The visual language of FÄNG is just as important as the monsters, mysteries, and magic. Typography can tell a story before your first word, evoke nostalgia, and even help your players navigate your adventure more easily. But like any good design rule—sometimes it’s okay to break them, as long as you know why.
When to Break the Rules
In the main FÄNG booklet, we used Storybook and Verdana as our two core typefaces—storybook for that classic fairy tale tone, and Verdana for its legibility (it was also IKEA’s original catalog font). However, we deliberately broke that consistency in one important way.
Each encounter section—Beasts, Serpents, Dwellers, Bugs, Enchanted, Challenges, Traps—uses a different headline font. The goal wasn’t aesthetic alone, but functionality: readers can flip through quickly and recognize what section they’re in based on the typography alone. It’s a visual navigation tool.
Design decisions should always come from purpose. Once you understand the rules, break them to serve your goal.
Try These Decorative Fonts for Headers!
Here are fonts that Fang used, along with some others that may evoke a whimsy, and may work for your adventure. Many are either free or available as trial fonts, although some may require payment for commercial use.
Storybook – Used throughout the Fang Rules
Scary House – Used for the Dwellers Section
Magic School – Used for the Enchanted Section
Fifties Movies – Used for the Traps Section
Againts – Used in the Beast Section
Creepy Night – Used in the Bugs Section
Back to the Fantasy – Used for the Serpent Section
Oz’s Wizard Tin Woodman – Used for the Objects Section
Avengeance Mightiest Avenger – Used for the Challenges
Island of Misfit Toys – Used in King Kringle
Kingthings Calligraphica – Light Fantasy font
Bajern – Hard Lined font
Morris Roman – Good all-around fantasy
Black Chancery – Good for Traditional Fairy Tale adventure
Devine Swash – Good for Tolkien-esque adventure
Mister Froggie – Good for Bog adventure
Spooky Monster – Good for Retro Monster adventure
Rhinos Rocks – Good for Monstrous adventure
Pairing Fonts
A solid layout typically uses no more than two or three fonts. Here are a few good pairing principles:
- Contrast, not conflict: Pair a decorative title font with a clean body font (like Verdana, Helvetica, or Century Gothic).
- Stick to roles: Use display fonts for titles and headers. Keep body text to a legible sans serif or serif.
- Repeat with variation: Consider using bold, italics, or size changes of the same font family rather than switching fonts entirely.
For example, you might pair:
- Storybook (display) + Verdana (body)
- Gondola SD (title) + Sniglet (body, light weight)
- Morris Roman (section headers) + Good Dog (subheadings) + Verdana (body)
Font Size and Readability
A few basic principles to keep in mind when working with font size and legibility:
- Body text should generally be between 9pt–11pt for print (adjust for your final resolution and DPI).
- Headers can range from 14pt to 24pt depending on hierarchy.
- Decorative fonts: These should be used sparingly in body text. A sentence is fine, but avoid doing more than that.
- Line length: Keep lines between 45–75 characters to reduce eye strain, especially when using whimsical or heavy-styled fonts.
- Always test at your final output size—what looks fun on screen may be unreadable on paper or mobile.
Ready to Try It Yourself?
Download the official FÄNG template here:
👉 https://diekugames.com/fang-templates
The InDesign file includes:
- Several D66 table layouts
- Optional backgrounds (paper, forest, winter, volcano)
- The “Fun with FÄNG” compatibility badge (inspired by children’s book award seals)
- A full color swatch pulled from Art Seiden’s Fairy Tales
Everything is optional—make the game your own, and make it beautiful.
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