WARRIORS OF BATAK
Campagna, Dan (Task Force Games, 1982)
Somewhere in the last century, the boilerplate book cover for fantasy roleplaying products became a picture of two magical warrior women in cleavage-armour confronting each other from the backs of dragons[1].
Although one applauds Task Force Games’ decision to depart from this formula in The Warriors of Batak, one can’t help but wonder about the process that chose this:
Footnote:
[1] Miniatures wargames caught a blast of the same wind, although they favoured a more crowded-looking, homoerotic version of the same scene. Where the fantasy game or magazine had already used the dragon riders on a recent cover, the formula permitted four variations:
- Cleavage-sorceress steps onto balcony with a ball of fire over her hands,
- Cleavage-warrior holds a spear in front of her companions,
- Man sits in room of astrological apparatus,
- Group of friends consult map in a tavern
There is a sort of naive beauty and sheer imaginative wonder to it though. I wonder if somewhere an expert digital artist might one day recreate this scene in a way that captures the full imaginative glory of the work…