Epic Encounters: Symbaroum

Client

Year

2024

Disciplines

Epic Encounters: Symbaroum was a collaboration between Steamforged Games’ long-running 5e Epic Encounters line and the atmospheric world of Symbaroum by Free League Publishing. The brief was to bring together the established warband-and-boss encounter format of Epic Encounters with the darker, more foreboding tone of Davokar’s forests and the wider Symbaroum setting.

What made this project particularly engaging was the need to reconcile two visually distinct identities. As well as layout design, I led the concepting and art direction – focusing on how to merge Symbaroum’s gritty, painterly aesthetic with the bold, high-contrast branding language of the Epic Encounters range. The goal was not to dilute either style, but to create a cohesive visual system that felt authentic to both.

The final products included maps, rulebooks, tokens and miniatures designed to slot seamlessly into an ongoing 5e campaign or function as a self-contained one-shot experience. Visually, the sets leaned into Symbaroum’s layout sensibilities and illustrative tone, while incorporating the punchy colour, strong hierarchy and oversized titling that define the Epic Encounters brand.