One thing we are thinking about doing for TFoB (well, it was Brian's idea actually ;-) was to continue the tradition of altering The Riddle of Steel logo slightly in a similar way to what was done with OBaM (changing the fire logo to ice).

What do this rest of you think about it? Would this be a cool thing to do, or should we go back the the fire sword logo from the original book? What could be alternative logo for TFoB?

All comments are appreciated ;-)

Well, if you've got firey sword for the core book, and icey sword for Beasts....

Bloody Sword seems an obvious choice for Flower of Battle, and Sparkly Power Sword for Sorcery and Fey.

Damm if thats not a great idea.

Valamir wrote: Bloody Sword seems an obvious choice for Flower of Battle, and Sparkly Power Sword for Sorcery and Fey.

Brian Leybourne wrote:

Valamir wrote: Bloody Sword seems an obvious choice for Flower of Battle, and Sparkly Power Sword for Sorcery and Fey.

See, I told you great minds think alike.

This was pretty much exactly my suggestion too :-)

Brian.

I think a bloody sword would be a very cool logo.

Congratulaions by the way on keeping Driftwood going! That is some of the best news I have heard recently.

Harry

Yeah. I agree. Blood is totally the way to go.

I wouldn't have thought of that...


:D

Jake

Well, it's either that or flowers around the sword. Heh-heh.

Or maybe bloody flowers.

Let me know if you ever need anything silly...

-Alan

I'm going to keep this up as a sticky for a few more days, but I'm really digging this whole blood dripped sword idea. Let's see if we might be able to get a preview up of this as soon as we can.

TFoB cover should be up on the main site tomorrow.

I just wanted to let everyone know that you can see a preview to our varient Riddle of Steel logo for the Flower of Battle over here at: www.theriddleofsteel.net

I want to thank everyone for their comments, it really helped us determine in which direction we are going to approach trade dress for future products. I also want to thank Rick McCann for getting the image ready in such a hurry. I really hope you all like it.

PS: While we were at it, we also bought a varient logo for Sorcery and the Fey. It's still considered a work in progress, and Rick would appreciate any comments you have. The image will but up in the Wednesday update so make sure to check back then!

Thoughts:

1) Lose the skulls...please, please, please lose the skulls. Way too Warhammer

2) limit the blood to the last third of the blade. The part that was actually used to cut with. Having the blood down in the first third looks really off.

3) More blood. I want to see the end of the blade awash in it

4) The battered and chipped edges...no opinion on yet. Does a well made properly but strenuously used sword show wear like that?

Bad action movie voice: "The flower of battle's pollen is BLOOD."

I mostly agree with Ralph, lose the skull on the pommel DEFINITELY. But the skull on cross gard doesn't bother me for some reason. In fact, maybe I'm just really objecting to two skulls. One in either place might be OK. It does remind me of warhammer though. Maybe a skull or face of a animal, representing some pagan god. A wild goat, dragon, wolf, bear, boar, lion, etc. or even a gargoyle. Doing that would remind me of Martin's aSoIaF, but that's okay, isn't it?

Ralph's definitely right about the blood though. More, especially towards the end of the blade.

-Alan

I'd say lose the skulls and the blood. I would think a more historic sword and instead of skull why not a rose of york on the pommel? Just my two cents.

I think Stump has a very good idea here. I've been looking at the swords at Albion Armorers a lot lately (wishing I had a few thousand dollars to purchase a few of these awesome weapons), and I think that an RPG with a combat system as realistic as TRoS and with the support of ARMA should have realistic pictures, as well as getting a lot of their art work from the old sword master books. Maybe you guys should look and see what Eric Holts has been up to lately. His wood prints did a lot for the feel of HârnMaster and HârnWorld.

I kinda like the skull on the hilt, though I agree that the second one on the pommel is a bit much. And thinking about it, it'd probably be better saved for some sort of undead/trollspawn book; the feel becomes very "Evil", and this book is more about the grunts & the reality of battle.

I don't think I like the huge chips near the tip & under the "e" in riddle; even if that is realistic it seems over the top.

The blood running all the way to the end works for me; it's dripped down the length while the sword was being used and is now dripping off as it's held out.

I'll second that. For me, TROS always had a very "authentic" feel. One step away from conan-like fantasy. While still permitting such play, of course.
I'm for more an authentic wepon, as well. The currently proposed logo would be great for a chaotic/evil/vampiric supplement. I usually find the classic elegance of period weapons missing in roleplaying books. :)

I don't know that the shape of the weapon is in question. While would have rather had an authentic historical sword, the shape of the sword is the same in the Core Logo and the Beasts logo. The only thing changing is the added color. In the Core it was fire, in Beasts it was Ice, In Flower its Blood.

The more fantasy shaped sword has remained a constant.