Intro Adventure Covers: Holmes Basic

  As the hobby matured from the Chainmail-derivative little boxes, D&D eventually realized that the best way to teach the game to new groups not blessed to know somebody in Lake Geneva was through examples of play. The original DMG's examples were beautiful, but some people needed a little more...so in comes the published adventure module. And with the release of the Basic Edition, some bright star in the TSR marketing department realized that a companion adventure would fit the bill. Enter...In Search of the Unknown.
  I'm not going to review the adventure. It's been reviewed in various locations with exacting detail. But what I wanted to look at and compare were the cover art for various editions' starter adventures. My suspicion is that more than in the Player's Guide, more than in the DMG, more even than in the monster manuals, the given edition we'll look at can be properly summed up when looking at the cover art of the "first adventure". I'm not looking mainly at the reprint, let's look focus on the eye-searing yellow original, at the top.
  First off, I love the environment depicted both times. Fungal forests are wonderful; every decent-sized underworld needs one. Something about the weird, colorful mushroom caps just evokes the loamy scent of rot and decay, moist and soft. It's a low-magic way to thrust someone immediately into the Mystic Underworld, and you can tell the adventurers are unnerved, perhaps even a little grossed out.
  The adventuring party is remarkably tiny for old school D&D, just four dudes being dudes, eschewing pants like Uncle Gary intended. There's a tension and action in their poses despite the complete lack of monsters; it's the environment itself that holds the danger. Spear-Guy is poking a mushroom cautiously, well aware that it might explode into some terrible save-or-die trap. Torch-Dwarf and Awesome-Stache have just heard something worrying and are readying themselves to receive monsters hidden amongst the mushroom-trees, while Traditionalist Wizard looks on with vague caution (he is out of spells for the day). It tells a story.
  In Search of the Unknown has a cover that tells you that you're going to be delving underground in weird and dangerous DUNGEONS. There's clearly the possibility of monsters and fighting, but the environment itself seems to be the primary menace depicted on the cover. Traps and hazards are the focus of the cover illustration, not combat. There's nothing heroic in this cover...the adventurers look tough and scrappy but without a hint of nobility or chivalric tradition. I think it's a great cover for the basic edition.  

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