#RPGaday2017, Day 23: What RPG has the most Jaw-Dropping Layout?

Continuing the series. That's right, homies; it's Blog O' Clock.

#RPGaday2017, Day 23: What RPG has the most Jaw-Dropping Layout?

Lots of good answers here. For my money, a good layout isn't just pretty, but helps convey information cleanly and effectively. Call it the communication scholar in me¹, but if something is gorgeous, but the layout isn't helping to communicate information, then my jaw is decidedly safe from falling damage.

So naturally, Shadowrun 5 is right out.

I love it, but this book is actively harmful
to understanding how to play the damn game.

Looks aren't everything, but they're sure important. So to that end, here's a few thoughts.

Fiasco

Like all good little designers, I love me some Saul Bass. If you're going for dynamic text that conveys a wealth of information with minimal noise, you could do much worse. And if you're going for a neo-noir vibe with a "heist" or "caper" feel, I dare you to do better.

Fiasco, a narrative game² of unchecked ambition and poor impulse control, has steered into this aesthetic hard, and I love it. Check out this playmat:

Bassian AF.

Now if that doesn't make you want to play some Fiasco, I'm not sure what it'd take; it's probably not for you in that case. 

But it is for me. 

Very, very much for me.

After my first Fiasco game, I commented to the group that I'd gotten more of what I want out of gaming from this three-hour session, than I tend to experience across the entirety of many traditional RPG campaigns. It's incredibly easy to get started with, and I credit the layout for a lot of that. It not only communicates how to play the game, but promises a certain feel, and tone, while looking absolutely gorgeous.

Star Trek Adventures

Insert boilerplate disclaimer: yes, I do write for Modiphius, but no, I haven't written anything for this book. I'm a fan, a gamer, and I bought my .pdf like anybody else. 

Having said that, look at this hotness.

Above: said hotness.

Sure, on the surface it's a two-column layout with occasional sidebars. And yes, it's just replicating an already established design, and gets a long way on nostalgia. But I dare you to load this .pdf up on a tablet, and not feel like you're there. It really establishes the tone, and I'm a fan of the underlying practices, going back through Infinity and Conan, all the way back to Mutant Chronicles 3rd.

Lay it out for me

There are a ton more games worthy of inclusion; Fate Core, Nova Praxis - especially the enhanced edition, good gods - as well as Blades in the Dark, and I'd even go back to Fred Hicks' layout for HERO system 6th edition, which took a super-obtuse game, and went a long way towards making it less daunting... the list goes on and on.

Doubtless I've missed something truly classic, and will feel like a doof the moment I hit "publish" here; feel free to chime in with your thoughts in the comments.

Be excellent to one another
~Killstring

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1 - Or the Graphic Designer, if you prefer. Hey, minors count! I've designed real graphics, I'll have you know; for actual clients who were almost certainly human, thanks kindly.

2 - I've probably been under-citing Fiasco in this series, not because I don't love it - I really do - but because I'm not sure what to call it, exactly. It is certainly a game about Role Playing, in a way that many RPGs never truly are, but that term has come to mean many things. I'm certainly not one for gatekeeping, but it's also a very different value proposition than your traditional RPG - it's meant to be played in one session, for instance - so I don't think there's any disparagement in wanting to distinguish between an improv game intended to be born and die in the span of a few hours, and a lengthy, procedural experience meant to last months, if not years, of real-time. 

They're both lovely things, and welcome, and "real gaming." But definitions are useful. /$0.02