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Hello Palladium pals.
Our group was sitting around talking about what our favorite PFRPG book covers are. Even in our group each had our favorite, so it made me wonder what covers other palladium fans enjoy.

So pick your top three cover art from any palladium book.
Mine in order are.

1: Adventures in the Northern Wilderness, by Keith Parkinson. Wolfen necromancer what's not to love?
2: The Western Empire, by Brom. I don't think any other cover in PFRPG fits the feel of the place better then this one.
3: This was my hardest choice as there is so many covers that are just amazing. In the end though I choose Psyscape, by John Zeleznik. There's just something about this cover that makes me want to play a psionic character...

Rifts atlantis
Adventures in the northern wilderness as this was my desktop art for years and years
NG1

Northern Gun 2
Pantheons of the Megaverse
Rifts: Japan

I don't know if I can think of 3 off the top of my head - I'd have to be looking at my books. But the cover of Rifts: Dark Conversions would probably be #1, and it was my desktop background for a long time.

1. Nightbane Survival Guide
2. Beyond the Supernatural 2nd Edition
3. Shadows of Light

Probably going to limit them to RIFTS, otherwise I think I'd be lost, so...

1. Rifts main book cover.
2. Juicer Uprising
3. Rifts Japan

With honourable mentions to Sourcebook 1, Wormwood, and Lonestar.

pardon the blatant self indulgence:
Juicer Uprising
Rifts Japan
Rifts Book of magic

With honorable mention to Parkinson's original Rifts cover.

Oh man, choosing ONLY 3 will be hard.

Rifts Northern Gun 2
Rifts (deep breath) Siege on Tolkeen 05: Coalition Wars: Shadows of Evil
Palladium Fantasy World Book 4: Adventures in the Northern Wilderness

1) RIFTS RPG original cover! Parkinson.

2) RIFTS Northern Gun #1. Walton.

3) RIFTS Index & Adventures #1. Breaux.

4) HU Villains Unlimited 1st Edition. Long.

I swear I tried with only 3 but I couldn't

Zeleznik wrote:pardon the blatant self indulgence:
Juicer Uprising
Rifts Japan
Rifts Book of magic

With honorable mention to Parkinson's original Rifts cover.

Had to go with NG-2 for the obvious reason and cause I do love giant robots fighting and you did a great job on that cover. Really most of your work stands out and it was hard to pick the 3 I did. The original cover by Parkinson will always rep the true gritty feel of Rifts for me. Such a great piece, but I have yet to play a Splugorth Slaver or Blind Warrior Woman so I guess maybe I lean to the Zeleznik covers a bit more and Thor on Pantheons is one of my favorite images...of all time.

ffranceschi wrote:1) RIFTS RPG original cover! Parkinson.

2) RIFTS Northern Gun #1. Walton.

3) RIFTS Index & Adventures #1. Breaux.

4) HU Villains Unlimited 1st Edition. Long.

I swear I tried with only 3 but I couldn't

3.5) Juicer Uprising. Zeleznik.

It's impossible to just pick only 3!

Palladium has had a lot of awesome art especially cover art over the years.

Rifts: Dark Conversions: I'm a sucker for minimalist takes on things, the simple white siloutette of the plain black background is always amazing.

Rifts: Bionic Sourcebook: This sells the post-apocalyptic feel of Rifts waaay more than many of the super high tech covers of many Rift books, it feels like a post-modern wasteland, and the strong use of reds and darks, along with such an iconic designed cyborg frame of the Red Type.

Nightbane: Core Book: Nightbane has always been one of the more intriguing side projects from Palladium to me, and the cover of it helps sell the odd, expect anything, mentality, that draws you in further once you have the grasp that they are direct manifestations of those three peoples psyche.

Other than those three, I don't love a lot of the cover arts, either due to a preference of style, or I just don't feel it captures the setting / ideals super well, I do like a lot of the Rifter covers though, #16, 17, 60 and 63 all stand out, among some others who's numbers I can't recall off hand.

