#RPGaDay: Day 29

29. What has been the best-run RPG Kickstarter (or other crowdfunded RPG project) you have backed?

Answer: I've never backed any Kickstarter or crowdfunded project. Not that I wouldn't, I'm just usually late to the game and only find out about stuff after the deadline has expired. Since this is the case, let's do another alternate question.

Alternate Question: What would appear on an RPG book cover that would make you want to play it?

Answer: This is really as much of a marketing question as it is a gaming question and it hearkens back to Day 5's question about which cover captures the spirit of the game. What I thought I'd focus on is what kind of cover artwork and design are liable to draw me in. This is really a subjective response to one type of aesthetic over others. I know I'm supposed to be couching my answers in a positive light rather than a negative one, but I'm going to start with what I don't respond to before explaining what it is that I do like and why.

I don't care for glossy, hyper-stylized illustrations with overly muscled superheroic characters in absurdly impossible and epic acts of glory. Lots of people do like that kind of thing, but it isn't for me. On the other end of the spectrum I'm also not a huge fan of the serious-tome look of the 3rd edition D&D books and some other games which just looks like it's trying too hard to appear to be something other (more "serious") than a role-playing game. I gravitate towards something in between, a little strange and arty, weird and unexpected. I don't have the artistic vocabulary to articulate what exactly defines what I like. It's more a case of I-know-it-when-I-see-it.

I like Frazetta's impressionistic brush-strokes. I like Erol Otus's bizarre, arcane style. I like the flat borders around the AD&D modules of the late 70s and early 80s. I want art that has something of the abject in it. I want desperation and fear on display. I want a view of true ugliness and horror. I want something that creeps me out. I want something that hints of ancient and mystic truths. I want the uncanniness of Alejandro Jodorowsky. This last statement maybe captures it best. Something on the order of Jodorowsky's aesthetic would definitely make me want to play an RPG. Here are some good examples.