A Selection of the Worst Module Covers

Following on from my top 10, here's a rogue's gallery of the worst, and there were some stinkers.  Where the best ones inspired you to pick up the module, intrigued as to what lay within, these did nothing whatsoever to sell their story...

6)  UK5 - Eye of the Serpent

This was a brave little adventure from the UK team, it offered something new - a low level wilderness crawl aimed at a sensible group size.  Sadly they tried to sell it with badly drawn Giant Crows:



5) L2 - The Assassins Knot

Another interesting adventure, an AD&D whodunnit!  Spoiled by Len Lakofka's inability to come up with decent names for the plethora of NPCs and this dreadful cover image:



4) B8 - Journey to the Rock

As the art became more lifelike, so it became more soulless.  A bit like this adventure.  It's a journey (box ticked), to a rock (second box ticked). Next please!



3) WG4 - Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun

It pains me to put this one in here as the adventure itself is superb, but seriously, what were they thinking of with this cover?



2) XL1 - Quest for the Heartstone

It's probably rather lucky the cover for this one was so poor, as the module itself was little more than a cheap attempt to cash in on a dodgy line of plastic toys.  'Strongheart the Paladin' - looks like a seven-stone weakling, and 'Warduke' was just crap.



1)  CB1 and CB2 - Conan Unchained! and Conan Against Darkness! (names had exclamation marks for added emphasis)

More cheap cash-ins.  These were dreadful. So bad they didn't even bother with traditional cover art, instead they chose photographs of Arnie flexing his muscles.





Dishonourable mentions for cover art which was poor, but not as bad as those above:

UK2 The Sentinel
UK3 The Gauntlet
UK7 Dark Clouds Gather
CM8 The Endless Stair
A2 Secret of the Slavers' Stockade
X3 Curse of Xanathon
I2 Tomb of the Lizard King

2 comments:

  1. I totally agree with your list! Sometimes the cover art kept me away from a really awesome module for a long time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Precisely what happened with me with WG4... Though a friend of mine nagged me to get CB1 when that was released - I wish I hadn't!

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