It’s been announced that Call of Cthulhu 7E rulebook and investigator’s handbook will be produce in full colour (if the stretch goal is met on Kickstarter) – it seems highly likely given the daily rate of increase for pledges.
Talking things through with Charlie at Chaosium, we’ve both picked up on many people asking that the books be as cool (if not cooler) than the French and Spanish editions and that they are easy to read without messy and distracting background images (something I think the French version may suffer from).
The French version looks pretty, but personally I find it overdone and I don’t think it would necessarily be easy to use in the middle of a game – there’s too much going on per page. As something on the shelf it’s great, but less so on the gaming table. But as I said, this is just a personal preference. Whereas the Spanish version is just about perfect in my eyes – although the square book format less so – it’s clean with subtle use of colours, well thought through layout and great use of imagery.
La llamada de Cthulhu
Source: http://www.susurrosdesdelaoscuridad.com/2011/12/la-llamada-de-cthulhu-edicion_19.html
Sample pages from the Spanish edition
Source: http://www.susurrosdesdelaoscuridad.com/2011/12/la-llamada-de-cthulhu-edicion_19.html
I know Charlie and Badger have a lot of ideas regarding the layout so I’m confident it will look great.
Angry Zoog 