As a lover of Classic Traveller, I would favor a clean, well-designed text, with little or no art inside. If you think of the literary inspirations (presumably largely shared between CT and Thousand Suns), most were published post-pulp era, in books sans internal illustrations. Doing your book this way too would reflect its sources. And the first mockup cover is quite striking.
For a counter argument, unfortunately we live in an increasingly illiterate society, with more direct visuals assuming increasing importance. But please discount this.
“From the beginning, I conceived it as a science fiction roleplaying game about time and distance, about interstellar societies separated not merely by light-years, but by months-long voyages and the absence of real-time communication. In such a setting, knowledge is always incomplete. News arrives late, distorted, or filtered through competing interests. History must be reconstructed from fragments. Meaning is not delivered whole; it is assembled by the players from what survives.”
Of course, this should also be the situation in Classic Traveller. If your text provides rules or additional insights on how to model this and have it impact the game, that would be great and an additional selling point for those of us looking for things to bring to CT.
"After seeing the three cover mock-ups I’ve shared with you, I am increasingly inclined to believe that a rulebook’s aesthetic, by which I mean its typography, layout, and graphic design, can do as much or even more to communicate its themes than any number of illustrations."
YES! What you're talking about is the power of graphic design.
If you haven't already done so, check out Juan Ortiz' graphic design work on classic Star Trek:
As a lover of Classic Traveller, I would favor a clean, well-designed text, with little or no art inside. If you think of the literary inspirations (presumably largely shared between CT and Thousand Suns), most were published post-pulp era, in books sans internal illustrations. Doing your book this way too would reflect its sources. And the first mockup cover is quite striking.
ReplyDeleteFor a counter argument, unfortunately we live in an increasingly illiterate society, with more direct visuals assuming increasing importance. But please discount this.
“From the beginning, I conceived it as a science fiction roleplaying game about time and distance, about interstellar societies separated not merely by light-years, but by months-long voyages and the absence of real-time communication. In such a setting, knowledge is always incomplete. News arrives late, distorted, or filtered through competing interests. History must be reconstructed from fragments. Meaning is not delivered whole; it is assembled by the players from what survives.”
ReplyDeleteOf course, this should also be the situation in Classic Traveller. If your text provides rules or additional insights on how to model this and have it impact the game, that would be great and an additional selling point for those of us looking for things to bring to CT.
"After seeing the three cover mock-ups I’ve shared with you, I am increasingly inclined to believe that a rulebook’s aesthetic, by which I mean its typography, layout, and graphic design, can do as much or even more to communicate its themes than any number of illustrations."
ReplyDeleteYES!
What you're talking about is the power of graphic design.
If you haven't already done so, check out Juan Ortiz' graphic design work on classic Star Trek:
https://www.cbr.com/saturday-with-illustrator-juan-ortiz/