person married to an art director), and I agree that it is MEANT to make the book more enjoyable (or at least more sell-able) (whether or not it does), but with the original question being about the content instead of the covers...

I understand as much. But just as Teflon Billy is damn irritated by people choosing not to buy something because they don't like the marketing pitch, I'm damn irritated that someone like Dragongirl is told that she's "vapid" and "prudish" for choosing not to support a company that has made a decision that offends her.

There are better ways to say such things, and there are better decisions to defend.

 

[Dinkeldog]

The original question was if the products were good. My personal recommendation is that if they have improved in quality since Last Days, then you could take a cover off an old Playboy and at least then you can tell your mother you're reading it for the articles.

I'll check out the celtic and celtic faeries books, though, just to see if they've improved.

 

[Teflon Billy]

I understand as much. But just as Teflon Billy is damn irritated by people choosing not to buy something because they don't like the marketing pitch, I'm damn irritated that someone like Dragongirl is told that she's "vapid" and "prudish" for choosing not to support a company that has made a decision that offends her.

My "Vapid and Prudish" comment came after the quote of yours to which HellHound was referring. So I'm not sure what one has to do with the other.

There are better ways to say such things, and there are better decisions to defend.

Next time I want advice on how to convey my thoughts or feelings I'll look you right up

 

[ColonelHardisson]

The original question was if the products were good. My personal recommendation is that if they have improved in quality since Last Days, then you could take a cover off an old Playboy and at least then you can tell your mother you're reading it for the articles.

I'll check out the celtic and celtic faeries books, though, just to see if they've improved.

You might want to check out I, Mordred also. It deals with faeries to some extent also.

 

[fusangite]

Horacio says

Let's begin with Doom Of Odin... Look at that girl. Not only the pose is ridiculous, but even the way she takes the bow is completly wrong... besides the fact that in that positions she has no balance, and she would fall on her butt...

or look to Jade and Steel, a sourcebook about Ancient Chine... with a pretty Western caucasian girl in the cover, with clothes that doesn't look Chinese. Or Endless Sands, with another Western looking caucasian girl for an Arabian book, dancing something that seems more techno than traditional Arabian dance...

And I could continue about the others, but I better don't.

Sounds like you have put a lot of attention and... "thought" into those covers. I'm happy to bow to your vastly superior study; it sounds like the illustrations really held your attention. At least in your case, I think Avalanche can chalk up another success for their cover art.

By the way, it's my position that it's perfectly easy to hold a bow like that and fire it in a universe where natural F-cup breasts are that perfectly radially symetric and hold said shape unsupported. Such is the nature of D&D physics.

They try to sell books about Historic RPG and use completly wrong pictures... If they selll historic supplements, they should use another kind of covers.

So, are you going to start complaining that there were no fireball spells in ancient Egypt, either?

 

[WizarDru]

The covers are off-putting enough, to me, that they tip the balance on a product that wasn't that tempting to begin with. Since I've seen several recomendations for a couple of products, I may check into them. However, most of their settings have already been covered or presented somewhere else for me, so they have less appeal.

For example, I have GURPS Celtic Myth for source material, and plenty of non-RPG books about Vlad Tepes...and there's lots of RPG materials for pirates (not to mention my non-PRG books about those).

I guess my problem is...why go there? Does it actually drive sales up? Oh, and Dink, some of us have wives and daughters who we'd have to explain to, not moms. (Although that example is pretty funny...."Son, does this mean...? NO, Mom.")

 

[Barastrondo]

My "Vapid and Prudish" comment came after the quote of yours to which HellHound was referring. So I'm not sure what one has to do with the other.

Basically, I don't think Dragongirl was being "politically correct" when she said she didn't want to buy Avalanche stuff for the covers, and I disagreed with being dismissive of her opinion for that reason. Particularly with the (yes, admittedly later) equating "politically correct" with "vapid and prudish." See, I'm not fond of political correctness for its own sake. But I think there are other, more valid reasons to be offended that might be misconstrued.

Like I said earlier, my wife's an art director. She has strong negative feelings about art such as that as Avalanche uses for their covers, on both personal and professional levels. (She's refused to read a book I wrote because she finds the layout sloppy, to give you another anecdote. Oy.) And yet she'll gladly buy art with full frontal nudity for a book if it meets her professional (and I suppose personal) standards. She doesn't give a fig for "political correctness," but she still has the right to disapprove of things that are also not politically correct. The "also" is just more of a coincidence than the actual reason, you know?

Next time I want advice on how to convey my thoughts or feelings I'll look you right up.

Actually, all we'd have to do is get "politically correct" formally recognized as a swear, and then Eric's Grandmother could do the policing.

(PS: Wizardru, I love your sig file. Always glad to see another John Allison fan around.)

 

[kenjib]

Need any further clarifications? Or are you planning on trotting out another bumper sticker slogan?

Why does another person not buying something because it is personally offensive to them cause you so much consternation? Nobody is telling you what you should or shouldn't buy, so why do you feel the need to tell other people what they should or shouldn't buy? I don't think you've clarified anything at all. I also think that conversation is more productive when people respect other people's opinions.

I very much respect your opinion on Avalanche Press products, but it does not seem that you extend the same courtesy to others.