D&D Diary: Quest 1
TL;DR
I went extra hard creating a branded journal for my Dungeons & Dragons campaign with my friends.
Problem
As it was my first time participating in a Dungeons and Dragons quest, I needed to take extensive notes to remember what was going on. My notebook was an eye-sore and distracted me from feeling fully immersed in the gameplay.
The journal has become my carry-all for D&D days.
Process
Note taking
Throughout each step of our campaign, I took notes about what was going on and a few rough sketches based on our DM’s vivd descriptions. Prior to making the illustrated journal, I went through and bolded the most important details that I wanted to include.
Weathering
To maintain the medieval look and feel, each of the sheets of journal paper needed to be dyed with strong tea and sea salt.
Painting
Calligraphy
Using india ink and a traditional quill, I have been hand-lettering all of the diary entries.
Key features
Character sheet
Utilised frequently in D&D, the character sheet serves as a comprehensive record of a player character's statistics, abilities, equipment, and personal details, essential for gameplay.
Before: The standard, out-of-the-box character sheet, which is fully function over form.
After: The new hand painted character sheet keeps the functionality yet has more character (pun intended).
Travel pouch
Holds my dice, pencil, eraser, sometimes even a snack.
Inventory
There is ample space to keep track of armour, weapons, toolkits, objects, etc.
Maps
Our DM kindly created a map and shared it with me ahead of the session so we could play utilizing my hand drawn map.
Quest entries
Read through our first quest and all of our trials and tribulations.
Next steps
As we progress on to the next quest, I will continue documenting our adventures! That being said, here are some things I would like to address in the future:
Reinforce tabs for easier navigation
More folders for loose pieces of paper
Increase contrast for areas that need to be in pencil (erased and re-written)
