Quote from: RPGPundit;831622Corporia is a great book, and not just because I'm listed in the credits.

Aw, shucks.

I feel kind of like I derailed this thread, though, so back to the topic in general...

The other places you tend to see photos done well is in miniatures games, with photos of the minis and the tabletop, but of course you don't generally see the actual players. You really have to have well-painted figs and terrain, as well as good lighting, of course.

You can also get away with using photos in 'Old West' RPGs like (sorry if I mention something else I worked on) the Aces & Eights RPG and supplements. The character book alone was nothing but old photos and character sheets!

I imagine there are other 'historical' RPGs that use photos, particularly westerns, but I don't know their names. Anyone?

Quote from: 3rik;831329For those interested, I have confirmation through email from both Leisure Games and Chronicle City that they have the Corporia hardcover in stock and it comes with a free pdf.

As Chronicle City is the slightly cheaper option for me I'm going to order it from them. Let's see how long it takes for the book to arrive...

Update: The book arrived already! There doesn't appear to be any reason to refrain from ordering at Chronicle City.

Nice! Good to hear.

Quote from: Mark Plemmons;830316For the Kickstarter last year, I did a limited edition hardcover. I'm going to do a POD, but I have to tweak the layout just a tiny bit for POD. The original was graphic novel size (6.625" x 10.125") and I need to change it to 7" x 10".

I noticed you put up the tweaked PDF on DriveThruRPG. Could you elaborate a little on the differences between the old and the new version? If the differences are substantial enough I may order in a POD book of the new version and give the one from Chronicle City to someone as a present.

Quote from: 3rik;844023I noticed you put up the tweaked PDF on DriveThruRPG. Could you elaborate a little on the differences between the old and the new version? If the differences are substantial enough I may order in a POD book of the new version and give the one from Chronicle City to someone as a present.

Sure thing.

DriveThru uses Lightning Source (LSI) for their POD products. Because of this, I had to slightly reformat the page trim to fit 7x10, and add one blank page at the end of the book for LSI's own internal bar code. However, because the page count has to be divisible by 4, I had to either delete 1 page, or add 4. I didn't want to delete any content, so I added 4. The end of the book now includes a 2-page "cryptid scene investigation" guide for players, and a 1-page mission log/adventure creation worksheet for the Directors (GMs), plus the bar code page.

Because I had to make all of these tweaks anyway, and because my graphic design skills have improved quite a bit since 2013, I replaced some pieces of art. You can see a couple of examples on my blog:

https://plebotamus.wordpress.com/2015/06/25/rpg-design-converting-corporia-to-print-on-demand/
https://plebotamus.wordpress.com/2015/07/15/rpg-design-less-is-more-bold-is-better/

Here's what went out to everyone who downloaded the PDF from DriveThru/RPGNow:

This update includes various graphic design changes (most prominently within the "story so far" introduction (pages 8-11) and in Chapter 2 player archetypes), plus other replacements for various pieces of art.

Text updates include minor spelling, wording, and erratum corrections, as well as the following:

- A new two-page "Cryptid Scene Investigation guide" in the appendix (pages 208-209), plus an updated Crime skill (page 66) provides greater detail on Knightwatch investigations.

- A new form-fillable Director's Mission Log and Scenario Worksheet is now included in the appendix (page 207). This will also be made available as a free download.

- The PC Creation Guide now appears facing the Character Sheet (pages 210-211) and is referenced earlier in the character creation section (page 16).

- Page 17 and Director's page 166. It has been clarified that NPCs not affected by the Flux should only roll 1d6 for ability checks. Unlike Player Characters and special NPCs/cryptids, they do not roll 2d6 and choose the high roll.

- Page 78. The Hack asset has been expanded with greater detail.

- Pages 112-113.The EyePhone and its upgrades have been expanded with greater detail about how each works. The CSI guide also includes a footnote about how the EyePhone can provide 'meta' information to the players without breaking character.

- The Watchman security company is now known as The Watch.

- The Lionhead mega-corporation is now known as Leoline Inc.

- Director's section pages 169-172 adds challenges for ALL mega-corps, not just the most prominent.

- Death has been given its own paragraph in the Healing section (page 24). This actually occurred in an earlier update, but I wanted to mention it again here.


Hope that helps!

Quote from: Simlasa;828117Those are nicely done... I'd bet they weren't cheap though, and I suspect cheap is what motivates a lot of previous attempts at using photos in RPGs.

they are okay but still look dorky (sorry if the creators are on here).

Great photographic art looks like this

Spoiler

and you can get art from photo-manipulation by a reasonable artist that looks like this -

Spoiler

the latter is much cheaper.

As people have noted the Cyberpunk stuff had some cringe worth photos where the designer or his mate put on a leather jacket and stuck a telephone cable behind their ear, or stuff like this

Spoiler

Jérôme Huguenin's work on Trail of Cthulhu looks great, his unsettling technique of mixing photomontage and painting suits the game perfectly.

Quote from: Bilharzia;845152Jérôme Huguenin's work on Trail of Cthulhu looks great, his unsettling technique of mixing photomontage and painting suits the game perfectly.

I never saw that image before. Yes, it's freaking great.

Quote from: Mark Plemmons;845112=snip=

That does look good, Mark. I'm really tempted. I'll have to check my  friend's potential interest in owning a print copy of the game; no use in giving him a present  he's not interested in...

Quote from: RPGPundit;845434I never saw that image before. Yes, it's freaking great.

As much as Trail of Cthulhu as a game does not appeal to me, I have to say there´s a lot of really fantastic and appropriately moody artwork in those books.