Quite fond of this one for the wrong reasons - AD&D Unearthed Arcana: I'm a sucker for just about anything that lets me pretend to be a wizard better.  This book isn't about that.  If Ars Magica put a cover like this on every edition, I'd probably own each one.

Quote from: Tim;424623Benoist, no offense, but that French RQ cover is an example of someone getting it very wrong. At least in my eyes.  

Nah it's cool. The scan is really bad, for one thing (the picture "for real" has a LOT more life to it than this pic would suggest), and well... I just love the detail of it. The hoplite that gives a definite mythic tone to it, the Red Moon behind, the colors. I love that cover.

Quote from: winkingbishop;424625What do you say Ben, do the French dig on giant plumes as a rule?

I remember when I found out about the Yelmite Hoplite mercenary band in Dragon Pass (which I think is who this guy on the cover actually is, though I'm not really sure - in the magazine they were named the "Hoplites Flamboyants", i.e. Flaming Hoplites, though I'm not sure what the mercenary band's name is in English) while reading a French magazine, and I totally fell in love with them. So I guess that French guy has a thing going for that kind of helmet at least...

In the OP, I mentioned how the GURPS Basic Set cover art somehow enchanted me during my youth with its promise of one system/any character.  I don't know if I'm simply jaded now, but these leave me cold (you'll note the similarities easily):

Offered without comment:

Quote from: danbuter;424634

YES! Not only is that the cat's meow, but they reused it for some novel set in Mystara too.  Sneaky bastards.

Quote from: winkingbishop;424638YES! Not only is that the cat's meow, but they reused it for some novel set in Mystara too.  Sneaky bastards.

Here we go, I knew I wasn't making it up:

Quote from: winkingbishop;424626Quite fond of this one for the wrong reasons - AD&D Unearthed Arcana: I'm a sucker for just about anything that let's me pretend to be a wizard better.  This book isn't about that.  If Ars Magica put a cover like this on every edition, I'd probably own each one.

That's a good call. As a general rule, I really dislike Easley's color artwork, but UA is a fantastic cover. Regardless of how much people have ragged on that book over the years, I still like it, and the cover really sets the mood.

Quote from: danbuter;424633

The first and last time I felt any kind of real excitement for a FR product was that box set, and that cover really caught my eye.

Quote from: danbuter;424634

Elmore's art often leaves me cold because it has a stiff, posed look a lot of the time, but this is one of his real achievements. One of the most memorable images from D&D of that era.

This is a little bit "edition war" but it's a pet peeve of mine when new editions of games sell out.

I have to be able to judge a book by the cover. This mysterious cover,

though crude, tells me more about the book than this one,

even though the second is a cute Foglio picture that I'm sure sold some copies.

This one tells me about the game,

whereas this one

does not. It further suffers from "three idiots staring out from the cover" syndrome, which someone scientifically proved sold books. Commercial or no, it looks stupid and I wish that had never been a trend.

I know several of you out there try hard to sell your games, and that cover is the best advertisement you have--but covers designed as ads often aren't very compelling at all.

Here's one I think got it wrong. I remember cringing when I first saw it. If I hadn't liked GDW's products in general, I likely would never have picked it up. It's an example of the kind of Elmore art I really dislike, and it also doesn't really convey to me much about what the game is about - is it about blow-dried denizens of an 80s "teen" comedy facing off with the energy vampire/zombies from Lifeforce?

Warhammer FRP 1st Edition did a great job of capturing the tone of the game.  My absolute favorite remains the 1st Edition D&D Player's Handbook, though.  For the most part, the covers for the 2nd Edition books were pretty good, too.

This was also well done...