I just love helping out independent tabletop RPG creators, and the moment Justica Arman (Norse DM on Twitter) told me about his project, I called dibs. Or rather, he hired me to do layout for his new DM’s Guild publication – same thing, the same amount of enthusiasm from both sides.

So, this is not a review: it can’t be, as I happened to edit, proofread, design, and lay out this supplement. I have no way of being objective, and I won’t even try.

Devil’s Advocate, released today (23 July) on DM’s Guild, is a 24-page supplement introducing proper infernal contracts into D&D 5e. And boy, does it make well!

Moving on from the contents, let’s talk design. Justice wanted the book to look in a style consistent with current D&D 5e design, just better. We decided to use a classic parchment texture but we took it in a colder direction to not overheat the infernal flames (fine, to keep a better contrast between the neutral background and shades of red present in the layout).

As per request, I went with classic D&D style but made it a bit swankier, adding ornaments, playing with spacing and balancing the whole thing for the ease of read.

The last page is a handout: ready to print infernal contract, complete with fine print and a seal. By design it’s supposed to be legible, but barely – we don’t want the signee to actually read it all, do we?

Devil‘s Advocate is currently a Platinum Best Seller on DM’s Guild (yes, it’s a big deal), and it’s being praised for both writing and design, so I think my job here is done.