D&D 5E Basic Game cover mockup

[Thaumaturge]

Let me know what ya think and I hope you enjoy them!

Very nice. I like the "Basic Rules" version with the red dragon. Mostly because, red dragon.

Thaumaturge.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Very nice. I like the "Basic Rules" version with the red dragon. Mostly because, red dragon.

Thaumaturge.

I like that one much better too. It's kind of spine-chilling because the dragon is so huge, and when I was a kid it would have made me much more excited than "Some dudes fighting some goblins". It's kind of Dark Souls in the best possible way.

 

[Morrus]

The red logos, graphics, and underline on the red background don't work well, sadly. The blue art works better as a design.

 

[Thaumaturge]

I like that one much better too. It's kind of spine-chilling because the dragon is so huge, and when I was a kid it would have made me much more excited than "Some dudes fighting some goblins". It's kind of Dark Souls in the best possible way.

My only quibble, and it's absolutely a quibble, with the red dragon version is we don't know if red dragons are in Basic. But then, it's only a mock-up. And I would be a little disappointed if there weren't some dragons in Basic.

But I keep going back and looking at it. I like all of the art, but that cover is the most enticing and exciting.

Thaumaturge.

 

[Thaumaturge]

The red logos, graphics, and underline on the red background don't work well, sadly. The blue art works better as a design.

I can understand that, and I certainly am not a design expert.

But the blue one is mostly missing a giant, fire-breathing red dragon.

Thaumaturge.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

The red logos, graphics, and underline on the red background don't work well, sadly. The blue art works better as a design.

I know, but that suggests to me that the red logo may be the problem! Sometimes, too, technically good design results in an inferior actual impact.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Red dragon is cool from an image perspective, really nice painting... but the one thing I'll say about the blue cover is that I personally like that "Basic" and the use of goblins as the antagonists go together more in my mind. You have a lower-powered monster for the Basic game, and the higher powered monsters for the Advanced products. Aligns itself in my head a bit better.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Red dragon is cool from an image perspective, really nice painting... but the one thing I'll say about the blue cover is that I personally like that "Basic" and the use of goblins as the antagonists go together more in my mind. You have a lower-powered monster for the Basic game, and the higher powered monsters for the Advanced products. Aligns itself in my head a bit better.

Yeah, but that's logical not good thinking from a brand or marketing or success perspective, imo.

Advanced products sell to people who are already invested in the game, who are going to buy them regardless of the cover, to get at the juicy rules inside. Fancy covers are nice but they aren't getting you many or perhaps even any extra sales. 3E's covers were awful and they sold a zillion copies because people knew what was inside.

Whereas Starter & Basic have more of an opportunity to bring in new blood, to excite people, to chill the spine (in a good way) of a younger me (as it were), so they need exciting stuff, amazing stuff, mindblowing stuff on the covers.

That said Basic isn't a physical product so it's not the big deal I'm making out! Starter DOES have a Dragon on it, but not as cool as the other one.

 

[Texicles]

Red dragon is cool from an image perspective, really nice painting... but the one thing I'll say about the blue cover is that I personally like that "Basic" and the use of goblins as the antagonists go together more in my mind. You have a lower-powered monster for the Basic game, and the higher powered monsters for the Advanced products. Aligns itself in my head a bit better.

I respectfully disagree. I'd tend to try and emphasize the fact that the Basic game is capable of delivering as much epic adventure as Standard or Advanced. I want to make sure that grognards, OSR guys, fence-sitters and the generally uninformed all know that Basic is a stripped-down, rules-light yet fully functional game, and not crippleware, low-level only or a one-off set of rules you have to unlearn to really play D&D.


Either way, I like all the art presented ITT. I don't know art, but I know what I like when I see it.

 

[Patrick McGill]

Why not go with the Red Dragon, but change the banner, underline, etc to blue or black? Since it's a Basic product rather than a Standard, it can be a different color, right?

I'd like to see it with a black banner and white text.

Either way good job on all of these! If the basic rules PDF doesn't have a cover page I'll definitely use one of these on my kinkos run.