I don't know if I'm OCD or if I'm really curious and obsessed about certain things, but I just really like to condense things into one spatial component. I've taken a tremendous liking to Fantasy Flight's Arkham Horror board game series for its thematic play and fun mechanics. If you've never played an actual board game (Monopoly doesn't count), PLAY THIS GAME. Grab three other people and dedicate 2-3 hours of time at night to play this and you'll appreciate the often forgotten amazingness of board games. It is rule heavy and there are definitely a lot of cards and pieces in this game you'll be managing but it's worth your time and attention to play it. DO IT.
Moving on, how does one fit 5 expansions and 1 base game into a suitcase?
When you first open the case and see, there are the rulebooks sitting on top of a plastic sheet protecting the main compartment. This helps the cards stay in place when I'm carrying and transporting the briefcase around.
The main compartment is made from the two plastic holders that originally came in the base game and one other expansion. I just cut one of them to hold more cards on the side. To the right of the case where the orange tab is sticking out is where I keep the monster trophies.
The two pieces come out and underneath are the 3 game boards from the base game and Innsmouth and Dunwich expansions as well as tins to hold all of the small pieces like money and health.
Thanks to a friend who owned this game also, altoid tins were the best option to store the different chits. And they fit well underneath the plastic inserts!
Every token in every expansion I have are in these tins.
And back to this side- Lifting up the orange tab reveals every monster from all expansions stored here, not including the special/mask monsters. Those are in the main compartment. No glue is required to make the side compartment. I fit in a strip of cardboard to separate the board from the trophies, taped another strip of cardboard to go on top of the trophies and taped a piece of ribbon to make it easier to lift the tab up.
The envelopes from before hold all of the Investigator sheets and all of the Ancient Ones. The extra envelope with the Elder Sign is used to hold the monsters in during the game. The envelopes add a bit of theme to the game.
Investigators are organized by what expansion they were in.
- A - Arkham Horror base game
- B - Innsmouth Horror Expansion
- C - Dunwich Horror Expansion
Also, each Investigator in each lettered bag is numbered. This is used when everyone wants to roll for a random character to play. Each player rolls a d6 to indicate what letter they are picking from, and then they roll either a d8 or d20 depending on how many investigators are in each bag.
Like the Investigators, the Ancient Ones are numbered, but since there's 20 of them a single d20 is rolled to choose who we fight against.
I think I covered the gist of everything inside this briefcase. You can view more detailed pictures in my
[flickr]. If anyone's a fan of Arkham Horror and would like to make a thematic traveling case, this is as simple and practical as it gets. I just found an old briefcase in my attic, grabbed some tins, cut out some plastic inserts and cardboard and boom. It does weigh a bit, I haven't checked. Just don't swing it around like a maniac or your game will end up in someone's mouth.
Also, can anyone confirm if this is TSA-safe? I need to bring this to GDC this March.
