Gaming Experience Upgrades: Component Organization and Storage

One of the reasons that I decided to get a Geek Chic table is the idea of improving the experience of playing board games.  While I have many hobbies, as evidenced by this blog, tabletop gaming is probably the hobby I am most dedicated to.  Upgrading gaming experiences in a variety of ways is part of what I enjoy when it comes to tabletop gaming.

Today, I'll be covering component organization and storage, how that enhances the gaming experience, and how to do it.

Component Organization and Storage

The contents and components for a board game are usually set up inside the box for storage on a shelf and cross-country transport.  While this works just fine for that, few publishers outside of Days of Wonder give much consideration to how players will actually organize the pieces and parts of a game once the game has been opened.  Typical solutions involve large amounts of plastic baggies and rubber bands.

Oh Terra Mystica...

Whenever I can, I try for another solution.

One of the keys for setting up your storage solution is to consider how the game needs to be setup.  This is the time that you'll be accessing your box the most, and you want it to be easy and quick to get everyone set up.  Consider ways of easily handing out multiple bags or boxes so that multiple people can simultaneously set up different parts of the game.

When able, I use organizers thought out and made by other folks, such as the many organizers made by The Broken Token.  These organizers work wonders for making setup a breeze and making components that need to be used during the game easy to leave around.  There are other options, such as Litko Game Accessories, and Game Trayz, but I generally prefer those made by Broken Token.

A place for everything, and everything in its place.

When these commercial options are not available, one has to innovate.  A great source of solutions to this problem can be found on board game geek's forums and files.

For example, for games with a lot of cards or tiles, tuck boxes can be very useful.  These are small boxes that you can print on your printer onto heavy card stock, then assemble.  My favorite example is my setup for Carcassonne using Tom's Carcassonne Tuckboxes.

So many tiny boxes.

The objective of any organization scheme should be to make setup a breeze, so you can get into the game faster.  In this case, my Carcassonne setup does this by having each box have a specific purpose.  The little box is a small expansion box that contains the base game and my favorite expansions.  The larger box contains the rest of the expansions.  This way, when getting set up, we can grab the base components and get them arranged while deciding which expansions to use.  Once that's decided, we can grab those out of the big box and toss them in the already prepped base components.

Sometimes, though, there is no original box to store your components in, or it is just so exceedingly inadequate that you have to use original solutions.  Once again, Board Game Geek's forums are a great place to go to find storage ideas and solutions.  Based on their concepts, I put together a series of Plano "tackle boxes" for our X-wing game components, keeping the actual ships nestled in Battle Foam.

One box for each faction, and one common box.

I'm always looking for more ways to organize my games, and speed up setup time, as well as provide a more immersive and thematic experience.  I particularly like the way I've organized my copy of Speakeasy:

The power cards, which need to be easily viewed and purchased by players, stay in the briefcase throughout the game, providing a strong thematic element.  The rest of the cards and instructions get tucked into the various pockets of the briefcase, for easy removal during game setup.

I could probably do a break down of every game I have, but here's a few of the basic principles for organizing your games and improving the gaming experience for your players. :)  Happy gaming!