Many RPG fans claim they want professional layout and design in their RPG books. Unfortunately the games I see many people who say this pointing to as example of what an professionally designed RPG book should look like, strike me as something that belongs in an coffee table art book that is striving to be edgy. RPGs aren’t art books designed to be glanced through by people in a waiting room. RPG rulebooks are more like textbooks (teaching the game) and reference books (looking things up during play).

My version of good, professional design for an RPG rulebook is the same type of good design that you’d find in the average college textbook or average reference book. I want it to be easy to read and easy to refer to using easy-to-read fonts in black(ish) type on off-white/whitish paper.

Many things that others seem to consider examples of professional layout and design in RPGs actually turn me off because they make the book harder to read and/or harder to refer to in play. Some examples:

• Page backgrounds: I really do not want to try to read text printed on colored backgrounds, over line art, printed over pictures, etc. It may LOOK very nice when you flip through the book, but it makes actually using the book (that is, reading the text) harder for many people.
• Weird layouts: Standard layouts (two column, three column, column and sidebar, etc.) may be boring but they are proven by long use to be easy to read and follow.
• Distracting page borders: A fancy page border every once in a while (like for the first page of a chapter) is okay. Busy or distracting borders are not okay on most pages in the book. A page border that isn’t distracting and is actually useful (thumbs for each chapter, for example) is fine. All borders that aren’t actually useful do is take up space — and if they are busy/distracting — they don’t really count as white space either.

Perhaps I feel the way I do because I think RPG books should primarily designed for those who are going to use them in play rather than for collectors who are going to mainly “use” them by putting them on a shelf with the rest of their collection. I’m tired of picking up what I think might be an interesting RPG only to discover the fancy, “professional” layout makes it hard actually use to learn and play the game. So please, RPG publishers, just say no to “professional” layout and design that is full of edgy gimmicks and go with boring but truly professional layout and design that makes your material easy to read and use at the table.