Retailer Kit 2019

The magazine features a distinct physical contrast: while the inside pages are printed on coated, high-gloss paper, the cover is finished with a soft-touch lamination. The cover depicts the silhouette of a boy in a yellow illuminated entrance, whose shadow projects as an upright knight with armoured gloves and a sword. The image is pierced diagonally by a sword held by an armoured hand. Hidden within the flowing yellow (not gold-stamped) lines in the dark area are additional figures: a rabbit, a woman with a bow and arrow, and a sea creature. The scale structure of this sea creature is identical to the gold stamping on the handwritten card included in the same kit.

Inside, pages 1 and 2 form a connected double-page spread. The left page features a letter from Legend Story Studios titled “DEAR RETAILER.”, which mentions a seven-year development time for the game, dating the project’s start to 2012, as corroborated by other sources. The letter outlines three specific commitments to retailers: margin integrity through direct global sales, a focus on physical in-store products, and prioritising retailers who foster local communities. This text is framed by the black body of a large bird with a yellow beak extending from the right page (page 2). This right page also features a compass wheel with a yellow needle pointing toward a building labelled “LGS” (Local Game Store). The only call to action on this spread directs readers to the B2B platform b2b.legendstory.com.

From an archival perspective, the handwritten card (material thickness 0.40 mm) is a central personal document of the kit. On the back, the LSS team wrote an individual, handwritten message to the respective retailer. In it, the studio highlights the upcoming US launch of “Flesh and Blood” and emphasises its dedication and support for Local Game Stores (LGS).

The front of the card features an elaborate hot-foil gold stamping. A macroscopic examination of this gold layer under grazing light reveals, as on the black presentation envelope, a system of fine, parallel lines spaced 200 micrometres apart. They are a manufacturing remnant, left by the rolled or ground surface of the metal plate from which the stamping die was made. In addition to the LSS logo, the gold artwork depicts a sea creature with fins and a scaled body. Its scale structure matches the silhouette of a figure hidden within the line art on the cover of the enclosed retailer magazine. This shared detail shows that the card and the magazine cover were designed with the same visual vocabulary.

The A4 sheet (material thickness 0.14 mm) carries a full-bleed print of the “Bravo, Showstopper” artwork, illustrated by Alexander Mokhov (Copyright 2019), while the back is left smooth and white. A distinct physical feature is the velvety surface texture on the front, which matches the finishing (soft-touch/velvet print) used on the paper playmat included in the kit. A slight break at the edge appears to be delamination, which would point to two layers of board. A microscopic scratch on the surface shows that the sheet is coated with a UV varnish: the scratch only penetrates this varnish layer, leaving the underlying print grid intact.

Historically, this motif also holds special relevance to the game: the same artwork appears as a full-page spread on page 104 of the first official Lore Book, serving as the introduction to Bravo’s character chapter. In December 2019 and January 2020, LSS used this artwork, presented in a black frame, as part of a prize package for the community event series “Savage Lands Showdown #1”.