BTW. The cover of Running Wild is just great! Has anyone seen the cover of SOLA? (ducks and runs...)

Running Wild does look pretty awesome. The guy also did one of my favorite pics from The Art of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire.

She's a little thin for an ork. Maybe she's an ork-poser elf.

Lesbian Ninja Ork Poser Elf!

... Lesbian Ninja Ork Poser Elf Catgirl. (with bobbed tail and clipped ears)...

Arsenal cover art>Augmentation cover art.

True, but it's like a choice between pest and cholera.

And we got both... I personally find the Augmentation Cover better.

Sometimes it's not the best if you get both.
I would love to see a special version of all cure rulebooks to be released, like the Limited Edition of the main rulebook. Simply black, with the title printed in silver letters.

This is a finer world you speak of, a world where I actually feel like buying supplements because I can put them on a bookshelf without posting a sign that says "The Management Would Like to Apologize For Bad Cover Art."

Of course I raise the specter or 2nd edition internal art. You know, the ones colored with crayons?

I prefer the cover of Augmentation to Arsenal. I find it's actually grown on me. A bit. Runner Havens is still the best marriage of ability and content in the fourth edition material so far.

Guess which is the first page of the PDF that will be printed (Two guesses in case your first answer is "the cover")? And the silver colouring idea is great, I think minor prodding will make my GF do it.

(We don't have a :jealous: emoticon here)

Post a pic when it's done.

And to the powers-that-be (Synner, Adam, whoever): give us LEs of all core rulebooks! Yay!

I prefer the cover to Augmentation's cover.

It might grow on me...at least it's not offensively orange

I don't know if I have liked any of the 4th edition covers.
BBB: Too many SR4 "in-jokes", jarring perspective and body angles, unclear lighting effects from the magic and my biggest complain, it had nothing to do with the interior intro story.
Aresenal: Closest to liking, but still not quite there for me. the guns make no sense in scale to one another.
Augmentation: Looks like bad 3d render and no perspective with the rest of the scene
Emergence: Very frantic and hectic. I would think the AR boxes would be crisper, the fuzzy thing would drive me crazy.

Haven't seen any other covers yet

Has anyone seen any alternate covers for Arsenal? My PDF has the usual "Ork chick on a tank" cover, but one of my friends has a PDF with a modified version of the pg7 art for the cover.

Anyone else seen that one?

That's the first interior page of the book, Ed.

I liked the orc on cover of Arsenal alot. Personally I think the orc female in it was very well drawn, and to me atleast it comes very close to how I picture a bad ass orc girl runner.

Nikoli, what were the BBB "in-jokes"?

If this isn't the cover for Running Wild then I don't envy the artist who lands the job. That's going to be a tough one to beat because that illustration is awwwwwwwwwwsome.

PS: The Arsenal cover rules, Augmentation's cover is fo' foo's! Bwa-ha-ha!

*runs away while ripping off clothes*

What bothers me most about the BBB cover is how the lesbian elf ninja or whatever is holding her curved sword on her belt. That seems like a crappy way to draw a sword.

It is a katana she is drawing, and that's the proper way of doing it. This is the difference between opinion and knowledge.

A more understanding future will allow you to draw your katana with whatever hand you desire. As long as you don´t do it in the dojo.

Actually, it's the proper way of doing it if you're in a mirror. Of course, there's nothing saying that she's using traditional techniques.

A friend of mine who does book binding/repair used the image on page 1 for his arsenal cover. There is something off with size/proportion/perspective of many of the weapons on the cover.

Augmentation.... too orange... and you know what I mean.

But yea overall the image quality for a lot of the books has gotten better.

I was actually thinking more along the lines of how her scabbard is positioned on her belt. Wouldn't she want the curve of the sword pointing the other way, so it would help rather than fight against an upward arc? And I guess I'm not a sword expert like Malicant, but I can't see how a downward arc would work, given the positioning of humanoid arms.

Or more of the sinister (read: left handed) profession.


That's the funny (read: utterly dangerous) part about japanese sword stuff. The edge is pointing upwards. It looks weird and it has the tendency of cutting you up if you don't know exactly what you are doing. So, yes, the scabbard goes that way, at least it's supposed to. And it's not bad either. Someone trained with that kind of weapon/combat style can draw and resheath the blade insanely fast (and cleave someone in two, to boot) and will only cut himself intentionally (or if drunk).

Also, I'm no sword expert, I just happend to pick up some fun facts about Japanese swords. If that was a rapier the gal was wielding I would be totally at a loss to explain what she is doing.

Katana are worn blade-upward, because the idea is that the wooden scabbard balances it in place rather than gripping the (extremely keen) edge. The part where the scabbard grips the weapon is at the tsuba (guard).

No, she does everything right, except that she would want to have her right hand at the hilt of the sword, and her sword on her left side.

You carry the sword with the edge pointing up. Consider the movement of your right (drawing) hand if your left (scabbard) hand stays at your hip. When you draw, you tilt your hand so that the edge points outwards. The resulting plane of your drawing motion puts your blade from your left side through the right torso of an advancing opponent, only by immediately drawing. Your right arm stops the drawing motion relativly close to its position in a basic stance.

If you had the edge pointing down, the drawing motion would have to do damage by an upward swing, hard to do that forcefully and not a cutting motion, and your right arm is stretched higher (extending movement upwards instead of sideways).

The best part about drawing the sword in such a manner is inherent in its use. The katana is a draw-cut weapon. Essentially it operates in a slicing motion very different from straight swords which generally use point attacks, or slashing/chopping attacks. So drawing it in this manner usually with forward movement results in the necessary movement to cut someone open very neatly or messily depending on how you like to think about it

I still don't understand. Given the curve of the scabbard, how do you get the thing out without a downward arc?

Not downwards, sidewards. Do not forget the rotation of the left hand. You can easily rotate your hand some 90 degrees. The weapon comes free in a somewhat horizontal plane, edge towards enemy. The drawing motion changes the angle between scabard and sword, thats where the arc goes.

@CBB
Look how this guy does it. Go to 2:05 min (give or take).

btw, this is helluva boring to watch, so seriouly, just look how he draws the sword and tune out afterwards.

Think of the mechanics of your hand and wrist. If you're holding the weapon blade-up, your wrist relaxes into line with your cut. If you're holding it blade-down, you have to pull the blade up with the extensors in your forearm; this also requires you to change the inertia in the weapon, whereas with a blade-up draw-and-cut you're using the movement of the blade to your advantage.

Grab a dowel or something sword-like and try it yourself. Slowly. Watch where the tip tries to go as you go through your moves.

Totally agree I really hope to see it as the cover for Running wild! Hope to see more covers from that artist in the future!!!