Monday, February 24, 2025

Waterdeep Receipt

Stormageadon's girlfriend tasked him with creating handouts for her Dungeons and Dragons campaign.

It’s difficult to figure out what exactly the visual style of a city like Waterdeep would be. I know fantasy tends to live in the 16th century or so, but I figure mass printing is already out and about so I based most of my work off of 19th century invoices. Please let me know if you think this fits the vibe of Waterdeep or how I can improve the next handouts. 

The longest part of the project was just getting fonts to look right. Next up is a few leaflets for some kind of opera and some posters for a sea maiden’s festival. 

It was about five hours of meticulous work on Photoshop, and then printing it in high fidelity on handmade paper. 

He's on-target with his design process.  Faerun, and Waterdeep in particular, has canonically had printing press technology since the setting was first published.   At the same time, you can still find professional scribes copying tomes by hand.  That's the legacy of a world shaped by the need to give gamemasters a place where they could set any kind of adventure.

The only thing I'm not crazy about is the deckled edge.  That's the hallmark of hand-laid, uncut paper, an artisan product.  Good for correspondence, but not the best fit for a pre-printed receipt.  

 


 

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