You and your buddy are my new heroes.

Glav and Friend

...very interesting and enlighting reading. Good job. I knew there was something funky about the perspective.... curved lines ... too steep an angle. Then covering it up with smoke and dumpsters.
Flawed in so many ways... (even before getting to the characters)

again.. nice post

Now if only someone in charge reads that...

Actually, I thought they said the book was going to be hardcover. Maybe that picture will just be on a sleeve that you can remove, and it's just a plain black book underneath. </hoping>

Sounds like you need to introduce your friend to the game, have them fall in love with it and let them make a new cover to submit.

Hmm.. We should try having a contest, the goal to make an alternate cover with the same basic ingredients, but as it Should have looked.

Very nice commentary by the art friend. It´s a pitty so few rpg illustrators seem to have an education. Self learned artists can have all the talent in the world, like Mark Zug obviously has, but it´s unlikely they have any real understanding of light and shadow or proper picture layout.

Of course, the previous covers would get a similar pasting, me thinks.

*shakes head*

Yeah. I can't say I'm happy with the cover either. I wish they would have gotten the guy that did Shadows of Europe. I love that cover.

Personally, I would love to see them move away from haveing static pictures that are trying desperately to show a potential shadowrun moment. It would be nice if they went to something simple but elegant. Check out the covers to these new rpgs that are out on the market: L5R, Spycraft.

These are just two rpg lines/products that I have been impressed with in terms of cover art quality. The interior art can sometimes be just as bad as Shadowrun's, but at least AEG went the extra mile with the cover. Besides, it seems that AEG knows a little bit about marketing and that potential customers do judge a game by its cover. At least the covers of these books intrigues the potential buyer to pick it up off the shelf and flip through the book. Also retailers are proud to put books like these out on the shelf and give them a flat stacking instead of just the spine.

Sorry, just my ramblings about cover art

'and how important it really is!' (@ the dev team.)

Veracusse

I can't say I really like either of those covers Veracusse (something about the katana stuck in the book I just don't find striking) but agree that something simple but elegant would have been slick. Such as doing the old SR logo on an otherwise single color backrgound, which I believe was suggested earlier in this thread.

I am not suggesting that we need any more katanas in SR All I am suggesting is that something simple would be nice for a change. I guess that fewer words sometimes says a lot more. In this case, fewer images in the drawing could say more about the game. By your post (Edge 2054) I think that we are in agreeement.

Veracusse

@ Edge2054 - I thought air elementals could only attack using a power. How are they getting friend-in-melee bonus's?

@ tisoz: Engulf is resolved as a melee attack. Don't know what the official ruling on that would be but in our groups we've always applied melee modifiers to it. In another instance air elementals can still use melee attacks on the astral plane and get friends in melee bonuses to such if they gang up on someone (good way to take out Uber spirits).

@ Veracusse: I agree, we are certainly in agreement.

tisoz, air elementals may not be able to attack, but they can defend themselves (albeit dealing no damage).

I like the new L5R cover. Spycraft's covers never impressed me... they just look too dull to me.

After thinking about it a bit more, there's really some simple things they could do to imporve it a hundred fold.

1) Fix the shadows.

Get a couple of those poseable model guys, and put them in the right positions. Shine a flashlight on them. Then, translate into the picture. In fact, make the whole thing darker. It would improve so very, very much the realism of the scene. As shown earlier in this thread, it could be done rather simply in a photo editing program.

2) Give the character's Expressions on their faces.

It's like they all ligned up and someone said, "Cheeze!" Where's the expression of anger, power, or defiance on the Troll as he casts his spell? I'd expect his mouth to be open, baring all his teeth, with furrowed eyebrows. The Dwarf looks like he/she (I hate ambiguous dwarves) is puckering up for a kiss...maybe an expression of satisfaction (yay, I cracked the lock!) or confusion (Damnit, when'd they install THAT piece of IC?) would be better. I don't know what you could do about the ninja elf...her face (and most of her body) is pretty well covered by the other characters.

3) Fix the street sam.

Ugh. Give him a decent expression on his face, too. Caution. An evil smile (cause he KNOWS these guys don't stand a chance!). Fear (oh jeez...what the hell is THAT they're shooting at us?)... Anything!

Last, but not least, fix his hand. Yes, the hand with the spur in it. It's simple anatomy: A human hand cannot bend in that direction. If it's supposed to be a cyberarm that makes it be able to, then show us! The author has been able do some pretty intersting cybernetic characters in the past. (Remember the Orc Decker with a cyberarm? That was this cover's artist) He covers it up now with an ugly coat, not showing the cyber at all.



Arrugh.

That was the same guy?
What, did he suffer some neurological breakdown?
I loved the ork combat decker in SR3.

Zug can definitely do good work. No idea what happened here.

~J

Heh, it looks like it should be a magazine cover - all posed and 'ready'

Shadowrun Monthly
In this issue:
Redmond 'Safe' houses; Worth it?
Ninjas; Fact and fiction
Sally Tsung SwimSuit Pictorial!
History of the Predator, and a preview of the Predator IV
Munchkins?

Then I got Bored during lunch.....

Ok, now it looks decent. Probably because I'm not paying as much attention to the actual art, but it definitely fits there. Though the "Munchkins?" tag looks odd placed where it is.

~J

You should put the Shadowrun S at the top. Well done otherwise.

Like so?

Yep, pretty much like that.

On another note, parody protections rock.

~J

Well I better save this pic fast then (with your permission of course) and laminate it onto my copy of SR4 when it comes out. At least that way the awful picture will make me laugh rather than cry every time i see it.

Veracusse

Be my guest!

I hope they bring the Old skool skull from the 1st and 2nd editions back and put it on the cover.

Here's something. what about this cover as a "Dust Jacket" and a plain black hardbound book underneath, with a silvery embossed SR logo?

Something like that might play well to all audiences.

You know, the picture almost makes more sense if you assume the runners are trying to LEAVE the building.

The troll mage is trying to delay the obviously imminent security guards, the dwarf hacker is trying to lock the blast doors, the street sam is looking for guards outside the building, the devil rat is running away now because the team just came out the door.

The only one who doesn't fit is the elf chick. I guess she's running towards the building to provide an alternate target for the sec guards, or she's gonna play "Bullets and Bracelets" with the auto rifle fire.

My 2 nuyen worth.

Well, I've seen the Fanpro 2005 catalog, and I know why the sam was looking at his arm in that image. This revision just looks out of place and awful.

Pain editor.

~J

At least the border and the Shadowrun logo are okay...

that does look pretty neat. Kinda takes away from the dorkiness of the actual picture

WOW... I really like the set up for the cover. The image itself still irks me, but the set up is brilliant.

Well, like I said, the layout-the border and logo-are pretty good. The art blows.

I could have done without the Matrix ripoff cascading kanj on the right-hand side of the cover. Other than that I like the new logo layout, the circuit board stuff is pretty cool too.

sweet! thanks for that link. too bad google couldn't come up with this site.