Dying Earth and Covers

[Supplanter]

Seems to me the cover of the Dying Earth RPG not only provides no hint of what the game is like in play, it gives one entirely the wrong idea of what the game is like in play. Seems to me this is a Bad Thing. The back cover text is marginally better, but gets swamped, IMHO, by the effect of the big ol' painting on the front. After years in the book business my philosophy became, "If you can't judge a book by its cover, someone isn't doing their job."

Discuss.

Best,


Jim

[Ron Edwards]

Jim et al.,

1) Aesthetically, speaking as an RPG consumer and as a lifelong Vance fanatic, I agree with you completely. The Dying Earth material is a wonderful mix of class and comedy, and the cover has neither.

2) However - the publisher's customer (at that level of production) is the distributor. The Dying Earth cover is big and gaudy, and even looks like a Deadlands book if you squint - distributors like that. It's a perfect cover for them. Remember, they don't give a rat's ass about the content or concept of the RPG itself.

3) From a publisher standpoint, one often has to take what one gets. Especially if you are dealing with an artist of some standing, it's VERY hard to say, "This won't do," and either get your money back or get the art re-done. It's even worse if the art's late and everyone's standing around watching time tick by at the printer's. It may well be that the authors of Dying Earth (the RPG) have exactly the same reaction you/we do.

As I've discovered so often with Sorcerer, the more production value, the more can go wrong.

Best,
Ron

[John Wick]

Ron is Right On with his points.

In fact, if you plan on publishing an RPG, I'll give you a piece of advice:

Spend at least 80% of your art budget on the cover. Get a Kick Ass (TM) cover. 31 flavors of Kick Ass. Make sure both cheeks is bright and red when you're done looking at it.

You get the point.

Reasons:

1) Distributors will buy your book if they like your cover. If they don't, the chances of them not buying your book go up A LOT.

2) Players will buy your book if they like the cover. If they don't, they'll never even pick it up.

3) You have to pay a lot of money for quality interiors. Generally speaking, if you have a $1,500 budget for your art, a $1,250 - $1,500 cover will do you much better than any amount of interior b&w art.

There's a whole ton of high quality public domain art out there (check out The Baron's game, Cheap Ass Games, etc.) available to you at a low, low cost. Use it.

Spend your money on the covers, boys. You'll thank me later.

Take care,
John

Live like nobody's looking.
- The Tao of Zen Nihilism, a Self-Hurt Book

[Misguided Games]

I haven't played Dying Earth, and probably won't have the chance.  I bought a copy because I had heard it was an attractive book and because it was printed by Sirivatana (sp?) and wanted to see their work.

Visually, this book does nothing for me.  I don't care for the cover.  While the quotes on the pages are okay, I don't like the graphic design used.  I'm not a fan of the majority of the interior art.  The glossy paper makes the text harder to read, etc.

But what I think is irrelevant.  Other people like the look and more power to them.  Moreover, people like the GAME.  Again it isn't my style, but that's why we have different products on the market, right?  Congrats to Robin and the folks at Pelgrane and I hope DE is a rousing success for them.