World Of Twilight

You may remember a couple of weeks ago I did a design review of the World of Twilight book 3 that I received as part of their kickstarter campaign. You may also remember that I wasn't terribly happy with the finished product due to poor print finishing (not the content I hasten to add).

As part of my conversations with Mike Thorp, the man behind World of Twilight, he suggested I take a look at the WoT compilation book to compare and sent me an early copy. I have to say that my reaction when I opened the parcel this time was exactly what was missing first time around. This book is beautiful.

To begin with, the cover. I think this has to go down as one of my favourite rulebook covers of all time. It does not depict a great battle, or a montage of the races involved, it's simply a snapshot of Anyaral – the world in which Twilight is set. The decision to have Andreas Rocha do the front cover was genius. His illustration style is the perfect fit for WoT and you would think he'd been illustrating Anyaral for years already. As great as Mike Thorp's pencil sketches are at setting the scene this front cover truly lifts things to the next level. Having said that, less is more – restricting the full colour illustrations to the cover, leaving the pencil sketches inside was a great decision. The balance inside the book remains quite delicate and lots of full colour imagery could have overpowered things.

The book itself is A5, 152 pages, perfect bound, with a matt laminated cover – much like the smaller Malifaux rulebook – with none of the print-related flaws that I found previously. It is actually a compilation of all three WoT books thus far and, with that in mind, the layout inside matches the other books. The pages have a grungy, aged paper background with parchment-style boxes dotted about to highlight things of importance or background fluff extracts.

The pencil sketches make this book what it is and the graphic style follows suit creating the image of something truly hand-rendered. This sets it apart from every other rulebook I can think of. With its duotone colours, the book feels like it could almost be some ancient tome or journal from Anyaral, recording history and events. Even the example diagrams and blast templates are hand-rendered which completes the look perfectly.

This book has been planned and executed very well – lots of focus on the detail, without losing sight of the overall picture. Even if you have no intention of buying models (which are superb by the way) and playing the game, this book is definitely worth adding to your collection.

This is a fantastic book all round and a jolly good read too.