Cinos wrote:Rifts: Dark Conversions: I'm a sucker for minimalist takes on things, the simple white siloutette of the plain black background is always amazing.

Rifts: Bionic Sourcebook: This sells the post-apocalyptic feel of Rifts waaay more than many of the super high tech covers of many Rift books, it feels like a post-modern wasteland, and the strong use of reds and darks, along with such an iconic designed cyborg frame of the Red Type.

Nightbane: Core Book: Nightbane has always been one of the more intriguing side projects from Palladium to me, and the cover of it helps sell the odd, expect anything, mentality, that draws you in further once you have the grasp that they are direct manifestations of those three peoples psyche.

Other than those three, I don't love a lot of the cover arts, either due to a preference of style, or I just don't feel it captures the setting / ideals super well, I do like a lot of the Rifter covers though, #16, 17, 60 and 63 all stand out, among some others who's numbers I can't recall off hand.

All the books I got from you, where you colored the black and white interior images in are a big hit with my local gaming group. Maybe off topic, but you are among my top 3 favorite unofficial Palladium book coloring artists...or something.

Grug wrote:Hello Palladium pals.
Our group was sitting around talking about what our favorite PFRPG book covers are. Even in our group each had our favorite, so it made me wonder what covers other palladium fans enjoy.

So pick your top three cover art from any palladium book.
Mine in order are.

1: Adventures in the Northern Wilderness, by Keith Parkinson. Wolfen necromancer what's not to love?
2: The Western Empire, by Brom. I don't think any other cover in PFRPG fits the feel of the place better then this one.
3: This was my hardest choice as there is so many covers that are just amazing. In the end though I choose Psyscape, by John Zeleznik. There's just something about this cover that makes me want to play a psionic character...

Adventures in Northern wilderness as well! (but its a shaman not a necromancer)
RMB original cover - Im clearly a Parkinson fan!
Third one is MUCH harder but I like the Monsters and Animals 2nd ed. pic as it really does make me believe in the mix of reality with fantasy (lions and a silonar in one world).

It was really hard for me to only pick three also. I was going to include an honorable mentions part, but it was around ten titles and decided against it lol.
Only person that it seems it was easy for was Zeleznik

Lol was waiting for someone to correct me on Parkinson Wolfen.

There are so many great art pieces on Palladium Books' covers! I'm a huge fan of Parkinson, but if I had to try to narrow it down right now to the covers I like best, I'd go with the following:

Ninjas & Superspies - Apocalyptic firestorm backdrop? Check! Laser beams? Check! Ninja? Check! Kevin Fales did a bang up job.

Skraypers - This wraparound cover has a sense of motion and energy that makes me want to flip it around and around. It's what I feel a wraparound cover should do. Johnny Z represents!

Rifts Conversion Book 1 - Hodge-podge of future and fantasy with a rift backdrop. Kevin Long's art, and this cover in particular, summed up my early days of playing Rifts - a kitchen sink of cool. So many happy memories!

Evening, chummers!

I'm pleasantly surprised to find the cover for Adventures In The Northern Wilderness (Honourable Nogrustru, Dark Step Druidic Shaman!) is the top of the pops for more than a few people here; Book IV was the first story-content Palladium Book I ever bought (I guess this was 1990 or so) and while worn, my copy is still well-loved and referred to by my person regularly. Definitely my #1 pick as well!

#2 for me would be John Zeleznik's cover to Scraypers (Dimension Book IV); the 'alien contact hybridized with Heroes Unlimited' superhero biz John Z came up with took some getting used to, but I definitely ended up liking it quickly enough. I'm very fond of John's artwork (my favourite cover by him, period, would be the cover to the Traveller: The New Era (GDW) mainbook) with Juicer Uprising (WB 10) and Lone Star (WB 13) my favourites besides Scraypers.

