Huge Cover Images from CNET article

[Steely Dan]

The second image would look good airbrushed on the side of a van.

Where's my black-light?

 

[Thaumaturge]

Where's my black-light?

Sayeth Steely Dan.

Thaumaturge.

 

[Steely Dan]

Sayeth Steely Dan.

*Smiling as I stroke my Pet Rock*

 

[Thaumaturge]

*Smiling as I stroke my Pet Rock*

/cough
I believe your watch is set to the wrong decade.



Thaumaturge.

edit: I was listening to Bad Company as I posted this.

 

[I'm A Banana]

The line between retro-cool and retro-kitsch is thin and wavering.

The first image doesn't highlight anything that makes D&D distinctive: flashy magic, fantasy races, monsters. Instead, it's just some dude killing a bunch of other dudes.

The second image would look good airbrushed on the side of a van. not on a shelf at Barnes & Nobles.

While I disgree in specifics (please, have you SEEN half of the fantasy book covers at Barnes & Nobles? That work is better than 3/4ths of 'em, at least!), I agree in sentiment. They're sweet images that just don't convey eithier a dunegon or a dragon.

Things I want in a PH cover?

#1: A dungeon
#2: A dragon (and no, dragonborn don't count)
#3: An adventuring party preferably in #1, fighting an epic battle against #2.

That tells you, at a glance, what the game is about. "Oh! If I get this book, I'll be fighting a dragon in a dungeon!"

The alternate WAR cover TOTALLY cinches this. The current cover doesn't tell me what the game is about, and putting the Dragonborn (a race without any big independant fantasy archetypes yet) center stage is needlessly confusing. Your Average Consumer won't know what the hell that eyeless spikey monster is, or why he's giving a butt-five to the hookermage (and he doesn't look cool enough to get away with it, sadly).

"Oh! If I get this book, I'll see spikey monsters and prostitute sorcerers!"....not really something I think is reflective of what D&D is, IMO. Of course, YMMV...

 

[DandD]

"Oh! If I get this book, I'll see spikey monsters and prostitute sorcerers!"....not really something I think is reflective of what D&D is, IMO. Of course, YMMV...

Sadly, I think this is exactly what D&D is in the minds of non-roleplayers.

 

[Moon-Lancer]

so from the complains of the mockup covers, it seems that most feel that their should be more characters, and magic/monsters, and a few feel they are rendered too well... does that sum it up?

 

[Derren]

so from the complains of the mockup covers, it seems that most feel that their should be more characters, and magic/monsters, and a few feel they are rendered too well... does that sum it up?

I say "More Adventurers, different races, more exotic enemies and please wear something a sensible adventurer would wear".


And to the original PHB Picture: "More battle hardened adventurers and less anime characters (sword size) and prostitutes".