This is a tough one. Between multi-million dollar Kickstarters, good desktop publishing software, and real money behind some of the bigger production companies (Wizards of the Coast, of course, has Hasbro in their corner, there’s Mödiphiüs, Free League…) the production values of RPG books and extras has really improved. There are some staggeringly beautiful books put out by all the big names. Most of 5th edition D&D books are well-laid out, well bound on good quality paper, and the artwork is top notch. Free League really hit their stride with Alien and Blade Runner, although the art style has been getting a bit stale for me. Kickstarters like Blacksad — based on the anthropomorphic noir comic books (trust me, they’re good!) has stellar artwork, a well designed GM screen (a rarity in the past) and had cute dice with the character face on them. Modiphius does specialty dice for bloody everything — ’cause up yours! buy our stuff! Magpie Games knocked it out of the park with their Avatar Legends Kickstarter. The paper quality, binding, artwork, card design (and the card box! superb card stock), a cloth map from the show, a little Pi Sho tile, die with the element symbols on them and the dice bag… Magpie deserves a huge bunch of kudos for their work on this game and everything connected to it. The Altered Carbon RPG was similarly beautiful to look at, but not so much to read thanks to the impenetrable use of weird symbols for f#$@ing everything. Everything Lex Arcana is beautiful.

So if i had to go with the coolest RPG related thing (for me) lately, I’d go with the dice and dice bag combo from the Avatar Legends game. They look cool with the color appropriate die with the symbols for the elements on the highest number face. They have a nice feel, too; I really noticed the quality of the dice when handling them. It’s a shame the GM doesn’t really get to roll in the game.

I think my honorable mention would go the the excellent Herbalist’s Primer by Exalted Funeral, “a system-agnostic illustrated guide to real-world magical plants. Inspired by the 19th-century herbalists and the millennia of folklore, myths, and legends, it brings a wealth of easily-accessible, organized information straight to your gaming table.” The artwork on the plants, the real-world use of the same, plus the fantasy game uses — it’s an excellent addition for the druid/cleric/whatever in your party to work from. It did well enough there’s a Geologist’s Primer Kickstarter that finished up last month and might still be available for pre-order.