Hi there,

I have a question and I'm sure this is the place to get the definitive answer.

Of all the potential artistic styles TSR could have used, why do their early modules employ monochrome covers? Sure, it may have been cheaper, but isn't there more to it than that?

Any insight you could provide would be appreciated. I'm writing a paper and need to explain the whole monochrome phenomenon to the lay-reader.

Cheers

Just my opinion, but cost would have been a major factor.

Also, desktop publishing technology and the personal computer did not exist at that point in time so for a small publisher the process of color separation may not have been cost effective with small print runs.

Have you tried asking that question to Gary Gygax over on either Dragonsfoot or his thread on the Troll Lords Games forum?

welland_warrior wrote:Hi there,

I have a question and I'm sure this is the place to get the definitive answer.

Of all the potential artistic styles TSR could have used, why do their early modules employ monochrome covers? Sure, it may have been cheaper, but isn't there more to it than that?

Any insight you could provide would be appreciated. I'm writing a paper and need to explain the whole monochrome phenomenon to the lay-reader.

Cheers

There's no harm in asking, and I suppose to be thorough you should - but I really, really doubt there's anything more to it than cost.  

Compare to the 'packaging' of other types of print materials, games, or such from the same era (70s and early 80s).  Graphic arts has made huge strides recently in cost and ease, due to computer advances.  Back then, it was pricey and not particularly necessary to be any 'slicker' than that.  As technology, company finances, and what was necessary to 'keep up with the Joneses' moved forward, so did D&D packaging.

guerret wrote:Remembrance of the hippies and their flamboyant colours was still too painful in people's minds. They needed a long breath of sobriety.

Sepia [brownish] tones were a big deal in 70s graphic design. The best examples of that would be the original 74-76 edition of D&D, Chaosium's RUNEQUEST! 1st edition & Authentic Thaumaturgy 2nd edition, plus the brown maps of Chaosium & Judges Guild. The tones have a sort of Medievalish/parchment look, although in pop culture they connoted old-timey photos as well.

Not all of the TSR monochromes are brown, some are blue or green or pink, so the intention might also have been a subtle but recognizable way to quickly make a visual identification while sorting through the modules. This is more in line with the graphic design of instructional materials such as technical manuals.

welland_warrior wrote:Does anyone have a link to one of the aforementioned forums so I can pose the question to Gygax?

The part II to the question: the monochrome modules have a certain appeal that other modules may not have (in my opinion). We even see 2007 printings in monochrome (DCC Saga of the Witch Queen, for example). Obviously there must be some cultural meaning connected to it for rpg'ers. Why do you think that is?

Thanks for the responses!

I think it's because you should be able to posit your own answers for your paper. There is no definitive answer here. Your speculation for your homework would be as good as anyone else's for your homework.

I'm not doing "homework" nor do I need someone else to do my "homework" for me. Things are done for reasons. Outside the obvious answer of cost there must have been aesthetic reasons for doing what they did. Perhaps, as suggested above, forms of sepia were trendy. There's only one way to find out and that's to canvas the broader community. Unless of course you have specific secondary sources that would help me with my "homework."

Ok Mike! That's it!
I don't ever want to hear you describe any gaming item as being rogered!  

welland_warrior wrote:Of all the potential artistic styles TSR could have used, why do their early modules employ monochrome covers? Sure, it may have been cheaper, but isn't there more to it than that?

Just thought I'd wander on over and add my two copper pieces to the ongoing debate...

As most of the other, and probably far more knowledgeable, folks have already said, cost is probably the over-riding factor for the monochrome covers.

(Although as someone involved in the printing industry, I would argue that two-color would be a better way of describing these early covers, as they involve black, plus a second "spot" color.

Back in the 1970s, artwork like the TSR module covers was all done by hand, usually involving a darkroom camera, or pre-made "screen tints" all carefully assembled just so.  Type was created either using a machine called a Linotype, or hand-assembled using characters made from lead -- not fun!  Stuff that nowadays would take minutes or possibly hours, used to take days or weeks to create.

Full-color (also known as four-color) printing was a lot more labor-intensive than it is now, and wasn't nearly as accurate.

But again, as the resident sages say, 'tis best to pose the question to Mr. Gygax himself.

That being said, there's just something, I dunno, special about the old two-color covers.  There's something artfully artless about them that I find immensely appealing.

Cheers,
JohnH
aka Wandering Monster

Cost and available technologies.

RPG's started at about the time that print technology was on the cusp from "difficult and expensive four-color" to "moderately easy and relatively inexpensive four-color." So the very first RPG products were two-color, as mentioned, black and the spot color.

You can see the early evolution of new technologies in four-color in early Judges Guild products; heck, you can follow the progression in the variants from print to print on some of the products!

Four-color was available long before, of course, being a staple for comic books and the comics sheets, but that system only made sense if you were making hundreds of thousands of units, not a couple thousand at a time.

Print-on-demand is reaching the point where four-color interiors are affordable, but you still need to print in the low thousands for that to make sense. For color covers, anything above ~500 is a good bet; this is why Adventure Games Journal is currently black and white. Once we hit that sweet spot, we will go with a color cover. The big cost, really, is in adding the color cover sheet to the black and white sheets before stitching; that's very labor intensive, and does not make sense cost-wise at such a low number of units (you usually pay the same for 100 units as for 500 units, which really bumps the cost up per unit dramatically).