I initially wanted a simple way of tracking sanity and stamina without having to use a handfull of tokens but it escalated from there on in to a multi purpose player mat. So now I'm running into a problem of trying to make a player mat which can accommodate all expansions without actually owning any of them. The base game is the only thing that I have and, while I can get an idea of additional components though FFG website, I still need that hands on experience. This is where I hope that Arkham veterans out there could offer me a little guidance and some help.
The mat looks like this so far. Keep in mind that this is still work in progress.
I wanted it to fit to a single regular size page, so all the cards on the bottom would be stacked below their appropriate tags (by stacked I mean that cards would be placed on top of each other so that only the relevant text is visible). The cards on the right would be placed next to each other.
The first issue I have is relevant grouping. I have 9 sections available for groups of cards. The base game has common items, unique items, skills, spells, allies and special cards. From what I've gathered the expansions offer exhibit items, benefits and detriments, injuries and madness and magical effects. Am I missing anything else for character related cards? How would you group these to fit under 9 categories? So far I'm thinking:
Unique items (this will include exhibit items)
Common items
Skills
Spells
Allies
Special cards (bank loans, retainers, membership cards, etc)
Effects (curse, blessing, injury, madness, benefits, detriments)
Weapons (since they seem to be used often I wanted a seperate section for an easier overview)
One free section (I've marked it Misc for now but I would like to get a specific category).
The second issue is space. As some cards will be stacked on top of each other on the bottom of the mat, the space could run out fairly quickly. I don't know about your table, but mine does not have much space left vertically once the game is set up. So the 6 categories on the bottom of the mat should be cards which are not acquired in large numbers during the game. The 3 sections on the right side of the mat should be cards which ARE acquired in larger quantities as most tables should have more space in that horizontal direction. These cards will be placed next to each other instead of stacked on top of each other. Which sections should be on the bottom and which ones on the right? I'm thinking that skills should most likely be on the right side not because they are found in large numbers in the game but due to the card design. The text on the skill card is placed right in the centre so they can't be stacked on top of each other as easily as other cards.
Finally, any other suggestions are welcome. How high should the sanity and stamina counters go to? Is 9 too much or not enough? Should I try to include placeholders for anything else?
Thanks.