• Welcome to the new COTI server. We've moved the Citizens to a new server. Please let us know in the COTI Website issue forum if you find any problems.

T5 cover ?

mike wightman

SOC-14 10K
Looks like someone has done a pretty good version of what T5's cover should be like.

Check out post number 34 on this link to rpg.net.
;)
file_23.gif
 
Sigh, as much I would like to see Traveller & Firefly merged in a more concrete way. It is that I would want to see more Traveller in Firefly (and it looks like Serentity will disappoint me there). Traveller is infinitely richer than Firefly. So I am waiting for Joss Whelan to pick up Traveller and say, by god, this IS the STORY THAT I WANT TO TELL!
 
T5's cover should be black, with a red line across it. About 8.25" x 5.75". :cool:
 
The thing about Firefly I think is that it could very easily be set in Traveller (because Traveller has crazy tech extremes and pocket empires and traders and stuff). You could look at Firefly and say "By god, this is a story that I want to tell!" and run it with Traveller, with minimal tweaking because it is a specific story that could easily fit in the OTU.

But there just isn't a specific story to tell in the OTU. Traveller isn't a "story to tell", any more than D&D is. It's just a very vague, broad (and inconsistent) setting that you could plonk pretty much anything into.

Now, TNE on the other hand - THAT screams out some very specific sorts of stories...
 
Well, the OTU (in its T20 & CT) incarnations do not have one story arc they do make certain presumptions about how future history is going to go.

It is an exciting story that takes us from the orbital complexes of the Droyne and a particular one who looked at the galaxy as a whole to the Heat Death of the universe is the exciting story of Traveller.

However, I would rather hear the story of the rise of the 3I and its neighours dramatized, as a core story. T5 looks set to do this with its supplements set in different eras.
 
Originally posted by robject:
the LBB look has been suggested. Though extremeley unlikely, it's cute.
Keeping the red line with the word Traveller would be a good move for it's recognizable aspects.
Just make it less dominant... across the top or bottom.
 
I'll never understand this obsession with the "red line and text on black cover" style for Traveller. Until QLI and Avenger started releasing the PDF supplements, new Traveller material hadn't looked like that for over 15 years. MT, TNE, and T4 certainly didn't have that style at all. The GT corebook went back to that look as an obvious homage (that worked very well I thought), but the rest of the GT line was totally different. T20 itself and the Gateway book also had a different look. Obviously the CT reprints kept the look, but from everything I've heard pretty much the only people who bought those were collectors and people who already had the CT LBBs and wanted to pull everything together in one place.

When people say the CT style is "recognisable", to whom are they talking about? Outside the Traveller community, how recognisable really *is* the coloured line/black cover of Traveller? Would any roleplayer born in the 80s or 90s even know its significance?

I think that it's a bad sign if a game's cover is designed to appeal to its existing market only - I think it's very backward-looking. A new version of a game should be designed to appeal to a new market, and should have its own identity.
 
Originally posted by Malenfant:
I think that it's a bad sign if a game's cover is designed to appeal to its existing market only - I think it's very backward-looking. A new version of a game should be designed to appeal to a new market, and should have its own identity.
Fair enough.
It was only meant as having a recognizable symbol/mark. If a new one can be created or is desired then good


I like the phoenix in TNE...
 
Originally posted by Malenfant:
I'll never understand this obsession with the "red line and text on black cover" style for Traveller.
Well, now, I actually prefer a green line, myself ... ;)
 
Put a scantily-clad blonde spacegirl on the front cover... and we'll see an instant market-sales Renaissance in Traveller once more.
file_23.gif
 
Blondes...Sadly, that has never determined sales on RPG items especially, Science Fiction ones. I blame Barbarella for popularizing . However, to have attractive people doing cool things does make a good cover. More than ships, worlds and strange creatures. We all (both sexes) like candy art but what determines sales is the overall art direction. Ensuring the art is consistant and good throughout not mash-up of all previous styles. But, use art to help tell the story.

Out of the covers, I actually like t5cover2.jpg as did does convey the otherworldliness and at the same time shows people...stranded, refuelling, contemplating adventure...this basic story then should be transported throughout the product.
 
The Mark Lucas, or Ted Lindsey are PERFECT.

Damn, My dice-hand is watering already.

I'd pay 75.00-100.00 for that Lindsey edition. No BS.
 
Merxiless: Thanks for the nice comment. I'm glad you really like that cover. That's my iconic image of what Traveller is all about. Maybe I should make some high resolution print available on www.cafepress.com if you're willing to pay that much. ;)

- Ted
 
uh-oh. i already took the image you put up here and printed it out onto photo paper. i put it in a frame and have it in my office at home.
 
Back
Top