#3 is probably Richard Corben's cover to the Beyond The Supernatural, 1st Ed. corebook; I had no idea Corben was as well-known until I started collecting early Heavy Metals and returning to comic books to some degree; his work in Creepy/Eerie (Warren) was excellent. I didn't need to check his signature on the BTS 1st cover or the credits inside; I was definite it was his style after that point.

Cheers, cousins!

-Boe.

There are a lot of covers that I really enjoy, and on any given day #2 and #3 could change in my list. But #1 on my list will always be my favorite cover of any Palladium product, as it appears to be for several others in the thread.

1. Adventures in the Northern Wilderness
2. Eastern Territories
3. Rifts Main Book

-Chris

1- Adventures in NW
2- Atlantis
3- Pantheons- That Thor rocks!

Thor!

Jorel wrote:All the books I got from you, where you colored the black and white interior images in are a big hit with my local gaming group. Maybe off topic, but you are among my top 3 favorite unofficial Palladium book coloring artists...or something.

Well I'm glad 14 year old me's boredom is enjoyed by someone As I recall, Rifts Core, Pantheons, Conversions 1, and Dark Conversions? Ironic that it's pretty close to my profession now as a commission painter, haven't done 2D stuff since High School though.

Too many good ones to pick just three...
Rifts
RMB
China 2
Japan

Rifters
4
14
62

other settings
MC
PF2:ET
AU:GG

1. South America 1. Brom always did great covers, but this is my favorite.
2. Monsters and Animals 2nd ed. The cover art is the most true to the title of almost any book ever.
3. Atlantis. It captures the feel of the place. Beautiful architecture with giant monsters, pet dragons, and slavery.

A really tough choice... I'm going to go with...

1. Rifts Ultimate Edition, by Scott Johnson. Not the original, but it's totally epic, it includes some iconic Rifts imagery, and to me it really screams "Rifts!"

2. Rifts (Main Book), by Keith Parkinson. The original! 'Nuff said!

3. This is where it gets even tougher, can I have multi-way tie for third? I'm going to settle on Bionics Sourcebook, by Kevin Long. Another piece of art that really gives you the complete Rifts feel.

For my numerous honorable mentions: Heroes Unlimited original cover by James Steranko, the entire Siege on Tolkeen series of covers (especially #4 Cyber-Knights), a great number of fantastic Rifter covers, Federation of Magic by Keith Parkinson, Conversion Book One by Kevin Long, Conversion Book Two (Thor! as many others have mentioned) by John Zeleznik, Rifts Japan by John Zeleznik, and pretty much everything else by John Zeleznik.

-A

1. Original Rifts Cover
2. Nightbane
3. South America

CS Special Forces wrote:3.Turtles go to Hollywood

Nice!

In no particular order:

Psyscape
Coalition War campaign
Triax and the NGR

Have to say that normally I am not blown away by most of the covers so the really great ones really stand out.

1 - PFRPG Book 12: Library of Bletherad
2 - Chaos Earth / Rifter 18 / Poster - Glitter Boy with the American flag
3 - Northern Gun 1 - Big robots killing a dragon

Some honorable mentions would be
Rifts MB - Original cover
PFRPG original cover of knight on a Pegasus going after a dragon
Rifter 9 - A dark TMNT cover
Rifter 21 - SAMAS on a desert

Hummm, Rifts Main Book
Red Hand the original Nightspawn cover
and Northern Wilderness

I was always partial to Keith's work, but John Z was a close second with Brom coming up neck and neck.

I recognize books by the spine. Before a couple of minutes ago, I honestly didn't know what the front covers of some of my books even looked like.

But, here are my current top three:
1. RMB
2. The Sentinels (no longer have the book, but found it on Amazon to confirm)
3. tie between Mercenaries and Source Book 1.

Of all the artwork in all the Palladium material I've seen over the years, my favorite is the color image inside RMB of the druid.

--flatline

Honestly there are so many good choices, I'd have an easier time coming up with a top 3 I don't like...but that is for another time and place.