Based on a request from one of my Patreon patrons, we’ll be kicking off a new irregular series here at the Alexandrian where I offer up templates for some of the props. Interest in these seems to have grown as a result of the 300+ props included in the Alexandrian Remix of the Eternal Lies campaign.

This props template is based on Chicago Daily Tribune articles from 1900-1940. It was originally researched developed because one of the PCs was a reporter for the paper. The template allowed me to create era-appropriate versions of the stories he wrote for the paper.

The template package includes:

• Several raw images of actual pages from the Chicago Daily Tribune to provide historical context.
• The fonts necessary to match the Tribune’s style.
• A Word document giving examples of several different article formats.
• A PDF file to show what the Word document should look like (to make sure the fonts are correctly installed on your machine).

Note that a number of other papers used very similar designs, including the New-York Tribune and The Waco News-Tribune. So you can easily use these templates for articles from any number of sources (including fictional ones).

ADVANCED TIPS

• Purchase actual newsprint to print on. This will generally work best with an inkjet printer. Some printers may have difficulty feeding the thin newsprint, but I’ve found success by feeding the newsprint one sheet at a time.
• Trim the paper down to the dimensions of the article.
• If it’s an article which someone in the game setting has been preserving (found among their papers, for example), you might consider pasting the article onto white paper or cardstock. (An example of this is given among the original samples.)
• For added verisimilitude, you can also print content on the opposite side of the paper. Advertisements are generally the easiest way of doing this, and a selection of such ads has been included in the template package.

Everything is included in the zip file linked below.

PROPS TEMPLATE – ZIP FILE

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