Why The One Was Bad

I’m going to give an example of this from the real world, something that you might have seen in other places. I see it not too often, but it depends on the person. Someone comes in with a request. They need a website, let’s say, to process a transaction on part of a page. The developer creates a page that processes a transaction, but the usability is very low.

They made sure to meet the requirements of the request. But the requirements don’t get to the need of the usability of the process. For the developer, it is a case where they created only what was asked for. They didn’t spend the time or might not have thought they had the time to ask questions like “Why?” or “What’s the use case?”.

The insert I got with Frosthaven, I got the Folded Spaces one, felt the same way. Does everything fit in the box, yes, then our goal is complete. Does that mean it’s useable? No, it is not.

Structural Integrity

Now, I will say, some of this was on us when we glued it together. We should have used more glue. But even that wouldn’t have made a massive difference. Part of the issue with the structural integrity and the glue is that you are trying to glue to a shiny surface. I get how the glue adheres to the foam side, but the shiny finished side, even the ones I glued more heavily, the glue hasn’t held.

And it isn’t just the glue. You can get around some of that with hobby nails. But there are large trays to hold cards. The Frosthaven box is large, and the large trays are about a foot long. There are seams, where two pieces meet, in towards the middle of those. So a major point of failure is in a really risky spot, and it will fail. And that is not something that is easily fixed with hobby nails.

Monster Sorting

Then there are the monsters. And this is the area where I have the biggest issue. I think the structural integrity can be worked around, but needs to be worked around by choices you make to go above and beyond.

But the biggest issue is how the monsters were sorted. In the insert I got for Gloomhaven, which I really liked, all the monsters laid out so you could see them. This is where I really see the issue, and the seam on the long box, of the requirements being met, but functionality not being considered.

All the monsters are put vertically into three different bosses. For the bosses, that isn’t too bad. You don’t need them too often, and there aren’t that many. But for the medium and smaller monsters, there are a ton. And when cardboard standees are packed vertically, shockingly, you can’t see them. So you need to paw through them all and hope you don’t accidentally miss them. It’s a horrible and completely non-functional design choice.

So I Bought A Better Frosthaven Insert

Now, when the insert wasn’t holding together, I got annoyed. Quite annoyed in fact, at both Folded Spaces, for the reasons above and at Cephalofair Games. I don’t know if they rushed through the process, or thought that it was fine, either way, I got an insert, but not one at the quality I’d have wanted to pay for. And, because of it, I needed to get another Frosthaven insert.

I found a much better insert. So much better it’s basically a night and day difference. Why, because this one doesn’t have seam problems. And it is set-up to handle the monsters in a way that works really well. I found a 3D printed Frosthaven insert that I bought and had shipped from Australia.

The Insert.

3D Printed

Let’s start by talking about the 3D print quality. I think that is the concern, besides time about 3D printing an insert. I would likely print one myself, but getting this one, I have no quality concerns. And I think that the creation of this insert went above and beyond what is needed.

Mainly, the person 3D printed moveable dividers for everything. And when I say everything I mean everything. They make it so that you can split up each item type and crafted footwear versus purchasable footwear, it’s a lot of effort. And they built them as standing inserts so not just between the cards but actual divides that slot in and support themselves in the box.

And the quality of the 3D print is very good. It is not a thin printing. That is my biggest concern when I get something 3D printed, it is going to be done as thin and in as flimsy a way as possible so they can print more faster. That is not the case here.

Monster Storage

And I complained a lot about monster storage for the old one. Though the card boxes were actually the worst part. The monster storage made it so much slower to get a scenario together. Well, this insert fixes it.

It actually is about as ideal as you can get. Especially for us using the Frosthaven app, but overall it is lightyears ahead of what the Folded Spaces one was. It uses the initiative tracking tokens on the top of the monster boxes to show what monsters are in the box. And then each box holds the monster activation cards (though some like scout are shared) and the monster stat block cards.

