Upcoming cover art Options

[Prime Mover]

Thanks to Grinder for posting first one in another thread, after little messing around with url, found others. Thought worth posting under own topic.

Runners Companion
http://sirdoomsbadcompany.files.wordpress....anion-promo.pdf

Ghost Cartels
http://sirdoomsbadcompany.files.wordpress....rtels-promo.pdf

Feral Cities
http://sirdoomsbadcompany.files.wordpress....ities-promo.pdf

[CanRay]

WANT (IMG:style_emoticons/default/excl.gif)

[Fuchs]

With shadowrunners tromping through the jungle with weapons and clothes that seem better suited to sprawls, no wonder mercs have a low opinion of runners (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[CanRay]

"Of course I care about the chrome! Chrome is King!" Lariat (8-20-54).

[Ancient History]

Hmn. Didn't think the side bars would cover up that much of the cover. Pity.

[Prime Mover]

I for one wish we could have had critters book pushed up, miss pitting my folks against some good ole fashion beasties once inawhile.

But don't get me wrong, all these posted as summer 08 release, if actaully see all this summer..gonna be a good summer. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/notworthy.gif)

[Synner]

Hmn. Didn't think the side bars would cover up that much of the cover. Pity.

I'm assuming you're referring to Feral Cities and I'm pretty sure we won't lose the rest of the picture. It's just a mockup.

[Leofski]

The really interesting thing about the Feral Cities sheet is comfirming Lagos as the 2nd key city.

[paws2sky]

The really interesting thing about the Feral Cities sheet is comfirming Lagos as the 2nd key city.

That pleases me. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I've been doing research on modern day Lagos for a SR side project. My descriptions of the Lagos sprawl circa 2070's haven't been coming together as well as I'd like though... I can't wait to see what the writers have come up with.

-paws

[RunnerPaul]

Runners Companion
http://sirdoomsbadcompany.files.wordpress....anion-promo.pdf

Yeah, she certainly looks like a "companion."

Not that I think it's bad art. It's one of the better SR cover arts I've seen in a while. It's just when you put a hot-looking female on the cover of a book with that title, it sends a message to people who don't know anything about your game.

[Method]

I kind of wish the cover for Feral Cities showed more of a decaying cityscape instead of being so focused on the larger than life character. The art is great, but the tattooed elf is definitely the emphasis, not the Feral City in the background.

[CanRay]

Yeah, she certainly looks like a "companion."

Not that I think it's bad art. It's one of the better SR cover arts I've seen in a while. It's just when you put a hot-looking female on the cover of a book with that title, it sends a message to people who don't know anything about your game.

It does seem immature, yes. But at least she's fully clothed, is decked out in weapons, and is obviously not a Joygrrl.

[Method]

Did anybody notice this little nugget on the Runner's Companion release:

Introduces several non-metahuman races, artificial
intelligences, e-ghosts, and even free spirits as
character options for the first time ever.

April Fools part II or is that for real? I could see AI's and FS's being balanced. But, er.....what the hell is an e-ghost?!? Very cool.

[CanRay]

E-Ghost is probably the people trapped in the Matrix after Crash 2.0.

They're probably a force to be reckoned with, seeing as they'd be lead by one hell of a person. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/vegm.gif)

[Fortune]

Maybe an e-ghost is a Free Sprite.

[Method]

They're probably a force to be reckoned with, seeing as they'd be lead by one hell of a person.

In deed.

[RunnerPaul]

It does seem immature, yes. But at least she's fully clothed, is decked out in weapons, and is obviously not a Joygrrl.

True enough. Not even a visible bellybutton. In the last two decades, there's certainly been less tame SR art, even on covers. I think it's just the centerfold pose (if not centerfold wardrobe) combined with the book title that made that my first reaction.

[Zen Shooter01]

It's hinted here and there - in Emergence, to cite a specific example - that it is possible for people who die online, and particularly during the Crash 2.0, to have their personalities somehow transferred to the matrix at the moment of death. Their meat body is dead, but they live on in a way similar to AIs, ghosts in the machine. That's probably what an e-ghost is.

The art for Ghost Cartels is really awful. It's like a Manowar cover, only worse.

Sexy girl badass is a motif that was boring and played out by 1980 at the latest. The unoriginal Freudianism of a woman in skintight leather, lounging with a sword and a pistol casually between her legs, showing off her artificial hand, is not likely to thrill anyone older than fifteen or with an education beyond the 11th grade.

I do like the Feral Cities art. It's an original composition that conveys the tone of the book very well. I'm looking forward to this book - I've considered an African campaign for a long time. Lagos, here I come!

Regarding the Companion: young adult dragon PCs are so ridiculous they must be a joke, but free spirit PCs are innovative and surprising. Is that clear to everyone?

[CanRay]

True enough. Not even a visible bellybutton. In the last two decades, there's certainly been less tame SR art, even on covers. I think it's just the centerfold pose (if not centerfold wardrobe) combined with the book title that made that my first reaction.

*Shrug* Sexy, yet empowered. I like it.

'Course, I'm male, and, thus, a sexist pig. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[CanRay]

The art for Ghost Cartels is really awful. It's like a Manowar cover, only worse.

What are you talking about? There isn't a half-naked man on the cover. Everyone is wearing full clothing save the Plant Spirit.

And no swords, either.

[Blade]

So, what characters should appear on covers? Males and ugly females only?
Women's magazine's cover always feature sexy girls and often without too many clothes on. Does it mean that women's magazines are sexist and directed at RPG nerds?

[ornot]

I think it's the pose more than anything else that would make most feminists sick. I'll buy it, but I'll keep it cover side down when non-gamer girls I know come round. I get a hard enough time about being a geek already without giving them any more "sexually frustrated nerd" ammunition.

[Zen Shooter01]

Blade: I didn't say it was sexist, I said it was boring and unoriginal. And it has very little to do with SR. I don't recall SR ever being about babes lounging around in leather. (That's more my personal life). It's embarrassing for the game line to be trying to sell itself with cheesecake sex.

It's another issue entirely, but the covers of magazines like Glamour and Cosmopolitan promote a paradigm where the beauty standards are impossible, forever dooming subscribers to the paradigm to feelings of inadequacy. I don't think it's sexist, per se, but it's certainly no fun.

[Tiger Eyes]

Personally, I like the Runners Companion cover the most of all the recent cover art. To me, the pose and clothes just say "Yes, I'm hot, and yes, I can kill you. Bring it on."

And as a woman, I think it's a perfectly cool cover. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Wesley Street]

Runner's Companion and Feral Cities both have nice covers. I can see the oh-so-sexy elf chicky causing a stir with both genders but at the same time... it's a fantasy role-playing game. That's par for the course. Honestly the pose doesn't bother me. Walk through a lower class neighborhood in any major city and you'll see young women sprawled out like that on front stoops. And major yays for Lagos! Finally an African setting! Awesome! I'm very excited about both of these releases. Ghost Cartels' cover, like most SR adventure modules, isn't anything inspiring but the description sounds cool. I'm excited to send my players to Amazonia (whenever we get around to finishing Emergence).