Saturday, August 23, 2014

RPGaDAY - Day 23 - Coolest Looking RPG Product

This one is kinda tough - it's mostly books, dice, and the occasional screen. Do miniatures count? Nah, I'm going to stay away from that side of things.

Back during 3E D&D's run the full-color hardback became pretty standard for RPG rulebooks and even for supplements for the biggest games, so most of them are pretty cool looking now. 4E D&D brought in the matte-cover-with-a-glossy-insert look and that's cool. The 5E PHB looks pretty similar so nothing revolutionary there.

The Mutants and Masterminds 10th Anniversary Edition is a pretty cool looking book so I'll go with that as one entry.  Blog entry here.


 Ptolus, the big city book from Monte Cook a few years ago was another impressive book, both in the amount of content and in the presentation and organization of that content. I haven't really written about it much on the blog - I should probably do that.


One more nomination is the Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition for Pathfinder. It's another update of a previous publication that really sets a high mark for content and presentation. While Ptolus is more a setting with some adventure material added in, RotR is more adventure with some setting added in. There are notes on each area, maps, NPC details, monster stats -everything you would hope for in a published adventure and it's a complete campaign in one book, covering PC's from level 1 to level 17 or 18 from what I see online.



Honorable mentions:

  • Last Unicorn's Star Trek The Next Generation rulebook - it was the first full-color hardback I remember seeing and it was full of images taken right from the series. It made a very strong impression at the time and I think it looks as good as a lot of newer books.  Blog post here.
  • Kenzer's Aces & Eights - a faux-leather cover like the old Time-Life western series and full-color interior with a lot of Remington artwork really conveys the flavor of the period.
  • Paizo's Pathfinder Beginner Box is another impressive product and I think it looks better than any of the D&D starter sets, including the 5th edition one. Blog talk here.

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