Quote from: yosemitemike;923410Why?

Because we judge people based on their genitals.

Quote from: JamesV;923402That's what it sounds like to me too, but then again I don't think everything is a move in some game of 4d politics.

RPGsite, U R doing it wrong noob.

I will say nothing about the game itself or the creators, as I know too little about either to comment meaningfully. I speak only about the cover. It is a bad cover. I consider a cover to be good if it does what it's meant to do: attract interest and in the case of an RPG, tell the viewer a little about the game and its general genre. This cover completely fails at that. "Swords and Wizardry" is all it says, and the image conveys nothing about tone or setting. If I saw this on a shelf, I'd just keep looking. It wouldn't even earn a quirked brow. Contrast it it with the famous cover of the AD&D Player's Handbook. It's obvious from the first glance that the game involves fighting things, ancient sinister temples, and of course, loot. Or Traveller. The famous LBB covers state right on the front "Science-Fiction Adventure in the Far Future." The black cover with red stripe and white print is simple, clean, memorable and eye-catching. The current S&W cover is just weird, telling you nothing about the game's tone, setting, or really anything. It's dark to the point of being muddy, and what little it does suggest is gruesome and creepy at best, something along the lines of a black magic horror film. At best. There's nothing engaging about it.

I like the new cover, and don't give a fuck what's the plumbing of whoever designed it. The butterflies remind me of someone casting Rain of Obsidian Butterflies, so I actually like them, though it's not quite the same setting:).

Besides, I believe the words "Swords and Wizardry" tell anyone with half a brain what it is that you do in this game, you sword things (remember the "w" is vocalised when you use this word as a verb), and deal with wizardry;).

Quote from: AsenRG;923488I like the new cover, and don't give a fuck what's the plumbing of whoever designed it.

Great! I'm pretty sure people who don't like the cover also "don't give a fuck what's the plumbing of whoever designed it." Sadly, I have no doubt that people who dislike the cover will eventually be branded as woman-haters. Grab the torches and pitchforks!

Quote from: sniderman;923452Ah, so the cover image is DELIBERATELY abstract and isn't supposed to represent anything, according to Stacy.

https://plus.google.com/+StacyDellorfano/posts/YtVkEMe1iva

*snicker*

Would have been funnier if they made the ampersand in S&W look like a "J".

Quote from: snidermanWell, that's what YOU see, but that's not what was intended

I don't care what she posted, there's degrees of abstraction and that is very clearly some kind of deer skull floating over a carcass being affected by magic. Look at the large high-def version.

Quote from: Whitewings;923483I will say nothing about the game itself or the creators, as I know too little about either to comment meaningfully. I speak only about the cover. It is a bad cover. I consider a cover to be good if it does what it's meant to do: attract interest and in the case of an RPG, tell the viewer a little about the game and its general genre. This cover completely fails at that. "Swords and Wizardry" is all it says, and the image conveys nothing about tone or setting. If I saw this on a shelf, I'd just keep looking. It wouldn't even earn a quirked brow. Contrast it it with the famous cover of the AD&D Player's Handbook. It's obvious from the first glance that the game involves fighting things, ancient sinister temples, and of course, loot. Or Traveller. The famous LBB covers state right on the front "Science-Fiction Adventure in the Far Future." The black cover with red stripe and white print is simple, clean, memorable and eye-catching. The current S&W cover is just weird, telling you nothing about the game's tone, setting, or really anything. It's dark to the point of being muddy, and what little it does suggest is gruesome and creepy at best, something along the lines of a black magic horror film. At best. There's nothing engaging about it.

Quote from: AsenRGBesides, I believe the words "Swords and Wizardry" tell anyone with half a brain what it is that you do in this game, you sword things (remember the "w" is vocalised when you use this word as a verb), and deal with wizardry

Yeah, I don't know Whitewings, I think you kind of undermined your argument with the Traveller example.

Quote from: Shipyard Locked;923502Yeah, I don't know Whitewings, I think you kind of undermined your argument with the Traveller example.

Sometimes no cover art is better than bad cover art?

It's an ugly-ass picture of a floating skull with some grimdark butterflies.

¯\_(°–°)_/¯

Quote from: Daddy Warpig;923508It's an ugly-ass picture of a floating skull with some grimdark butterflies.

¯\_(°–°)_/¯

Warhammer Girls Edition?

Quote from: jeff37923;923504Sometimes no cover art is better than bad cover art?

Yes, that's true, but I was referring to when he said this earlier in the post:

Quote from: WhitewingsI consider a cover to be good if it does what it's meant to do: attract interest and in the case of an RPG, tell the viewer a little about the game and its general genre.

I know this is going to rankle some people (and I do apologize Jeff), but to me the Traveller cover looks like a VCR instruction manual or an orientation pamphlet for a high end chemistry camp. Aside from that fragment of explanatory text it doesn't tell me anything about exactly what style of sci-fi I can play with it and it certainly isn't interesting.

EDIT: I just realized I'm thinking of later editions of Traveller that omit the Free Trader Beowulf text. I apologize, that actually is interesting.

The cover we are discussing at least looks like romantic (in the philosophical sense) fantasy with overtones of druidic mysticism and creepy danger. It's probably not the cover I would choose for a game like this, but I'm not personally baffled.

Quote from: Wraith;923492Great! I'm pretty sure people who don't like the cover also "don't give a fuck what's the plumbing of whoever designed it." Sadly, I have no doubt that people who dislike the cover will eventually be branded as woman-haters. Grab the torches and pitchforks!

For all I know, they might or might not be, just as those who like the cover might be or might not be those same things.
The truth, however, is that there's simply no direct causal relation between liking or not liking a cover and such qualities and drawing such conclusions in either direction on the basis of a cover is...hasty, at best.

Quote from: jeff37923;923504Sometimes no cover art is better than bad cover art?

But this wasn't the argument presented by Whitewings, he said the cover is "telling you nothing about the game's tone, setting, or really anything".

I like it. Though it looks a lot more like what LOFTP would show than what S&W has done before. I think the cover will be less of a problem than the usual price they charge for this shit, tho.

Looks like the cover to a third-party Changeling supplement, circa 1998.

The image is OK, but from a design standpoint it's rather tepid.