March 26, 2004: GURPS Fourth Edition Covers

We were very surprised at the amount of attention that fans have been paying to the GURPS Basic Set covers we displayed on announcement day. Okay. Not surprised. Boggled.

Indeed, those covers were put together a few days before the show, using figures from the GURPS GM Screen painting. However, we liked them (or we wouldn't have posted them), and the final versions probably would have looked pretty similar. Clearly a lot of people disagree . . . even if they don't agree at all on what should change.

(And we have to say it: Those of you who spent more time looking at Sora's rocket launcher than at Sora . . . [chuckle]. You really need to get out more.)

Nevertheless. We have a tiny bit of slack in our deadlines. And the fact that some people actually started creating and posting different cover ideas . . . Wow. Again, we're boggled. And complimented. So here's what we are going to do.

From now (March 26) until March 31, we will accept suggestions for cover designs at covers@sjgames.com. Those who have already created and posted designs are welcome to enter them, of course. (Except for the bar-code one. You automatically get Honorable Mention, but we're not gonna use it.) The suggested design should be attached to the mail in 72-dpi JPG format.

Standard contest rules apply: all submissions become property of SJ Games, none can be individually acknowledged, yada, yada. You are welcome to use existing SJ Games cover graphics, or pieces of them, to build your design. However, if you plan to post your design anyplace else, please make sure that the company name says "NOT REALLY STEVE JACKSON GAMES" so bibliographers and collectors won't get confused and write us lots of letters asking when that edition will appear . . .

After the end of the contest period, we'll take 24 hours to pick our favorite few. We'll then post them in a format that allows for voting, and leave the poll up for another 24 hours. To prevent bias, the results will NOT be publicly viewable till after the poll.

Then we'll decide. We will not necessarily use the one that got the most votes (indeed, we may not like any of them better than what we have, or better than something we come up with in the meantime) - but if one gets a LOT more votes than the others . . . well, that'll be important.

If we base the final covers on a design submitted in this contest, the winner will get a signed Deluxe Edition, and, of course, title page credit.

(By the way: The font used on the new GURPS Fantasy and GURPS Magic covers is called Mason. You don't have to use Mason for the GURPS Basic Set covers . . . we didn't, before . . . and we don't plan to use it on every GURPS book no matter what, but if your vision calls for that font for Basic, we'll save you the work of researching what it is.)
-- Steve Jackson

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