Props for posh play

By Hawkstrike, in Arkham Horror: The Card Game

So what kind of props, tokens, mats, modifications, and other do-dads are you adding to your game for storage or play to enhance the experience?

So far I've just swapped my cardboard counters for glass beads and dice (the latter for health/sanity tracking) to have something with nice hand feel. I've put the chaos bag counters in a nice leather dice cup -- considering making beads for them, too, and customizing my other glass beads with thematic backings.

For storage I'm leaning toward a customized artists's case with go7gaming insert -- I have two for my LotR LCG stuff -- but haven't quite decided yet.

Old-fashioned suit, monocle, Victrola replica and pet squid.

But seriously, I'm just waiting for the usual token manufacturers to make some replacements, and FFG to produce some nice sleeves. That's about the extent of my poshing it up, maybe adding a playmat if one ever appears and is available near here. I may look into 3rd party solutions for a two-player (or two-hand) mat with the right design. So far the only thing I have is a nice, big bag for the chaos tokens. The cave I live in is already pretty dark and dreary, so the environmental parts are done.

I've been wondering what I can replace chaos tokens with that would stay thematic, but fix the problems. I think glass beads that are green for clue / doom, red for health, blue for horror, and white for resource would be nice too. I want to get these for my LOTR anyway, and this could actually help storage as the same beads could work for both ^_^

I've picked up the Tentacles dice bag from FFG for my chaos bag, sleeved all my cards, bought a swanky folder for keeping all my player cards in, for ease of consultation. Next up, I have a cheap wooden box, tall enough to have sleeved cards upright in it, which I intend to mark up with an elder sign and other sigils. Then I'll stain it to make it look more antique, that's where I'm going to keep all my scenarios in separate packs. If any nice tokens come out game, I may upgrade, but I'm not in a hurry.

- Hand-painted wood chaos tokens

- Leather dice cup

- UltraPro Pro Tower Deck Box

- Arkham Horror Art Sleeves (not yet available)

- The Summoning Art Sleeves (not yet available)

- Countless Terrors playmat (currently out of stock)

Edited by Xenu's Paradox

- acrylic Health and Sanity Dials for Investigators (enemies can keep the cardboard health markers for now)

- color coded leather "chaos cups" prepped with different difficulties (I never liked the bag solution and I want every player to use their own difficulty setting)

- dry-erase gaming mat so I can doodle the paths between different locations on it (not necessary in scenario 1, but 2 gives you a nice map of Arkham to run around)

- nice set of thematic dice for determining random hand cards in solo play

Somewhere online I saw someone had gotten plastic coin collector coin cases(for individual coins) to put the chaos tokens in.

I got a snazzy Go7 gaming insert and also got a black bag for tokens and shtuff, thinking of adding an elder sign on the outside to make it look cooler.

Somewhere online I saw someone had gotten plastic coin collector coin cases(for individual coins) to put the chaos tokens in.

I saw this too 26mm coin cases are what you'd want to get for the chaos tokens. :)

I'm torn on caseing them or just waiting to see if acrylic replacements show up.

- acrylic Health and Sanity Dials for Investigators (enemies can keep the cardboard health markers for now)

- color coded leather "chaos cups" prepped with different difficulties (I never liked the bag solution and I want every player to use their own difficulty setting)

- dry-erase gaming mat so I can doodle the paths between different locations on it (not necessary in scenario 1, but 2 gives you a nice map of Arkham to run around)

- nice set of thematic dice for determining random hand cards in solo play

Yeah I didn't do dry erase, but just used a piece of paper. So not posh, but yeah - it's nice to just draw out the connecting lines, so you can easily play without constantly fiddling with the symbols. The way they did it is nice, but it isn't easy.

I realized during play that I should add a nice small leatherbound notebook to keep track of investigators and resolutions during a campaign.

I have coin collector cases coming for the chaos tokens. I also tried coloured card stands for the character cards, but the stands were too wide so the cards kept toppling over. I have also got some Settlers of Catan roads, to mark the connections between locations. It makes it easier to visualize the connections for The Midnight Masks for sure.

My first upgrade project for the game is tokens. Here's what I've done to customize my tokens:


Custom chaos bag tokens



Custom clue tokens



Edit: Apparently I can't figure out how to show images, so I've posted the links to BGG.


Here's how they were made:


1. I scanned the cardboard tokens, scaled down to 80%. I also found some pages of books in foreign languages or runes for some of the clue tokens. I printed on regular office paper.


2. I picked up glass beads, which you can get from gaming stores, or much more cheaply from craft or variety stores where they are sold for flower arranging. Also get some decoupage glue (I've been recommended the Modge-Podge brand, but couldn't get it at the store I was at so tried something else that seems to work). You need a glue that dries clear. I had some acrylic paint and matte spray already for minatures. Total cost: under $10.


3. Apply glue to the bottom of the bead, and press firmly onto the spot you want to reflect (token, or section of page). Allow to dry. Once dry, put another coat of the glue on the back of the paper; allow to dry.


4. Carefully cut out the glued token very closely to the bead, being careful not to lift the edge much.


5. Trim the edge of the cut-out bead (I actually used a little sandpaper for the last bit). Apply a third coat of glue to seal the back and edges to the bead.


6. Once all the coats have dried, paint the back of the bead with acrylic or enamel paint to seal and cover the paper.


7. Once the paint is dry, spray the back with a clear seal coat (I used matte spray).


8. Play!

I saw so many ideas for tokens and accessories at the local big-store art shop near my home. Lots of cool buttons, add-ons and earrings with Steam Punk themes that had quite of few different choices. I finally decided on some "old timey" metal and silver colored necklace stands. I unstrung them and now I have a few different tokens for "uses" on Asset cards. They look like they fit right in. :)

I'm hoping to find tiny miniature items like little bullets for ammo. I'm sure FFG will be putting out plenty more cards that will require getting fancy tokens... so I'll continue my search. I have a chain thrift store in my area that always have weird creepy things- I hope something spawns there soon.

(I'll post a pic of my tokens once I'm done painting the edges of the original cardboard bits)

My wife is into pottery. She's developing a Cthulhu-esque canonic jar design for the chaos "bag."

I just finished my custom deck boxes using Ultra-Pro standard deck boxes.

IMG_0351.jpg

I've got one for each faction:

IMG_0352.jpg

They're super easy to make once you have the deck boxes. Here's a 1 page PDF that has everything you need for one box for each class.

https://www.docdroid...oxmods.pdf.html