Best RPG Covers of All Time

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Simon Hogwood said:
Would a miniature skirmish game count if my first thought on seeing it was "I want to set an RPG in that setting?"

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I'm not a mod here, but I am going to make the unofficial ruling that this cover be allowed in the thread, however you are now obliged to run an rpg in this setting.
 
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Baulderstone said:
I remember thinking about this back when I picked up the 3E books for D&D. All the illustrations were, well, illustrative. "Here is this class." "Here is a character using a feat mentioned on this page." And of course, most of the art is a character floating on a white blank background. There was nothing like the art in the old core books, where I could just daydream about what was going on.

I think it mostly comes down to corporate thinking infiltrating art direction. All the art serves a clear, practical purpose within the document and does nothing beyond that. There is also tight thematic unity. In theory, that is good for most books, for D&D having a hodgepodge of styles served the possibilities of the game. D&D could be everything from a dark, moody, pen and ink piece, and epic oil painting, or a silly cartoon.
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The main thing I can recall about the art the first time I flipped through 3rd edition is "Belts! Why are there so many belts?"
 
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Michael Kaluta does good work. Sorry about the smallish images.

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Not sure this is fair since it's based on an art book to start with.

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It's not just art, it's design that makes a good cover (to be honest, I find most of the covers posted so far abysmally laid out, and that's only partially blameable on the era)

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It helps if you understand the art style they're paying homage to.
 
The Aria covers are great, its unfortunate the interior art wasn't to a similar standard.
 
TristramEvans said:
The Aria covers are great, its unfortunate the interior art wasn't to a similar standard.
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I think that's pretty universal, though. The cover has to sell the whole book, the interior art is less of a draw.
 
Avalon Hill's tenure with RuneQuest was a nadir for the game but I really like the Roger Raupp covers for the RuneQuest Renaissance products of the early 90s.

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This cover really depicts how I imagine Pavis to look.
 
daniel_ream said:
I think that's pretty universal, though. The cover has to sell the whole book, the interior art is less of a draw.
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I'm trying to think of another rpg I own where that is the case, however, and all I can come up with is some GURPs 3rd supplements. I don't mean that covers aren't almost always the best art, or close to it, but its jarring when , as with Aria, the cover is really nice and the interior art is bad enough to be memorable.
 
I'll have to have another look at my Aria copies, then, because I can think of several books where this is the case and Aria doesn't stand out in my mind as exceptional. There are White Wolf books where the interior art is frequently awful, and I find the interior art in most old-school TSR works to be execrable.
 
I liked most of the White Wolf art, myself. At least speaking of the 90s books. To this day I consider Vampire:The Dark Ages overall one of the most beautifully designed RPGs of all time.
 
I had all the Aria books, and I can't recall a single piece of interior art. And I spent a lot of time reading that thing, trying to puzzle it out too.
 
What I always wonder about that Paul Bonner cover is where the Callistonian Intruder got that gun. The story as I read it is that the Brotherhood troops, shot the human host before the monster burst out of his clothes, there's two wounds where the bullets didn't penetrate. but even then, where did that enormous hand cannon come from. Was the host on a date? The monster killed some Brotherhood troops. And then the Mortificator, Sebastian Crenshaw showed up in his Rolls Royce to save the girl. Well, I wouldn't put it past him to just shoot her too. They niced up The Brotherhood a lot in this edition but we're still talking about a cold blooded religious assassin. For that matter, why didn't he just sneak up on the thing and shank it with a Katana? It's an epic MC scene but I always wonder what the story is supposed to be.
 
Paul Bonner did some amazing covers for a German RPG line, Drakkoner-something. Unfortunately the only English fantasy rpg I have illustrated by him is the barely-readable but gorgeous Cadwallon.
 
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TristramEvans said:
Paul Bonner did some amazing covers for a German RPG line, Drakkoner-something. Unfortunately the only English fantasy rpg I have illustrated by him is the barely-readable but gorgeous Cadwallon.
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Drakar och Demoner, which is Swedish by the way...
(And suffered from a major case of "cover unrelated" in early editions, with random barbarians, knights and the occasional guest visit of Elric himself)
 
Erstwhile said:
Too bad the game system itself was pretty wonky...
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Oh, for the love of Mike, yes. I so wanted to love that game but the d666 mechanic...there are rules in the GM's Guide to fix some of the randomness, but they really should have been in the core system.
 
Nearly forgot...one of my all time favorite covers. This is for the first edition of Dread: The First Book of Pandemonium by Rafael Chandler. I always found this incredibly evocative in its simplicity:

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I have a personal fondness for the original Unknown Armies cover. It was done by my late and dearly missed friend Thomas Manning. I know a lot of people find it off-putting, but it's full of weird, creepy details that suit the game. Maybe I just like it more because the dead guy in the table is actually Greg Stolze lying on the kitchen table of Thomas' apartment.
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In any case, I found the second edition cover to be pretty bland. It didn't really say anything about the game.
 
Ghost Whistler said:
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I always loved that cover art and the art on the booklets is keen as well. I liked how they made the covers look like comic book covers complete with the corner box for the UPC. I actually have 2 copies of Golden Heroes plus both modules. Who wants to play?
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Seriously, maybe I could run it online...
 
Dumarest said:
I always loved that cover art and the art on the booklets is keen as well. I liked how they made the covers look like comic book covers complete with the corner box for the UPC. I actually have 2 copies of Golden Heroes plus both modules. Who wants to play?
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Seriously, maybe I could run it online...
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I have a copy but I've never played it. Not sure ivI' ever read it. But I'm game.
 
It certainly looks interesting. What is it about?
 
Actually, I really am interested in Octoberlandt. Fria Ligan is the same company involved with Kult, Mutant: Year Zero and Tales from the Loop. So, what's this one about?
 
I screwed up the spelling: it is Oktoberlandet if you want to Google it. The KS page in English is probably the best source on it.

Oktoberland is a unique blend of urban fantasy, steampunk and the Russian revolution. This new and completely revised edition of the cult-declared roleplay was written by Christian Mehrstam (who wrote the first edition ten years ago, and also behind the award- winning White Horse Game ) and his two winger Nils Hintze and Karl Bergström. The 256-page thick book is illustrated and designed by Johan Nohr, who previously designed the Symbaroum and designed the Zones ofMutant: Year Zero .

In October , you enter into the struggle between a ruling Tsar and the powers that seek to overthrow him. Perhaps you have chosen as a secret police, cultist or revolutionary? Perhaps you end up in trouble as a dear boxer, honesty fighter or journalist? Regardless of which is neither rubles, justice nor pravda to find beyond the tension between traditional beliefs and modern possibilities. You have to survive both ancient rides and submarines and cold rain. For when the game begins and the first snow falls softly over Taiga's scratches and Leongrad streets, something returns to the country that threatens to affect everyone's destiny.

In the free league's new edition of the game, you shape your October country based on stories, reports, poems and letters. The rules are based on the internationally well-established game engine FATE, and the introduction adventure, the Tsar's voice , lays the foundation for a longer campaign. The book itself breaks new ground for how a role play can be presented. Change pale britter to fauner, raw and cobalt! Change Viktoriana against the Russian Revolution! Experience the vapor point you've never experienced before!
 
I was just doing some work up in Whitehorse!
 
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