Which cover is your favourite?
- Thread starter Morrus
- Start date
Snarf Zagyg
Notorious Liquefactionist
Covers, in the proper and only correct Order:
1. Strange Science
2. Introducing the Awfully Cheerful Engine!
3. Spirits of Manhattan
4. Montana Drones and the Raiders of the Cutty Sark
5. Having Jackson Pollack use his drip technique to make one of his paintings ... directly on my eyeballs.
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1,982. Beam Me Up
EDIT: Reasoning for this ... the most appealing one, immediately, is #4. It manages to evoke Stranger Things, E.T., and even (if unintentionally) a touch of Back to the Future. It perfectly captures not just an '80s zeitgeist, but also a future nostalgia by the 80s-via-Stranger Things refererent.
The core rules are also appealing- I get the immediate gist of genre mixup. It's effective!
After that, I immediately "got" #2. It's Ghostbusters. I like Ghostbusters- the original movie and the original TTRPG (WEST END GAMES IN THE HOUSE!).
The reason I place Montana Drones last among the "good" covers is because while the cover is good and evocative (I get it ...), it's also not great for a TTRPG. It makes me think that this is a game for a single protagonist, or solo play.
Beam Me Up is just ... not good. I assume, from the title, that it's Star Trek? But the cover itself tells me nothing at all. Is it ha ha Star Trek? Is it planetary exploration, or space battles? Can I do Douglas Adams style scifi? The cover itself doesn't do anything for me.
1. Strange Science
2. Introducing the Awfully Cheerful Engine!
3. Spirits of Manhattan
4. Montana Drones and the Raiders of the Cutty Sark
5. Having Jackson Pollack use his drip technique to make one of his paintings ... directly on my eyeballs.
.
.
.
.
.
.
1,982. Beam Me Up
EDIT: Reasoning for this ... the most appealing one, immediately, is #4. It manages to evoke Stranger Things, E.T., and even (if unintentionally) a touch of Back to the Future. It perfectly captures not just an '80s zeitgeist, but also a future nostalgia by the 80s-via-Stranger Things refererent.
The core rules are also appealing- I get the immediate gist of genre mixup. It's effective!
After that, I immediately "got" #2. It's Ghostbusters. I like Ghostbusters- the original movie and the original TTRPG (WEST END GAMES IN THE HOUSE!).
The reason I place Montana Drones last among the "good" covers is because while the cover is good and evocative (I get it ...), it's also not great for a TTRPG. It makes me think that this is a game for a single protagonist, or solo play.
Beam Me Up is just ... not good. I assume, from the title, that it's Star Trek? But the cover itself tells me nothing at all. Is it ha ha Star Trek? Is it planetary exploration, or space battles? Can I do Douglas Adams style scifi? The cover itself doesn't do anything for me.
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Ruin Explorer
Legend
#2 is the strongest cover for my money, it's clearly Ghostbusters but there's clearly more going on thanks to the Edgar Allen Poe, the crucifix/bible, more serious armour, and the modern ghostmobile and so on (I always like it when an RPG setting with obvious inspiration has more going on than the inspiration, esp. if it's easy to pare back as needed). So that's immediately "tell me more" and would be what would interest me and I think my group.
#1 is also strong, particularly as it has an armoured humanoid dinosaur with a gun. #3 just makes me laugh because of the goddamn Cutty Sark, but I imagine most readers won't know what that is, and Montana Drones is a bit too on the nose - though that it's about Indiana Jones is appealing. #4 conveys what its about well, no confuse, but is uninspiring in an era when similar art is quite common (c.f. Tales from the Loop etc.). #5 really destroyed by that logo in the bottom left, like I couldn't "get" what I was supposed to be seeing conceptually for a while there - take away the logo, and I think the vibe is TOS-era Star Trek, Forbidden Planet, and so on. With the logo, it just looks weird.
#1 is also strong, particularly as it has an armoured humanoid dinosaur with a gun. #3 just makes me laugh because of the goddamn Cutty Sark, but I imagine most readers won't know what that is, and Montana Drones is a bit too on the nose - though that it's about Indiana Jones is appealing. #4 conveys what its about well, no confuse, but is uninspiring in an era when similar art is quite common (c.f. Tales from the Loop etc.). #5 really destroyed by that logo in the bottom left, like I couldn't "get" what I was supposed to be seeing conceptually for a while there - take away the logo, and I think the vibe is TOS-era Star Trek, Forbidden Planet, and so on. With the logo, it just looks weird.
Logo in the bottom left? You mean the Federated League of Planets logo on the right?
Tonguez
A suffusion of yellow
Spirits of Manhattan is certainly the most evocative cover, presenting a bold central image and enough background interest to draw one in to the theme.
The Introducing ACE cover is second as it also gives a strong splat image that indicates the bright, easy, multi-genre approach
Montana Drones has a strong central image and a clear reference to theme, but is a bit too simple and lacks further interest/easter eggs
Strange Science reminds me of a Goosebumps cover (so great if that was the intention), to me its a bit too cluttered and doesnt give a clear indication of theme
Beam Me Up is boring, I can see a planetary surface but without further probing dont know if its Barsoom, Flash Gordon, Lost in Space, The Martian, Star Wars or Star Trek.
The Introducing ACE cover is second as it also gives a strong splat image that indicates the bright, easy, multi-genre approach
Montana Drones has a strong central image and a clear reference to theme, but is a bit too simple and lacks further interest/easter eggs
Strange Science reminds me of a Goosebumps cover (so great if that was the intention), to me its a bit too cluttered and doesnt give a clear indication of theme
Beam Me Up is boring, I can see a planetary surface but without further probing dont know if its Barsoom, Flash Gordon, Lost in Space, The Martian, Star Wars or Star Trek.
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Does reading the title qualify as 'further probing'?
Tonguez
A suffusion of yellow
Lol, yeah that does helpDoes reading the title qualify as 'further probing'?
But I’m imagining scanning along a shelf and seeing a whole lot of bright covers vying to capture my attention. The other covers would get me to take a closer look, whereas that book just has some coloured circles so it probably wouldnt
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