- April 17th, 2022, 9:44 pm#4968927
So, I think my next big undertaking is going to be creating a -good- prop Tobin's Spirit Guide. I've done some searching around the forums and it seems like this isn't a super common undertaking. I know there are some commercial ones that are really kitschy on Amazon, but what I'm after is "what would a first edition TSG look like?"
I'm starting with the brainstorming right now and hoping that someone has some experience, advice, or knows of resources I don't. Here's what I'm thinking at the moment:
I'm starting with the brainstorming right now and hoping that someone has some experience, advice, or knows of resources I don't. Here's what I'm thinking at the moment:
- I want it to look original, rough. Not new and pristine. I'm thinking, "someone uncovers a first edition in the mines after Afterlife" as production design motivation. It's been "safe," but also not sealed away. Dusty, beaten over the years. What would that look like? I think this will also give me some flexibility in cannibalizing some actual old books for components.
- I'm thinking I might be able to find something like a generic old bible from the late 1800's that could offer a sacrificial cover.
- Mr. Tobin was obviously a man of money, so he likely had his initial printing done -nicely- relative to it's popular value at the time
- Alternatively, I'm guessing I could find someone on Etsy that could produce a custom book cover.
- Probably an artificially printed interior with tea staining, maybe a little burning and over work. There's a fair amount of advice online for the general antiquing process, and I'll be comfortable with most of it.
- I'll need to source some good paper
- Wondering how I'll approach actually making the guts though, physically. I'd rather not hand-write the whole thing, but making custom signatures and everything to make a book is also very non-trivial. Thinking about buying something like the Codex Seraphinianus and using it's interior, but unfamiliar with the prints to know if they would be receptive to antiquing. On the other hand, it WOULD be nice to have an "authentic" interior for anyone that wanted a closer look. This is a huge question. How do I fill it? What do I prefer to fill it with? Something else that has occurred to me is maybe using something like SCP entries.
- Probably some custom gold leafing on the cover of a big "T" or something like that.
- Depending on the approach to the interior, thinking about the initial plates at least, because those feel like they should be "showable" to people, but if they come away custom, then I have to match them to the rest of the guts.
- My goal is to stay under $200, because if I go over that, I might as well buy Fabio's custom setup, which is also VERY appealing