Hey everyone !

New game beginning in January. It's a christmas gift for friends who want to discover d&d. I'd like to make a nice effect in Christmas Eve, so I thought about putting an "adventure call" under the christmas tree.

By "Adventure Call", I mean a letter or a distress call from Phandalin (to begin "Dragon of Icespire Peak"). I think that a parchment sealed with wax is a great idea, but I don't really know how to give this " Parchment " effect to paper.

I already heard about coffee on it, but I don't really want my present to smell coffee when they open it :/

Any help/advice ?

Thank you !

Seconding the tea suggestion; I've used it many times to create a parchment effect. Put the paper on a baking sheet and pour some strong black tea over it. Drain off the excess once it's thoroughly wetted, use a paper towel to gently wipe down the paper, then stick it in the oven at about 200F for 5-10 minutes, until dry. The end result will be a little crinkly but you can still fold it, write on it, etc.

Quote from Nat_30 >>

Seconding the tea suggestion; I've used it many times to create a parchment effect. Put the paper on a baking sheet and pour some strong black tea over it. Drain off the excess once it's thoroughly wetted, use a paper towel to gently wipe down the paper, then stick it in the oven at about 200F for 5-10 minutes, until dry. The end result will be a little crinkly but you can still fold it, write on it, etc.

 As people have suggested, I'd add a bit of fire to the edges to slightly burn them.

The real key is to use sepia ink, instead of black.  Especially if you're going to burn the edges to age it.  It's a bit more fuss, but it looks good.

If you are using wax to seal it, make sure to use sealing wax, not candle wax!  Don’t make the mistakes I did!

I found these on Amazon. Works to give that "illusion" of parchment without the hassle of making it yourself.  

Papers

Definitely Tea as others have suggested, but instead of pouring the tea I rub the paper down with the wet teabags. It leaves streaks that simulate real parchment. And use a thicker paper if possible too. Parchment is actually sheepskin, to erase older writings they would literally scrape off the old text with a blade to write new stuff down. The streaks from the teabags looks kind of like those old scrapings. It doesn’t get too wet, so it’ll air dry in hours in the summer, or overnight in the winter. Then rip/scorch the edges so it looks a little uneven around the edges like a piece of sheepskin would have looked. As TimCurtin suggested, sepia ink looks best, but black will do as long as you use a calligraphy pen to get the thin/thick lines to mimic a quill pen. 

Sorry, I went a little Martha Stewards on ya there, I’ma little bit of a prop nerd.

You could buy resume paper from the store for parchment.  You can use the rest for messages during the campaign.

Definitely find brown ink.  It makes a very good aged look.  Use a speedball pen.  Practice before you do it.  You may also wish to place a piece of paper with heavy bold lines underneath to help you write in straight lines if you're not used to such things.

If you decide to lightly burn the edges of the paper, pull all the burn off to leave only the least hint of the burn but a ragged edge, which gives a very good impression of paper that was made by the sheet instead of the mass produced stuff we enjoy today.

I use coffee, but I’m not a tea drinker. Haven’t noticed the smell, personally, but I’m probably desensitized to the smell of coffee. I’m also a fan of the crinkly effect soaking and drying gives it. I like to very carefully tear away the edges, because I find machine-straight edges and sharp corners spoil the effect. 
I like using sharpies, because I like when the ink bleeds a bit, it can make certain parts illegible, but sometimes you want that. 

If you have a good printer, you can just print a parchment pattern on both sides and trim the edges.  DrivethruRPG has a free downloadable parchment pattern, or you could just google for images online or even make your own.  I made a ripped-up journal page for an adventure prop that way, used a fancy font in brown for the writing and was able to add reddish-brown dried bloodstains.  (Though I did end up dampening it with iced tea, to brown the snow-white torn edges and because I actually wanted some water damage effect--it was supposed to have been lying in  a tower with broken windows for months.)