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Old 06-08-2018, 11:00 PM   #1
RoboAdmin
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Default June 9, 2018: The Fantasy Trip: Wizard Cover!

June 9, 2018: The Fantasy Trip: Wizard Cover!

Read this article on the Illuminator.
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Old 06-09-2018, 09:06 AM   #2
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Default Re: June 9, 2018: The Fantasy Trip: Wizard Cover!

This looks absolutely fantastic! Great work, Brandon!
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Old 06-09-2018, 11:11 AM   #3
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Default Re: June 9, 2018: The Fantasy Trip: Wizard Cover!

Absolutely thrilling!
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Old 06-09-2018, 12:15 PM   #4
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Default Re: June 9, 2018: The Fantasy Trip: Wizard Cover!

I'm thrilled to see Wizard and The Fantasy Trip come back.

That cover is incredibly tame, and can't see it making an appeal in a local game store.

Remember, this is the standard that was set:

https://goo.gl/3rF4ou

Last edited by Andrew Hackard; 06-09-2018 at 01:37 PM.
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Old 06-09-2018, 02:50 PM   #5
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Default Re: June 9, 2018: The Fantasy Trip: Wizard Cover!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Groknard View Post
Absolutely thrilling!
Brandon did good. We will have more to show over the next month.
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Old 06-09-2018, 09:57 PM   #6
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Default Re: June 9, 2018: The Fantasy Trip: Wizard Cover!

Both previous covers for Wizards showed a memorable scene of magical combat. I'm sorry but this is terribly disappointing. It's just a robed woman doing... not much. People this isn't an art class where you're supposed to say encouraging things because you like how he did the sparkles or the hair. This is the cover for a product meant to go on sale. The covers of old got my long-ago teenaged heart racing. This does not. Sorry.
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Old 06-11-2018, 01:25 AM   #7
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Default Re: June 9, 2018: The Fantasy Trip: Wizard Cover!

Quote:
Originally Posted by arcanecowboy View Post
..That cover is incredibly tame, and can't see it making an appeal in a local game store.
Agreed; the concept seems to be trying to appeal to, or cater to, something else not related to the game; and with a motivational-focus on something other than accurately defining the game visually - and all at the potential expense of future sales, with the added risk of alienating the long-term loyalist customer-base.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ronbo View Post
Both previous covers for Wizards showed a memorable scene of magical combat. I'm sorry but this is terribly disappointing. It's just a robed woman doing... not much. People this isn't an art class where you're supposed to say encouraging things because you like how he did the sparkles or the hair.
Agreed; and well said. While wonderfully rendered in terms of artistic talent, I cannot say the same for the design concept and elements employed. Perhaps accurate art-direction would be found by applying focus on the stated definition to the actual game itself:

"WIZARD is a game of combat between two or more wizards and the creatures they conjure up." - TFT: Wizard; 1980 Third Edition (revised).

JK

Last edited by Jim Kane; 06-11-2018 at 07:34 AM. Reason: Addendum
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Old 06-11-2018, 03:52 AM   #8
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Default Re: June 9, 2018: The Fantasy Trip: Wizard Cover!

I'd have to say I agree with the disappointments expressed. Whilst it's perfectly ok as a simple piece of Fantasy Art, it looks like it should be part of a larger scene. And I want the whole scene not just one tiny corner. Who or what is she casting a spell at? And why? And where?

If you look at the great classic covers of FRPGs, such as the first edition AD&D Players Handbook, there's a lot going on in that picture; dark underground cavern, giant idol with huge rubies for eyes, dead lizardmen litter the floor, adventurers prizing gems from the eye sockets. That picture tells a story and fires the imagination.

I was hoping for that sort of treatment.
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Old 06-11-2018, 03:53 AM   #9
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Default Re: June 9, 2018: The Fantasy Trip: Wizard Cover!

I thought the new cover art is pretty dull.

My favourite cover was the first edition. In some ways the art was rough, but it showed a wizard lightning bolting a summoned 7 hex dragon, a coven of wizards aiding a master wizard casting the dragon. The dungeon art (which carried on to the back cover), made you feel that there was a real story.

It also felt that the artist had actually played the game, unlike the "I removed your face" cover art. That spell was not even in the game.

Warm regards, Rick.
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Old 06-11-2018, 08:32 AM   #10
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Default Re: June 9, 2018: The Fantasy Trip: Wizard Cover!

"Artwork" today and the artists that seem to make it almost all rely on computer software and graphics.

The original Wizard cover, which *isn't* the one with the floating head but rather the interesting scene where a wizard is in a cavern on a cliff shooting a lighting bolt at a dragon being conjured by several other wizards down below which he probably doesn't realize are there.

It's a very good cover and draws the viewer in to the possibilities of the back and forth that Wizard the game allows, tricks and illusions, so to speak.

Like most of the modern world of styrofoam, laminates, sawdust, and glue for cheap house construction that lacks true craftsmanship, much of art has suffered the same.

Very few artists that I have seen or know actually even draw any more, it is all computer guided and generated.

The new cover isn't bad (and what young male doesn't want to fill their view with an attractive young lady) and I am very happy TFT will hopefully be made available to the general public and a generation of phombies, but it fails in engaging much of the imagination of what Wizard the game can be, IMO.

Grade: C+
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