[HOE] Urban Renewal cover [Shane, Hopler, et al]

["B.D. Flory" <bflory@frontiernet.net>]

On Monday, July 13, 1998, Shane spake thusly:

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We are very sensitive to this. My wife, Michelle, and my friends' wives
play,
and from the very beginning we've set out to show women as tough,
competent,
and as sexy as *they* want to be. We don't have a lot of control over the
Doomtown art (not without causing problems), but we've been very pleased
with
it so far (I'm afraid I haven't seen the one you referenced, but I'm
forwarding this message on to AEG just so your comments are passed on.)

I think the cover of Law Dogs is about as risque as we'll get. She's sexy,
but
it's also obvious she's her own dog, if you know what I mean.

Consider your comments received and appreciated. Deadlands has an
incredibly
high number of female players. We regard this as an honor and will try to
ensure we stay up to these standards.

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All of the above taken into consideration, just WTF were you guys thinking
with the cover for Urban Renewal?!

Admittedly, the art standards for Hell on Earth have been a
little...looser...than with the weird west thus far (check out pg 49 of
Road Warriors for another example), but this is not only way over the top
(maybe even the line), but it is on the *cover*!

Ordinarily, this stuff doesn't bother me.  I'm no prude, and I reckon the
dirty jokes get just about as thick at our gaming table as at anyone else's
(and yes, there are a couple of women in the group).  But this cover...this
is way out of line.  For something like this to be sitting on a gameshelf,
in a game store, representing not only the HoE game line, but PEG as a
company, just shouldn't be happening.

Admittedly, I've yet to read the adventure, so it could well be that some
integral plot point is being represented on the cover.  That said, there
had to have been a way to represent it a little more tastefully.  Honestly,
it wouldn't have even required a complete revamp of the cover; all that
would need to be done, for example, is to have the woman enfolded a bit
more deeply in her benefactor's (?) cloak.  Y'know.  *Covered*.

The games that you guys put out are good enough not to have to appeal to
the prurient interests of the geek-boy teenage gamer.  Don't sacrifice the
aforementioned female fan base for their gratification.

That's all I got.

B. D. Flory

"There are four types of homicide: felonious, culpable, justifiable, and
praiseworthy."
                                                   -Oscar Wilde