@Taskerland And the horse you delivered it on.

That's a ropey looking cover too.

@Printdevil Yeah... it's not great, but then their taste in art is decidedly ropey and frequently AI-adjacent.

@Taskerland "You've bought it before, you'll buy it again."

@RogerBW At this point, the children of people on YSDC need to take their elderly parent's bank cards away.

@Taskerland obviously they have to spend the $139 on something

@Taskerland

Today, in „How to tell if your favorite hobby product is a Cash Cow.“

Also: „Variant covers: Looking at you, DCC and D&D.“

@Morgunin Gamers are absolute rubes.

Also, the game was first published in 1981 and this ship in 2026. They're five years early!

@Taskerland I've always felt CoC should have expressionism poster style art. The "here is bloke with a book, a hat and gun standing in front of Cthulhu" rather misses the crazy.

Eric Heckel or something. That style would really fly for me in CoC

@Taskerland 50ish Anniversary!

@Printdevil Yes, but that would require a) taste, and b) anyone working at Chaosium to have heard of German Expressionism.

@Taskerland @Printdevil Presumably David Larkins has.

@cumush It'll be doubly funny when they decide to do an eighth edition between now and 2031.

@RogerBW Definitely... but the person who did the art direction on his book clearly hadn't. @Printdevil

@Taskerland Imagine a whole Caligari/Mabuse poster style gazetteer of Arkham. Sumptuous. With crazy linocut faces and maps done with dripping oleaginous black inks.

@Printdevil I just think not over-saturated AI-adjacent slop would be nice.

@Taskerland @Printdevil That is apparently What The Punters Want (because they've been brought up on modern D&D). Of course, giving the punters exactly what they're used to is a recipe for a crash.

@RogerBW D&D art is of a style... but it's a better style than Call of Cthulhu. That selection of single-page Faerun adventures they did had a fab cover. @Printdevil

@Printdevil @Taskerland I feel like some 90s TTRPGS used at least a bit of art along these lines, particularly in some books published by White Wolf. Maybe im just thinking of John Cobb’s art in particular

@Taskerland Probably Chaosium's 50th.