Rant about the cover of the 4e Player's Handbook

[Tallifer]

If the designers of dungeons and dragons feel compelled to put female adventurers on their covers, then let said amazons be lusty and buxom. It is fantasy after all.

The original poster complains about women strategically exposing enticing bits of flesh.

I on the other hand simply object to a mediaeval world full of women rulers and adventurers. I prefer the traditional literary tropes of damsels in distress and wicked witches. <shrugs>

And yes it is 2009. All the more need for escapist fantasy which does not reflect post-modern reality or sensitivities.

 

[w_earle_wheeler]

But that dragonborn just looks idiotic. I actually scanned an image from the FR character guide, this one, and taped it over my PHB just so i wouldn't have to look at it.

I did a similar thing, but I used the cover of the Character Record Sheets, which I thought was what they should have used for the PHB.

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

If the designers of dungeons and dragons feel compelled to put female adventurers on their covers, then let said amazons be lusty and buxom. It is fantasy after all…I prefer the traditional literary tropes of damsels in distress and wicked witches. <shrugs>

You're not alone.

FWIW, I'm not offended by nudity or sexiness in fantasy art. I wonder what W.A.R. would do with a Edgar Rice Burroughs Barsoom cover. My "art direction" for that would be: do your version of a 70s-style pulp Barsoom cover -- just make sure you give me a scene where something is happening (not just people posing) at a cool place or site, and make it a wrap-around so there's something on both the front and back cover. If it's an action scene, make it "realistic" action -- not super-over-the-top-action-everywhere. Make the composition balanced -- the viewer shouldn't have to "decipher" it because there's so much going on, visually.

 

[Nai_Calus]

I hate the cover too. Actually I don't think there's any cover art for 4e I actually like. Divine Power only gets a pass because the hideously freakish Dragonborn is a priest of Corellon.

But yes, enough with the one male, one female adventurers not doing anything, and enough with WAR. I hate his art. Did they lose Todd Lockwood's number or something? Have him do a cover or some internal art, jeez.

 

[Herremann the Wise]

...Did they lose Todd Lockwood's number or something?

No he's not returning their calls

I kinda like WAR but I agree with this. Todd might be out of D&D's price range now, who knows; he's an absolutely brilliant artist though.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[Dausuul]

No he's not returning their calls

I kinda like WAR but I agree with this. Todd might be out of D&D's price range now, who knows; he's an absolutely brilliant artist though.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

Hmm... well, it's still a touch cartoony for my taste, but otherwise, yes, much better.

 

[MortalPlague]

... that all men are either ugly spellcasters or brutish, door-destroying thugs with severe anatomical problems (brown people living in a brown world, apparently).

This was the first PHB I used for any length of time, and I loved that cover art. I still do. This band of adventurers is kicking in the door and charging some terrible foe... and it's left to the imagination just what's ready to greet them on the other side. A dragon, curled atop its fabulous treasure hoard? The orc warchief and his berserkers? A terrifying lich, completing some fel arcane ritual? An all-powerful beholder, ready to blast the band to oblivion? Somehow, the sense of excitement, kicking in the door and facing the danger really got me in the mood to play D&D.

Mind you, I was the DM, so I got to put the foe on the other side of the door...


Another thing... that PHB had a great picture somewhere towards the end of a giant monastery with gold walls, capped with red domes. A procession of red robed wizards or clerics were walking out, holding incense, and bearing the coffin of one of their fallen members. I always found that piece of art particularly inspiring.

 

[Dausuul]

This was the first PHB I used for any length of time, and I loved that cover art. I still do. This band of adventurers is kicking in the door and charging some terrible foe... and it's left to the imagination just what's ready to greet them on the other side. A dragon, curled atop its fabulous treasure hoard? The orc warchief and his berserkers? A terrifying lich, completing some fel arcane ritual? An all-powerful beholder, ready to blast the band to oblivion? Somehow, the sense of excitement, kicking in the door and facing the danger really got me in the mood to play D&D.

Yeah, it's a good one. I think I'd rank it third, after the original 1E PHB and the 3E/3.5E "tome" look (yes, I know the 3E and 3.5E PHB covers were different, but you'd only notice if you put them side by side; a brown brass-bound tome is a brown brass-bound tome).