Which RPG books have the best layout and/or art?

[Ron]

Perhaps Eden Studios and Decipher are the best companies in layout. Although that is hardly a surprise as the same guy is responsible for their art direction.

My favorites are (in no particular order):

Eden's Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Eden's All Flesh Must Be Eaten
Decipher's Lord of the Ring
TSR's Alternity line
Wizards of the Coast's Dark Matter line
Wizards of the Coast's Wheel of Time line
Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu 20th anniversary edition
Atlas' Penumbra line
West End Games' Metabarons

 

[Catulle]

Nobilis

Hands down.

Regards,

Barry

 

[haiiro]

IMO:

- GURPS Transhuman Space
- d20 Call of Cthulhu
- Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting hardcover
- Decipher's LotR RPG
- Nobilis
- GR's d20 Ultramodern Firearms

I also really like:

- 2nd Edition Unknown Armies core book
- GR's Hammer & Helm
- WW's Dark Ages: Inquisitor
- The Burning Wheel (small press RPG)

...but I'm not sure I'd put them in the same league as the ones listed above.

I'm sure I'll think of others as soon as I hit "Submit Reply," but that's how it goes.

 

[Tsyr]

Nobilis

Hands down.

Regards,

Barry

See, to me, nobilis has great art... but a really poor layout.

 

[Catulle]

I felt that the layout in Nobilis encouraged me to flip through the book, exploring it in a way that kept me hooked. To my mind, that's a good thing, though I can certainly see why you might not care for it. See Tribe 8's first-person perspective source material for another example of an aspect that people tend either to love or hate.

Regards,

Barry

 

[jaerdaph]

Some of Philip Reed's stuff has great artwork and layout. Look at RPGnow.com for his stuff.

Ditto that.

 

[Crothian]

FFG has really consistantly had good artwork and layout.

 

[diaglo]

D&D White Boxed Set (1974)

but a close second would be the Car Wars sets

 

[s/LaSH]

Mutants And Masterminds does look sweet. And, lacking any further publications, I'll leave it at that. At least until my own art starts coming out in PDFs, which of course will awe and stun the general public.

 

[Ruined]

I'm a big fan of FFG's work, especially the artwork in the 'Path of' books. Path of Faith especially has some beautiful b/w images.