In fact, the stat block cards are used as the cover. It is a super clever way to save on plastic and create a really functional and visible system. So it makes setup of a new scenario that much faster. And for Frosthaven and Gloomhaven setup speed matters, especially when trying to get two scenarios into an evening.

Use Of The Frosthaven Box Space

Now this takes up more room in the box than other it does in the other system. But because of other smart design decision and usability decisions, it still has more room in the box while being useable. Let’s move on to that, though.

That is something that just boggles my mind. How is there more space now in the box with a custom 3rd party insert that I could fit in the tiles. Now, I won’t because that is one thing that Folded Space got right, a nice little envelope system (that doesn’t fit in the box), but that sorts the map tiles as well as you could.

I get some of how it can do that. It doesn’t have special boxes for the player boards that you have active. We kept the ones from Folded Spaces. But missing out on player storage is a minor complaint, and not really even a complaint. We never had player character storage besides the character boxes that came with Gloomhaven for Gloomhaven. So going back to that would have been easy. This is just a bit nicer.

And speaking of character storage. This fits all of the characters. Folded Spaces didn’t fit up to two of them, I believe. Possibly three to make it actually comfortable. So this had more room in the box and can fit all the character boxes.

Final Thoughts

I have a bit of an issue with what Cephalofair has done and said about this insert. I know that a number of people have massive issues with this insert and how functional it is. And Cephalofair has been, generally, radio silent on it. Which is odd for them, they tend to apologize often for things beyond their control.

This is something that they controlled. Maybe not fully, maybe Folded Spaces provided this option and they just thought about speed. But radio silence or basically as much is not a great look. And what can they do after the fact? Nothing but apologize. I already got a product that is not great, they can’t fix that. I agreed to get that product. But say that they are revisiting it repeatedly, say you want to make it better, that would be nice. And maybe they have, but it’s been hidden away, in a lot of ways, for a company that apologizes and takes a front facing stance on most other things.

But I don’t need to worry about that anymore. I own a better insert and the Folded Spaces one is going in the trash. So it isn’t really an issue for me anymore. But I want you to know, there is much better insert out there. If you buy Frosthaven now, buy that one from Etsy. It will be so much better and more useful. Only after a play or two I see the difference already. And it is too good not to share because of how much of a difference it is.

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Now, there is going to be overlap on what you might want to get in a room, so I’ll cover that, but there are other things that will be different. And I think knowing what you want is important because it can determine what you get.

For example, for me, I don’t do much painting, so I don’t need a dedicated space for that. The larger a gaming table I can get, and still get chairs around it, the better for me. But a painter might still want a gaming table. Or an RPG player might want a spot to build terrain, or store terrain.

Common Game Room Things

Storage

Let’s start out with what really is common across everything. You will need storage in your room. If it is just for board games, or painting, you need storage for the games you are painting or the game you own. For RPG’s, unless everything is theater of the mind, you need storage for the terrain and minis that you have.

Seating

Seating is also key. If you don’t have a spot to sit, then it’s more a game waiting area than a game room. So you want seating but not just seating, enough seating for your room. For example, my game room could handle 8 people at a table, even a six person table. Assuming the game isn’t too large. But I want flexible seating.

Lighting

Next up is lighting. This is one that might just come with the room or might be something you can supplement or control as you need. You want to be able to see well. But you don’t want a harsh light pointing down at the table causing glare. I know some people do up lighting or reflected lighting. I think that a fan lighting is solid as well, just as long as it’s not a bare bulb pointing down. Or that it isn’t too dark so you can’t read the cards easily.

Table

Finally, a table of some sort. Now, a gaming table sounds awesome and I am excited to order one. But it isn’t needed. A dining room table from Craiglist or Facebook Marketplace work just fine. There is no reason to be too fancy with it. Just a surface to play games on or painting on is important. If you are a painter we’ll talk about it a bit more.

Streamer

So what else do you need to think about if you are a streamer? I know that I have talked about the equipment that you need, but that is the main thing. However, I won’t go into detail too much on that. Camera(s) and computer are important.

