I had been looking for her for weeks. Without warning, with not a trace nor a hint, a hole had been torn in my soul. The police, the newspaper could help me not - even reliable friends I thought trustworthy remained silent in my presence. But as darkness and despair began to consume my soul, a ray of hope appeared.

I opened my front door, and found a strange suitcase awaiting me - one that gave off eldritch aura's that unsettled me for reasons I could not quite comprehend...

The Tag had no name - only a location - Arkham. The last known location of my love...

With growing trepidation, I unlatched the locks, and prepared to open it...

Inside was a strange assortment of items, some personal items, some strange, and a letter awaiting me atop. I have transcribed it in full:

----

Dear [Redacted]

You do not know me. I, however, know you. We crossed paths briefly but our meeting was fleeting and I am sure you do not remember. But it does not matter now. I read about the disappearance in the Arkham Advertiser. I know what you have lost. I was once in the same place myself. I do know that you will not give up until you have found the answers. But you have found disturbing silence. The police seem baffled, their Detectives cannot help, and I know that you have seen the sites, leaving you to question what is happening. You may not want to know. But you must. Things are happening in Arkham. Strange things. Terrible things. A Horror is about to awaken. The disappearance was but the forewarning of a great evil that is to come. I have searched and fought my way through terrors you cannot begin to imagine, but will soon experience yourself. I cannot help you in person. It is too late for me. But I can, and have, equipped you. In the suitcase is my legacy, everything I have learned, everything I have found. While I will not live to see it, you can put this to good use. Read everything, find allies, and stop this evil before it truly awakens. Strange cults, other worlds, creatures that will stretch your sanity to its limits and the darkness of a sleeping Elder god await you. The journey will be long, but your loved ones, Arkham, the very world itself is at risk. Only you can stop the Arkham Horror now.
Godspeed.

---

I did not know into what I had gotten myself into.

There was an assortment of strange items - Bizzare photographs, a collection of small journals, two records, reciepts to Arkham General, tarot cards, an old dime-store story collection...

Beyond that, a collection of personal items, a jewelry case, a coin purse, some marked letters...

And a series of strange, terrifying books...

I did not know what I had gotten myself into, but I knew if I ever wanted to see her again, I would have to follow these clues to Arkham - regardless of what awaited me...

-------------

Arkham Horror is one of the most pleasingly thematic games I've ever played - once it's set up. But my need for separated containers and a collected Suitcase (Arkham took up 3 boxes at its most condensed) began this project. And then I got carried away.

But I'm immensely happy with the results. I've got the only Arkham Horror set where the experience begins as soon as you open the box. It looks extravagant, but every single thing in this box has a purpose. Let's start with the containers and letters.

For the most part, the chits are in things I feel fit thematically. The jewelry case holds the sanity and stamina markers, the box for the wallet holds the character chits, the dice bag holds my Elder Sign/Doom Tokens (as well as some custom Elder Signs, a King in Yellow terror marker, and a Red Cthulhu marker I use for the foremost Doom Token for easy spotting), the little Cthulhu statue (pilfered from the Call of Cthulhu card game starter) is my first player marker, and so on.

These letters (Custom made from envelops, stamps included) carry player sheets, character sheets, and a third has the Heralds/Guardians/Institutions. These all of stories behind them as well, explained through the locations and notes written on the back.

While this one seems to have been through some additional horrors. Considering the contents...

These handmade playing card and tarot card-inspired boxes contain the Thematic Starting Possessions mod someone did (If your reading this, thanks!) and my multiple ancient one mechanic you can find in the customs - or, you can just use them to randomly select your Investigators/Ancient Ones.

These books were a fantastic find from Ross - the two white ones especially look very Lovecraftian. And inside?

The tokens/cards for specific ancient ones, and my gate cup and monster cup.

Now, how about these interesting looking objects?

It looks like fluff, but every single thing in this box has an in-game purpose.

Ok. The mini-record at the top is Ninjadorgs awesome Arkham Horror soundtrack that you can find on these boards, and it is the ONLY thing up there that doesn't have an in-game purpose. The back of the larger record is the expansion gates (for use when I'm too lazy to use the boards. The dime store copy of At the Mountains of Madness is the condensed rules for the game and all expansions. The photographs (covered up by the book) have battle charts and monster powers on the back - as these are the most commonly requested rule clarifications in my games, there's 8 (one for each player). The rest of these have 4 of each - Arkham General Store Reciepts which have lists of where to buy things, Tarot cards that contain directions for casting spells and closing gates, Railroad tickets that explain board mechanics - and the coup de grace, 4 custom journals (each one completely different) that have a unique story on the right side of each page, and a comprehensive player guide on the left containing info from all the other guides. The journals are themes after At the Mountains of Madness, the Gable Window, the Dreamquest of Unknown Kadeth, and the journal of an Actress in the King and Yellow play.

