#RPGaDAY Day 23: Which RPG has the most jaw-dropping layout?

It’s August and that means that the annual #RPGaDAY ‘question a day’ is here to celebrate “everything cool, memorable and amazing about our hobby.” This year we’ve decided to join in the fun and will be canvassing answers from the ENWorld crew, columnists and friends in the industry to bring you some of our answers. We hope you’ll join in, in the comments section, and share your thoughts with us too… So, without further ado, here’s Day 23 of #RPGaDAY 2017!

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#RPGaDAY Question 23: Which RPG has the most jaw-dropping layout?

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Darryl Mott: Check the credits. Does the layout credit say “Adam Jury”? That's probably a good choice.

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Angus Abranson: I may be slightly biased but I loved the layout in Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space and The One Ring – both Cubicle 7 products. Dom did an amazing job on the layout in the first Doctor Who set we produced and Paul Bourne kicked The One Ring out of the park. Paul is one my favourite graphic designers – and artists – working in the industry. Thankfully there is a lot of competition too as graphic design and layout has really come on leaps and bounds and we have some great talent working in the industry. The guys and gals working on design/layout really deserve more praise and recognition than many of them get. I always feel I should give special mention to Fred Hicks too as it was his amazing layout on the pitch samples we did for Doctor Who that really helped get the first meeting with the BBC. He also persevered with the layout of Starblazer Adventures as it slowly crept to the 630+ page monster that finally saw the day of light. That alone makes me, and the rest of the C7 team at the time, indebted to him. Always a glass raised to you Fred!

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Dennis Detwiller (Creator of Delta Green, Arc Dream Publishing): The “Worlds Of the Cypher System” books—Gods of the Fall, Predation and (upcoming) Unmasked. The art and layout (pulled off by Bear Weiter for Monte Cook Games) are just beyond fantastic.

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Stephanie McAlea (Stygian Fox Publishing, The Things We Leave Behind): The French editions of Call of Cthulhu. By far. Or The One Ring.

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Rich Lescouflair (Alligator Alley Entertainment; Esper Genesis 5E): Legends of the Five Rings, 4th Edition.

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Kevin Watson (Dark Naga Adventures): Frog God Games, hands down, has the most stunning layouts. Chuck and Zack are really talented people and great acquisitions by Bill Webb. MonkeyBlood design would be a fast second

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Darren Pearce (EN Publishing; Savage Mojo): I’d have to say the most jaw-dropping layout for me goes to the 50th Anniversary Doctor Who RPG book. I dig that layout so much. I had a small hand in writing for it, but the layout is all C7s and it’s fantastic.

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Martin Greening (Azure Keep, Ruma: Dawn of Empire): I think the first RPG, well sourcebook actually, I came across where I found the layout something different was Monte Cook’s Ptolus (and eventually all the Cypher System books like Numenera and The Strange). The layout is clean, with good integration of artwork and colored text. And the sidebars. Great use as references to other locations in the book and full of tiny articles of information.

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Simon Brake (Stygian Fox): I liked the clean layout of 3^rd edition Unknown Armies. It looks almost like a magazine. Sometimes a bit of white space makes it a little easier on the eye. The fake parchment/torn edges look doesn’t really wow me like it used to.

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Laura Hoffman (Black Book Editions; Polaris RPG): I was really fascinated by the layout of a the second edition of a German indie RPG called Malmsturm, where the whole book is beautifully crafted around the theme of roleplaying with metal music playing vividly while you beat those barbarians!

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Federico Sohns (Nibiru RPG): The Firefly RPG is probably one of the best laid out games I've seen. It's so inviting to read through, and immersive, I have to give kudos for the guys involved and their great job.

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Garry Harper (Modiphius Entertainment; The Role Play Haven): Star Trek Adventures by Modiphius Entertainment.

Ken Spencer (Rocket Age; Why Not Games): Have I mentioned that I like to walk around pretending that my iPad is a Next Generation datapad while I read Star Trek Adventures?


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Originally created by Dave Chapman (Doctor Who: Adventures in Time & Space; Conspiracy X) #RPGaDAY os now being caretakered by the crew over at RPGBrigade. We hope you’ll join in, in the comments section, and share your thoughts with us too!

 

[karohemd]

Agree with most of those except Star Trek Adventures which is one of the worst in a long time. While they managed to make it look like LCARS it doesn't mean it's easy to read. White and coloured text on black is not easy on the eyes. Putting the setting info (which few fans need) before the character creation/system is also a rather poor choice.

 

[TrippyHippy]

The short lived Marvel Heroic Roleplaying looked just like a graphic novel.

HoL: Human Occupied Landfill is well.....different.

 

[karohemd]

I had forgotten about HoL. Indeed.

 

[The Cardinal]

Wow, thanks to Laura for her praise! Hopefully, now that the translation of Malmsturm is almost complete, we'll soon be able to publish it in English

 

[merchantsteve]

I really like the new Conan RPG layout (Modiphius).

 

[Simon Collins]

Can't believe Shadows of Esteren wasn't mentioned. Fantastic layouts and first time I saw those books my jaw literally dropped.

 

[Blue]

Pardon me if I say something unpopular. These questions seem to miss the point. Yes, good layout is a big deal, and something we can comment on. But several of these questions seem tangential to RPGs. Sure you can answer them, but they don't cover the RPG experience. It's like judging D&D 5e solely on the fact that it has a poor index, when really that's a nice-to-have, and one that was quickly resolved by a replacement index from the fan community.

Questions talking about best for episodic, best for ongoing campaigns - these touch on some important parts of playing RPGs. And there are so much more of how an RPG plays that could make great questions that these tangential questions feel like filler.

 

[Brodie]

All the 4^th Edition L5R books are gorgeous to look at. There’s the occasional piece of recycled artwork across the books, but the books are just beautiful.

 

[Brodie]

Pardon me if I say something unpopular. These questions seem to miss the point. Yes, good layout is a big deal, and something we can comment on. But several of these questions seem tangential to RPGs. Sure you can answer them, but they don't cover the RPG experience. It's like judging D&D 5e solely on the fact that it has a poor index, when really that's a nice-to-have, and one that was quickly resolved by a replacement index from the fan community.

Questions talking about best for episodic, best for ongoing campaigns - these touch on some important parts of playing RPGs. And there are so much more of how an RPG plays that could make great questions that these tangential questions feel like filler.

It may seem like an opinion that would be unpopular, but it's something that can generate genuine discussion. Personally, I think layout, art, and writing are important. After all, we the players have to have a rules to work from in order to play, and those rules are found inside a book. Whether physical or digital, presentation matters. Simple words and no art can get the point across but the art can help you immerse your mind in the setting. An RPG could have the greatest, most flawless system in the world, but if it's presented in black and white and as just words on a page it probably won't pull in many players. Humans largely rely on sight and can get bored if there isn't something slightly distracting on the page. At least that's what I think.

Regarding the upcoming movie and tv show quotes question, RPGs are also a social activity and it's unavoidable that a group of friends will throw in a quote every now and then.