But two things to touch on are lighting and sound. Lighting might seem like we already talked about it, but you want to have a nice lighting set-up. Firstly so viewers can watch you. Secondly so that you can see the game. Not only that, but something that adds in depth, so not just lights pointed at you, but a light filling in behind you as well.

Sound is also exceedingly important. I can deal with decent lighting if the sound is good to great. But if the sound is bad, that’ll get me to click off of a video or a stream faster than anything else. Now, I’m not talking about delivery, I’m talking about sound levels, clipping in and out, or background noise or echoes distorting it. Put up some soft things if need be to dampen the sounds.

Board Game

This will be the area that you need to add the least specific to a room. Storage, table, seating, and lighting basically are what you need. If you want go fancier, or say you use a dining room table, I recommend grabbing a few playmats. Something that’ll cover most of the top of the table. That just makes it much easier to pick cards or pieces off of the table.

I’d also recommend grabbing a few TV trays. Something you can put up or take down easily enough. That means that you don’t need to have food or drinks on the table (as much) and less likely that something spills. Now, maybe you just don’t allow food or drinks at all, but I like TV trays as an easy to pull out or put away option.

Paint or Craft

For this, you probably want a dedicated area where you can paint at in your room. Now, that might be a whole separate room from where you play. But a dedicated painting table that you can get messy would be key for me. Or at least that you don’t mind if it does get messy.

Along with that, lighting is way more important. You want to be able to see what you are painting. That means that you’ll want to either have great lighting all around, or the ability to add lighting in by the painting area. I know that some painters also want something that’ll magnify as well.

Finally, storage for your paints and brushes and whatever else you might use for crafting. I already mentioned storage, but for paints a particular holder that makes it easy to pull them out seems like the right thing to have. It’s kind of why I buy inserts for board games. Something to just make the game easier to play.

Role Playing Game

For an RPG, again not much to add. Just that storage is going to be about your most important thing. And I personally would want some spots to store stuff or hide it away. Now, everything is not always hidden away. So many RPGers make amazing set pieces that you can keep out. But for the more generic items or ones you have a lot of, storage to keep it out of sight is nice.

Also, there is likely overlap here with painting and crafting. Unless you buy all your terrain prefabricated and minis painted, there is that element of the gaming as well to consider. And I know that a lot of Dungeon Masters DIY a lot of things. That probably means you own more random elements, like cardboard and Styrofoam that a painter might not have.

Final Thoughts

There is no right way to create a game room. For some people that might just mean a room with a ton of games, maybe a spot to paint minis and they don’t play games in there. You just enter, grab a game, and leave. That is still a game room.

Others might want to have a room where they can play games, but it also will store a 3D printer, a spot to paint, and other elements for the crafting side of the hobby. Some people will want their games out in a Kallax and others will hide them into a closet. It is whatever works best for your space.

And it always depends on space. Not just what you use it for, but how much you have. You might not be able to fit a game table in. Or it might be a game room where you play your solo games because it isn’t that big. Or you might have two game tables in there and you can have big get togethers where lots of big games are played.

But it is fun to think about and dream about your ideal game space. And hopefully with this article it gives you a few extra things to think about. Tweet me pictures or leave over on Facebook pictures of your game room.

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Dice

Most, if not all RPG players can never have enough dice. It’s just a scientific fact that eventually a die will have a poor session and need to be banished from being played with forever, or slightly longer. So more dice is always a good thing, and there are some really cool dice out there. If you want to keep it simple and cheaper, there are tons of interesting dice sets with more basic plastic, but you can also find stone dice or my favorite metal dice. There are even some companies where the metal dice don’t cost an arm and a leg. If you are going really fancy, the dice to get would be a single D20 (twenty sided die), but set of dice are also really nice which should come with a D20, D12, D10, D10 Percentile, D8, D6, and a D4, that is enough for someone to start playing D&D.

