Hi all. I have a pretty vanilla campaign document, I would like to give it a sepia toned background, and add some nice framing. I understand that the pathfinder stuff might be unavailable as it is proprietary, but I don't need to clone their exact look. I would just like to make my document look nice for my gaming group. I have no experience with this kind of thing, can anyone point me in the right direction?
Hey James, I'm going to assume, hopefully rather safely, that you are using Microsoft Word for your documents?
In order to alter the background, go to Format > Background, and from the toolbox that pops up, go to Fill Effects... Play around with the colors until you get the color you want. It should be mentioned at this point that most printers will not be able to print all the way to the edge (called "bleed"), so even if you fill the background with a different color on your computer it will not come out of the printer that way and will be bordered in white. You can likewise choose to insert a picture here, but will need to go with something light as a dark picture will likely obscure your text.
Speaking of which, Cambria or Georgia font will get you close to the look you want. Fonts with serifs, "tails" at the ends of letters, will help to evoke more of a fantasy feel. I take a different approach with tables, serifs can make these difficult to read at times, so something like Verdana works nicely.
You did not mention it but I thought that I would suggest that Word has a hyperlink function, which can be very useful when referencing rules text. Highlight the text you want then go to Insert > Hyperlink... and put in your desired url.
Hope that gets you a little closer.
Hi all. I have a pretty vanilla campaign document, I would like to give it a sepia toned background, and add some nice framing. I understand that the pathfinder stuff might be unavailable as it is proprietary, but I don't need to clone their exact look. I would just like to make my document look nice for my gaming group. I have no experience with this kind of thing, can anyone point me in the right direction?
I recommend going to an office supply store and buying some parchment themed paper. It'll look real nice and save your printer ink/toner. You can then add framing as you'd like.
I pretty much do what Dustin said (I took the background and embellishing used in the prd).
You can always print the document out on sturdy matte paper and then abuse it. Stain it with washes of coffee or tea, spill ink on it, put sand paper to the edges. You can go to town.