I have some new cups for our game nights! As it turns out, we like them so much we're actually using them every day.
I bought some of those "spill-proof" cup/jar things, and painted chalkboard paint on the sides - now you can write your name so you know whose cup is whose. You can even write it in your player colour! They are not totally spill-proof - most of them have a gap where the straw goes in, so please try not to knock them over. However, they are less spilly than your usual glass and the shape of the base makes them much more sturdy on the table. So you may put your special games-night cup on our game table, but still - be careful. :)
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I haven't gone to Mark's for games tonight as I'm exhausted from being up all night yesterday with Zac, who was unwell. I am finally done making my Merchant of Venus insert - it was a big job! I was honestly pretty over it near the end, but I'm really happy to have a functional insert for this very hard-to-organise game. There were several more challenges in this one. Because there are so many components to fit in the box, the precision on the plans were down to the mm, and as I mentioned I made the narrow trays about 2mm too thin. I had to unsleeve my cards as they just wouldn't fit with this design, even if I modified the design of the tray (which I had to do with a couple of them).
Still, this is a huge improvement over a messy box filled with baggies of tokens, and no easy way to separate the two versions of the game. I used the plans designed by Universal Head, found at The Esoteric Order of Gamers. The stuff this guy designs is generally pretty fantastic. I was pleased with the success of my Mysterium insert so I have started work on an insert for Merchant of Venus. If any game needs it, this one does.
I've really thrown myself in the deep end here. Following online plans, there is a base and about 6 different trays. MoV (Merchant of Venus) contains two versions of the game with different components, and has a massive amount of setup. With this insert, the components are separated logically and it provides special lift-out trays you can add next to the board already set up! This is a massive plus - the setup time is one of the reasons we hardly ever play this. The measurements are very fiddly. I was out by a couple of millimetres on the base so I have had to redesign two of the trays. The design is so tight that those 2 millimetres mean things no longer fit as planned. I also had to redesign the card tray to allow for sleeves. I've found solutions though and, while it doesn't look as flash, it's easier than starting all over again. I'll post photos when I'm done. It's a slow process so it will probably take a few days. At the top you can see the original insert, which is beautifully designed until you sleeve your cards. Then, as you can see on the right, the cards stack up too high and some don't quite fit, and then you have to dump the other stuff on the top. Result - the box doesn't even close properly.
Below is the insert I made. I copied the design of one you can buy online. You can fit the board and rulebook on top and the box shuts perfectly. As you can see there are two removeable trays which stack above components below, and there is a place for everything. As it was my first attempt, I did make a few mistakes. It took me a while to get the technique to cut foamboard without it ripping up. I also got the large tray (with the player pieces) flipped around after measuring it and so made the small compartments on the wrong side. That basically means they aren't quite evenly sized as planned, but oh well - better than the gluey mess I would've made if I'd tried to fix my mistake. All in all I'm very happy with it! Bonus: Devon found other uses for foamboard: I've been having pretty early nights at Wednesday games lately since I've been quite tired.
Last Wednesday I bought Mysterium, which 6 of us played. Israel was the ghost so it was cool to play the game on the other side of things. After that we played Cardline: Dinosaurs, which is a little game where you have to try and rank different dinosaurs by length or weight. It's similar to Timeline (which I don't like) but it was pretty cool seeing all the different dinosaurs. Making inserts: The problem with Mysterium is that the cards really need to be sleeved, but once I'd sleeved them I couldn't fit everything back into the fancy insert (A game insert is the piece of plastic or cardboard that is inside the game box. Sometimes it's specially shaped to hold the components.) So today I bought some foamboard to make a custom insert. A couple of people from Wednesday games have made some already, and I watched a YouTube tutorial which made it look easy. Yeah... it's actually pretty time consuming and mine looks a lot messier than the video! But it's coming along. I made the base today and tomorrow I will make a couple of trays to add in. Also, craft is fun. Here's what I've got so far, will update as I progress. |
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