The Worst RPG Covers of All Time

[Endless Flight]

Just when you thought the 90s was a distant memory.

 

[Bunch]

Loved the artwork on the AD&D covers. Pity it wasn't anywhere near as good inside, including the actual rules...

I've rarely been able to argue about rules. Somewhere in me I Know they will never be perfect so all they can be for me is either not so bad I want to run away or evocative enough to make me want to play. Until recently I never realized how much the art goes hand in hand with that feeling. 2e should have been perfect. The quality art matched the coherent rules organization.
But I want the mess of 1st edition. The art is all over the place from good but dark to silly. The rules are just as random. The damn incredibly important to hit table is not at the beginning or the end or the middle but just shoved it somewhere. It's a horrible mess but everything just seems to align. And 2e aligns to a corporate goal for me. All clean, sterile, flawless. Really nothing to complain about unless you saw what it was and said 'WTF?! This isn't what I was playing and other than a few small details I can't tell you why but it's wrong for me'

 

[S'mon]

I'll always regret getting rid of my copy! Ran a NightLife play by post back in the early '90s using basically AD&D rules. The book was full of wonderful boss monster NPCs to kill.

 

[Necrozius]

Its an 8 bit cover... It sort of works for the thread.
However it may explain that cover

This sketch is much funnier without the animation, I think. My imagination filled in the blanks without the need for Japanese Nintendo sprites.

 

[Faylar]

This sketch is much funnier without the animation, I think. My imagination filled in the blanks without the need for Japanese Nintendo sprites.

I agree, but I couldnt find the sound file alone and the alternatives were really bad.

 

[TristramEvans]

This sketch is much funnier without the animation, I think. My imagination filled in the blanks without the need for Japanese Nintendo sprites.

Yeah, I first heard it on the comedy album in art school. It was Rob Schrabbs comedy troupe (the guy who did Scud The Disposable Assassin), the Dead Alewives. They had a live action video as well I’d love to find again

 

[Nick J]

Yeah, I first heard it on the comedy album in art school. It was Rob Schrabbs comedy troupe (the guy who did Scud The Disposable Assassin), the Dead Alewives. They had a live action video as well I’d love to find again

Dan Harmon's an alum too. Pity the old website is off-line, they had some funny audio bits.

 

[TristramEvans]

Dan Harmon's an alum too.

That explains the GI Joe episode of Community!

 

[Shemek hiTankolel]

Need I say anything?

 

[TristramEvans]

I wouldnt say its the best, but dont think it belongs with the worst

 

[Shemek hiTankolel]

Then there's this beauty.

 

[Voros]

Yikes.

 

[Harl Quinn]

Then there's this beauty.

Looks like that barbarian's trying to get his drunk friend to just walk away from fighting that wizard.

"C'mon, Thrag, let's go. You don't want to be turned into a newt... again..."

"But, Garn! He said I was... I was... What did he say I was again?"

 

[Dumarest]

Then there's this beauty.

It has a certain rough charm...no pretension.

 

[Endless Flight]

"Villians?" Oh, my.

 

[Edgewise]

Looks like that barbarian's trying to get his drunk friend to just walk away from fighting that wizard.

My interpretation is that the one barbarian is trying to save his friend from the dreaded Disproportionate Wizard who distorts the proportions of all that he sees. Alas, he is too late.

 

[Shemek hiTankolel]

To me it looks like yon barbarian is constipated and the helpful friend is steadying him in preparation for the MU to cast Mordenkainen's Efficacious Aperient. Hopefully the MU makes his saving throw vs poison, and a Dex check on 5d6.

 

[TristramEvans]

Then there's this beauty.

looks like the barbarian's been "Gettin' Wide like Kylo!"

 

[Endless Flight]

 

[TristramEvans]

 

[arjunstc]

I've heard the books themselves arent bad as resources.

But the covers...

From the same artist?

Personally I think everything before 1990 should get a free pass.

 

[Brock Savage]

From the same artist?

Personally I think everything before 1990 should get a free pass.

That's pretty much a porn pose of squatting and spreading her legs on tip toes except she's wearing wearing a loin cloth for modesty.

 

[TristramEvans]

Whoever that artist was, he definitely earned the title "The Greg Land of RPG Illustrators"

 

[Lychee of the Exchequer]

Elephant in the room:

You heretic ;-) ! I love this cover :-) !

Which goes to prove that you don't need to know how to draw to capture something of an archetypal spirit - the dreams and wonders of a land of fabulous monsters IMNSHO (in my not so humble opinion).

I love the subtitle too : "An illustrated Compendium of Monsters".

This book and its cover serve perfectly well the peculiar genius of Gary Gygax : the raw power of creative imagination rooted and expressed in universal fantasy themes.

 

[Baulderstone]

Personally I think everything before 1990 should get a free pass.

Too bad this cover was post-2000.

 

[The Butcher]

That's pretty much a porn pose of squatting and spreading her legs on tip toes except she's wearing wearing a loin cloth for modesty.

It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if the artist admitted it was traced over a porn shot, with the clothes and bow added.

 

[Fenris-77]

It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if the artist admitted it was traced over a porn shot, with the clothes and bow added.

I always add a bow when I'm tracing over mid-80's Hustler pics. I thought that was pretty standard.

 

[Necrozius]

Cheesecake doesn't bother me, LAZY cheesecake does.

Even in the 90s, it wasn't THAT hard to find reference poses. Where the hell is that arrow pointing? How does this say "viking" in any way possible?

He could have easily traced photos from one of the many Conan ripoff movies out there. Or Red Sonya comics.

 

[Black Vulmea]

Need I say anything?
View attachment 3115

The roleplaying game of heroic constipation?

 

[TristramEvans]

From the same artist?

Personally I think everything before 1990 should get a free pass.

Hey, when the Norse goddess Augljós Strippari has to take a dump in the middle of battle, she ain't puttin' down her bow

 

[Fenris-77]

Didn't 3.5 have a maneuver called the Combat Dump? So many splat books...

 

[TristramEvans]

we need a groan emoji...

 

[Fenris-77]

I have no idea what you're getting at.

 

[Nobby-W]

we need a groan emoji...

I've been saying this all along!

 

[Fenris-77]

we need a groan emoji...

A facepalm would do double duty. Just saying...

 

[James Gillen]

You heretic ;-) ! I love this cover :-) !

Which goes to prove that you don't need to know how to draw to capture something of an archetypal spirit - the dreams and wonders of a land of fabulous monsters IMNSHO (in my not so humble opinion).

I love the subtitle too : "An illustrated Compendium of Monsters".

This book and its cover serve perfectly well the peculiar genius of Gary Gygax : the raw power of creative imagination rooted and expressed in universal fantasy themes.

A good example of how something that's technically not very good can still be good art in the sense of conveying the project. I would put Nightlife in that category too, it's just that the perspective on the werewolves is SO fucking bad.

JG

 

[TristramEvans]

A facepalm would do double duty. Just saying...

hey Endless Flight or Apparition

how hard would this be to add to our emoji catalogue?

 

[TristramEvans]

I would put Nightlife in that category too, it's just that the perspective on the werewolves is SO fucking bad.

Werewolf? I thought it was a giant sewer cat

 

[James Gillen]

Werewolf? I thought it was a giant sewer cat

Exactly.

 

[Tulpa Girl]

"Hey guys, I've got an idea! Let's fly upside down at a diagonal angle to the street layout so we can maximize the possibility of colliding into a large building!"