The Caverns of the Deepening Doom

[torstan]

I agree entirely. The papyrus comment was a little tongue in cheek, but it's got a bit of a reputation for itself and I think that's worth being aware of if you are interested in sending a map around.

I agree about the font websites. They are a brilliant source of inspiration and I've never failed to find something good with a little hunting. It certainly makes a difference to get the font bang on in a map.

[töff]

the font websites. They are a brilliant source of inspiration

Of course, for a true creative type, the thing to do is make your own font. However, that's almost never practical because of the time it takes to make a font.

I once long ago had a nifty proggy that takes two fonts and "morphs" them together ... mixing a serif with a sans-serif generated some neat results. Oh, I remember the name: Font Chameleon! probably extinct.

You can also fudge existing fonts by converting them to outlines and applying various effects, especially distresses. Papyrus is distressed, which I think is its primary appeal, because the lettershapes themselves are less than unique.

[Ascension]

In PS, if you rasterize your type layer and then put a mask on it then you can do all sorts of fun things to the edges...cracks, blobs, bloats, drips, grunge, spikes, custom swashes, etc. I do it frequently on large text, like for "Wanted" posters.

[Steel General]

I once long ago had a nifty proggy that takes two fonts and "morphs" them together ... mixing a serif with a sans-serif generated some neat results. Oh, I remember the name: Font Chameleon! probably extinct.

Had a little time at work and exercised my so-so Google-Fu technique. Ares (the creator of Font Chameleon) was bought by Adobe and the software discontinued.