affinity photo Tabletop RPG Rulebook Cover Design

[SilverSurfer1221]

Here's a cover I designed for my tabletop RPG core rulebook, Creative RPG. The main image was painted elsewhere (Clip Studio Paint), but the cover was created in Affinity Photo, including painting the subtle red tones all over the cover, creating the hexes, and placing the text, etc. I used to do this work in Photoshop, but now I am quite happy and content to use Affinity Photo and Designer. Thanks for making these great products!

[GarryP]

Very nice.

It shouts RPG Rulebook! to me. Or, to put that another way, if it was written in another language I think I could be fairly certain of the sort of book it was without picking it up. And I think that’s a good thing.

One issue I have is that the back cover is very text-heavy with long lines of text. That can put some people off from reading it.
Have you thought about shortening the text and putting it in smaller ‘punch-out’ blocks on the page, like you might see on the back of a video game box? E.g. “Easy to Learn”, “Allows for Devious Gameplay”, “Vital Attribute-based System”, etc.

A lot of people prefer not to read long bits of text so cutting it up into easy to digest ‘sound-bites’ can be better.
Obviously, someone wanting to know the rules of a RPG will probably have no problem with reading a lot of text but it might look better on a cover to cut it into smaller chunks.

Or, if all of the text was needed, you could alternate between two different fonts in the list. That helps people keep their place.

Also, you’ve got quite a bit of space at the top of the back cover. Is this waiting for something else?

[SilverSurfer1221]

Thanks for the comments and feedback, GarryP! I appreciate them. I am happy that the cover shouts RPG RULEBOOK! That means I am heading in the right direction.

As far as the back cover - I've done some research on that. Many of the core rule books have a ton of text on the back. Not all. For example, the modern D&D 5e DM guide is pretty sparse on the back (word-wise). But several other guides had a ton of text. The thing is, most of the tabletop gamers I know are readers and wordy, as such, like to have as much info as they can when looking at something like a core rulebook. When competing with games like D&D, Pathfinder, etc., I feel it is important to detail what sets my game apart. I don't believe that short bullets will do enough of the job. The intended audience will most likely want to read as much info on the back as they can instead of having to dig through 150 pages of text to see what the differences are.

As far as the space - I might fill it as I create more art for the book ... but I might not. Several of the manuals I researched did not have much there. Others? Had a ton of imagery. My original plan was to put something there and I might yet. I just need to get more art done for this project.

[GarryP]

You’re welcome.
I totally understand your reasoning about the text on the back cover. I mentioned it only in case you hadn’t already thought about it more fully, which you obviously have.
For the space, I’m sure you will decide what’s best as the project progresses. If it was me I might be tempted to use a silhouette of something (in a similar vein to the hexagons) and put the “Creative RPG” name over the top of it, but that’s just one suggestion. Like you say, something may come to mind as you gather more material.