Finally, the last bit isn't thematic, but practical. Hidden underneath the letter upon opening are dozens of clear boxes which hold all the cards organized by type and collected by theme. These are ready to play the game as soon as they're opened:

And finally, here's a view inside the suitcase, where the boards are stored. And what's the marked "Unverified"? Hrmmm...

So that's my suitcase. Hope you enjoyed the tour! If any of you want some PDF's of some of my printables, feel free to ask - still have them all. Special thanks to Ninjadorg for the tracks, and whoever made the Thematic Starting Posessions deck, and my mom, for providing me with a good deal of material for this awesome project.

It's nice to see Tibs Thematic starting possessions printed :-) Good topic, great pictures, well done!

Julia said:

Those are Tibs? Excellent, thanks Tibs! We use them on occasions, but the also make really handy 'deal out random Investigators' cards.

Glad you like it!

Thanks! I was delighted to see those in there too. We too use them for random draw. But I've never seen those Ancient One cards to the right... what do they entail?

Awesome gift by the way. Or, rather: horrible, nightmarish gift!

Tibs said:

-edit- Darn quoting function...

They're from the Gathering Darkness fight-multiple-Ancient-Ones-Over-The-Course-Of-The-Game varient I posted a while back:
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Thanks, it's a wonderfully nightmarish gift!

I'm sick to my back teeth with jealousy! That is so awesome...

NinjaDorg said:

Another here... INSANE GIFT! x_x

Fantastic! If only I could find the time to do something like this...

Glad you guys all like it! There's a local convention coming up in February that I'm very much looking forward to showing off my set at.

Just to clarify, all the work (shopping, thrift store diving, ect.) was done by me, but the gift part was the funds to buy everything needed and get it all together.

NinjaDorg said:

Glad you like it! BTW, that's your soundtrack up there, and I want to say that it's incredible. If you'd like the files for the cover and label I made for it, let me know.

mi-go hunter said:

It's not as head as you might think! I've got no formal graphic arts training or anything like that, just Apple Pages plus occasional use of Gimp (for basic image editing) and stubborn tenacity. For the most part, Card Stock and a Printer did the greater whole of this.

Very nice! Truly a great suitcase for Arkham Horror.

I have a similar setup myself, although not as thorough and complete as yours. My suitcase is constant a work in progress kind of thing. I did some work on it just recently and this a great inspiration to take it even further.

I'll see if I can get up some pictures myself over the weekend.

Wow! very impressive. Great work in applying your imagination to real world mechanics and to give Arkham a tactile feeling. Love it!

badmynock said:

I'd love to see your pics!

My suitcase is officially done, but I'm always keeping an eye out for better, more thematic containers I can use.

Here it is: A work in progress.

I'm very pleased with the suitcase itself. When I found it I thought it was too big, but not anymore. I do appreciate those expansions.

At a first glance pretty decent as well. I've got the boards on top along with a nice old book.

...and in the book the charcters. I've got something similar planned for the big baddies.

Big black box for the big cards and a smaller one for the smaller ones. Not very elaborate any of them. I have made the bag of monster myself - it's quite crude. And you can see there are still some plastic bags and stuff. I've got some ideas, but haven't gotten on with it yet.

That looks fantastic! Are the leather straps part of the suitcase? Either way, I'm stealing that idea for my board storage.

What did you use for that black box with the big cards? It's much nicer than what I've been using (though slightly less practical.

Thanks!

The straps are part of the suitcase, yes. The box is actually a fancy wrapping box I got when buying a gift for the missus at some point. It has even got magnets in the lid to keep it shut. Sadly with Miskatonic Horror it got a bit too small, so now I have a spill-over-box as well.

What I didn't mention or show was my chit storage. They are stored in plastic boxes with small compartments for the different chits and markers. Not thematical at all, but quite practical. A better detail that I missed was the character playing pieces; they are stored in an old cardboard box for business cards.

….I am speechless……*claps with mouth hanging open*

I would pay FFG if they made fake books that were storage for the many cards. What a great idea. You are very clever and talented.

These are incredible! Way more clever than my own silly looking clear tool box kit-things! I'm totally going to steal these ideas! Time to get my antiquarian on!!

I gotta admit, I got a little scared during the start of that tale >_> Truly amazing, I envy your game group ^.^

Now you've gone and gotten me trying to build something like this too! 8D I found an awesome leather suitcase but--that's about it! Ah well, it's nice to have a project again! Tally-ho!

Hey, my topic got bumped! Glad you guys like it!

As my suitcase is always a work-in-progress, it's gotten a few modifcations since I first posted it. I'll take some picutres of it's current incarnation of it in a day or two.

A bit of a necro post, this, but it is a late continuation of the original topic and of my Arkham Horror "box".

I am finally making a box to store the gate markers in. I have been thinking on this for a while and had the basic idea for it, but execution has been lacking, until now.

Started with this:.

And now it looks like this:

That's the exterior pretty much finished, so now I'll start working on the inside.

That's really beautiful! Well done!

Yes, indeed ~ quite exquisite!