New front cover for 2nd edition
- Thread starter Zeke73
- Start date
I'm not a great fan of floating faces in general. A thing I've noticed on covers of almost all Conan books is that there are some characters in aggressive poses while some seem all relaxed. It seems a bit silly at times. Take Hyboria's Fallen for example - the lady in the front is screaming bloody murder while the pirate next to him is just relaxing. In 2 Ed. cover the guy with the spear behind Conan is likewise taking things easy.
Heh, well, the game uses turn based combat, so maybe those relaxed-looking guys are just waiting for their turn.
Heh, well, the game uses turn based combat, so maybe those relaxed-looking guys are just waiting for their turn.
One Star Under Heaven
Mongoose
I prefer the original 2nd edition cover of Conan grappling the ape-man, especially since I have the softcover Conan book with the picture it seemed to be based on. I can see how there might have been copyright issues, though.
That elderly Aesir(?) in the lower left corner does look like a dwarf.
That elderly Aesir(?) in the lower left corner does look like a dwarf.
I like it, it's nice, if only slightly overcrowded. But it's cool, Quilliams did a great job again. His depiction of Conan is the closest to my own, though, so I may be biased towards him. 
Would like to second the request of seeing the old cover in a sourcebook of some kind though.
Would like to second the request of seeing the old cover in a sourcebook of some kind though.
Bjorn the Barbarian
Mongoose
Cool cover, but I do have one point of order. Why is Conan holding his sword in his left hand? If memory serves, he is right handed!
Ooooopppppsssss! :shock:
Ooooopppppsssss! :shock:
The artwork is very nice. Still, I have to say that I really liked the old cover's style showing sort of a "snapshot" of the action (a theme also used in most of the rest of the Conan line).
Still, it will probably grow on me with time. I just hope the ensamble of floating heads doesn't become the "theme" for the second edition line.
Later.
Still, it will probably grow on me with time. I just hope the ensamble of floating heads doesn't become the "theme" for the second edition line.
Later.
FrouzenIland
Mongoose
It looks like a Star Wars poster.
Dunno if it is good or bad though.
I like this kind of cover image for core books, since it tries to puts together many aspects of the game, the overall feeling of it in one image.
One image that tells much.
Dunno if it is good or bad though.
I like this kind of cover image for core books, since it tries to puts together many aspects of the game, the overall feeling of it in one image.
One image that tells much.
cquilliams
Mongoose
The people at Conan Enterprises felt that the Rogues in the House cover featuring the climax of Conan and Thak fighting was thought to be to non descriptive and didn't feature enough of the Conan universe. They like the first cover painting but felt that a Star Wars like movie poster design was more appropriate showing the much larger variety needed with the movie poster/floating head composition. I actually really like the idea of the floating heads showing a variety of races and characters that might be in a Conan film. 
I'm excited about the ground work being laid for the new Conan film by the way with Millennium at the helm. Hope everything works out.
I've posted the cover for the upcoming Players Manual on my epilogue gallery. For anyone who hasn't seen it yet and is interested here's the link
www.epilogue.net/cgi/database/art/view.pl?id=106677
Conan in a berserker rage battling Picts. It's my personal favorite cover so far.
Cheers
Chris Q
I'm excited about the ground work being laid for the new Conan film by the way with Millennium at the helm. Hope everything works out.
I've posted the cover for the upcoming Players Manual on my epilogue gallery. For anyone who hasn't seen it yet and is interested here's the link
www.epilogue.net/cgi/database/art/view.pl?id=106677
Conan in a berserker rage battling Picts. It's my personal favorite cover so far.
Cheers
Chris Q
I like the new cover, although I probably liked the old one better (I really liked that one).
The change does make sense, though, to show people totally unfamiliar with Conan that this is a game about more than ape-wrestling.
The pict-slaughtering one for the Players Manual is also very perty.
The change does make sense, though, to show people totally unfamiliar with Conan that this is a game about more than ape-wrestling.
The pict-slaughtering one for the Players Manual is also very perty.
Wasn't this the one that ended up as the cover of the Conan Compendium?The King said:
Its certainly very good. One of the things I like most about your work is that the action scenes you do really look like a snapshot taken in the middle of a dynamic sequence, not like a bunch of people standing close together holding swords in the air in a rather random way! You can follow through all the figures and see exactly what they are doing, and why, and who they are reacting to. However, my favourite remains Pirate Isles!
Jeepers! I'm assuming for the sake of argument that its REH only... and that they are all named characters! Both very dangerous assumptions, but I have to narrow it down somehow.
Figure in the center, Conan obviously.
Woman standing with sword: There are only two fighting women in REH's tales, and Valeria is blonde. This figure is dark haired, wielding a very Shemite looking sword. Belit, surely.
Man standing with sword. Fairly scruffy and long haired, but the clothes look tailored to me, not barbarian. Clearly heavy duty outdoors, but no armour. I'm plumping for Balthus from Beyond the Black River.
Top right, skull face in helmet. Hum. I'm frankly fairly convinced that this is The Thing in the Crypt, from the de Camp pastiche (one of the best in my opinion). Still, if we're sticking to REH I might get it in as one of the resurrected wizards in their real forms: Xaltotun or Thugra Khotan. The latter in particular has a "skull like" face, although I never interpreted that as literally as this!
Top right, man with black beard. Looks Shemite to me, and probably city shemite. Well dressed. Might be Shupras from Black Colossus.
Top right, dark skinned man. Snakes in his hair and serious jewellry: Welathy and powerful Settite. Probably a Chaga from Kush. Snout in the Dark isn't a favourite of mine: I can't manage a name for this one!
Riders. Background colour. Too small to tell.
Bottom left, white bearded man. Clearly a Nordheimer. Not many of those get names; I'm going for Niord the chieftain who rescues Conan at the end of "Gods of the North".
Bottom left, dark haired woman. She's also quite dark skinned, which narrows the field, many of REH's women are specifically pale. An exception is Tascela from Red Nails who is darker skinned and wears jewels. I'm going for her.
bottom right, bald man. Bald implies Stygian, but he's very pale for that. Nabonidus the Red Priest from Rogues in the House has a shaven temple: it could be they go in for full shaving too. Nabonidus is my guess.
I'm going to have to reread Snout in the Dark...
Damien
Mongoose
I hate to be a downer, but I -really- don't like this cover. Not that I could do better, mind you. The floating faces just don't do it for me, too scattered looking and not evocative of the subject matter.
But my biggest complaint is the man himself. Conan looks so.. stunted and disproportionate. I just don't like it.
To be fair, I wasn't a fan of the original cover either. The Atlantean cover is still my favourite. I don't like too much action on my cover art - something more subdued is good. Conan just standing there going 'yeah, this is an RPG about me... wanna fight about it?' totally works for me.
But my biggest complaint is the man himself. Conan looks so.. stunted and disproportionate. I just don't like it.
To be fair, I wasn't a fan of the original cover either. The Atlantean cover is still my favourite. I don't like too much action on my cover art - something more subdued is good. Conan just standing there going 'yeah, this is an RPG about me... wanna fight about it?' totally works for me.
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