#RPGaDay2017 Day 5: You CAN judge a book by its cover!

Thank you everyone for coming back for #RPGaDay2017 day 5, and very special thanks to those of you that left a comment yesterday on yesterday’s post. Today is the first of our Saturday posts. Weekend topics always seem special tome for some reason…. Today’s question is:

August 5: Which RPG cover best captures the spirit of the game? 

This is another tough one for me! The quality of RPG book art direction has evolved so much through the years it is oftentimes unfair to compare books across the decades. There is the iconic red dragon vs. the fighter by Larry Elmore in the D&D red basic set. The revised covers of the AD&D books. In more recent years, the cover of the 1s edition of Mutants & Masterminds is still to me one of the best superhero RPG covers. So many choices, what to pick?

Instead of unequivocally stating which RPG best captures the spirit of the game, since this is totally subjective, I will say which RPGs books best did it for me. Yes, I said books, I’m creating and naming two, bear with me.

My first choice is the best cover of the original RPG books. While the industry was still growing and art styles still evolving. The first cover I’m picking falls squarely in this time-period. I remember the first time I saw it. I was immediately transfixed, thinking of all the monsters in the book and how they will challenge the players. Not hard to figure out this one… The original Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1^st edition Monster Manual.

The art by is decidedly old school, and may be off putting to modern sensibilities, but to me it illustrated what was inside the book so well. I was so excited to have the book and was ready for the next adventure. The art of the AD&D 1sr edition Monster Manual was take form this post at the Mad Cleric Blog.

My second choice is by no means a recent game, it was in fact published in 1990! But the art style shows modern sensibilities and a more refined style. What book is it? Rifts!

It was so strange and alien, I immediately wanted to use that creature. Amazingly, if I remember correctly, the stats for Splugorth Slaver and the Blind Warrior Women as drawn by Keith Parkinson were NOT in the book. I Think they came out in the Rifts Sourcebook One. I’m sure one of our readers can tell me.

Those are my two picks… which RPG cover you think best captures the spirit of the game? Let us know in the comments.

While I post my daily #RPGaDay2017 entries, at the Desde la Fosa YouTube channel we are publishing videos in Spanish, on the very same topics. So, if you understand Spanish you can click the video below. If you know any gamers who speak Spanish who might be interested on the topics we are discussing, feel free to share it with them. This time around it was José García’s turn to talk to us about his favorite RPG book cover. Thanks! See you tomorrow…

Addendum… We posted a 2nd video for Day 5 by Aníbal Delgado in Desde la Fosa. Also in Spanish.