Dice Tray/Dice Tower

Both of these serve the same purpose, they are something to roll your dice into. The dice tray is simpler in that it’s only a tray and you can roll it into that without it thudding against the table and denting it, this is especially important for if someone has stone or metal dice as those are heavy. But it also means that you’re not as apt to roll off the table either. A dice tower does kind of the same thing. You drop the dice that you’re rolling into the tower and it has levels that it hits off of causing it tumble. It rolls down into a tray that’s attached to the bottom. The best part of dice towers is how cool they look. I have one that looks like a tree with some birds in it, definitely a unique/fun thing to roll dice in, and there are so many different possible designs to choose from out there for dice towers.

Custom Mini

Now, a custom miniature sounds expensive, but thanks to the likes of Hero Forge, they really aren’t that bad. Hero Forge is a site that lets you custom design a mini based off of the body parts that they have built into the system that you can then get 3D printed. So if you’re in a game with someone that you’d be giving a gift to, this is a fun option. And if you know of someone who has a 3D printer (or have one yourself) you can just print it off from an STL file which you can buy which makes it even easier. I really like this idea for a serious RPG player because it’s something that feels like it’s very thoughtful and something that a person might not do for themselves, because while the prints are a reasonable price, that doesn’t mean that they are $10, or less, like a generic mini.

Book Bag

Might not be something that is needed right away, or maybe you play digitally, but a book bag is really useful. It gives the player or the DM a way to carry around whatever books they have really easily versus having a stack in their arms. You can probably find good nerdy ones related to D&D, RPG’s or just fantasy in general that would work well. A dedicated bag is nice, from my personal experience, because it means that I don’t have to pull anything out ever if I’m always taking it to one person’s place, or if we rotate whose place it is at, I could easily see leaving stuff in there between sessions.

Notebook

Now, a notebook sounds odd, and depending on who it is for, it might be more or less useful, but there are some notebooks or binders that are made for either the player or DM. And as the DM, if they are like me, they might generally do more of their planning a notebook than say, on a computer. But the ones for players are very cool because you can have your character sheet in there, you can keep track of spell and uses, as well as it gives you a spot to take notes for the session. So it’s a one stop shop for your character. I really like the concept, and I have one that is a binder and leather bound for when I eventually am a player.

Obviously there are other things as well you could consider. There are books that are coming out fairly often for all of the main systems so you could grab them the newest one that has come out, but there is some risk in that as normally I’ll just grab the newest books right away as someone who has all the DM sort of books, minus the adventures. You could also do a new system for a game, but depending on what your group plays that might be more or less useful.

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So what are some ways that you can bling out a board game, or that board games have bling?

First there are fancier editions of board games, might be called collectors edition where they only make a certain number of an ultimate edition where some of the pieces have been upgraded by the company in the game. This might be something that the company puts out like a 25th Anniversary Edition of a game, but another common spot is on Kickstarter where they will have a standard or retail edition of the game where all the pieces are normal card board or whatever it might be, and then there is an ultimate or special edition that has it’s own unique cover and upgraded pieces in it, of course which costs a bunch more.

The next biggest way that people can bling out their board game is known as a custom insert. A custom insert is especially useful for a game with lots of pieces. The main reaso for this is because while you can put the pieces into little baggies, you then have to dump them out on the table and it’s all a mess, you have to know how you put them back into the baggies, and get them to lay flat enough in the box. There are companies like Broken Token and Folded Space that create inserts for these games. A great example of how this works is Gloomhaven. In that game you have monster tokens, status tokens, damage tokens, terrain, and more, to fit that all into the box is just a mess. The insert that I have is a wooden one that I had to put together. It has a spot for all the tokens, the coins, and the monsters so you can lift out trays, keep them in their trays for storage while they are on the table, and keeps them from shifting around in the box. This doesn’t make your game looks any nicer, like a lot of the upcoming ones will, but it makes it more functional to play, especially the bigger games out there, like a Gloomhaven.

Beyond that there are a lot of other ways you can bling out a game. Board Game Geek has items known as Geek Up Bits which are plastic bits to replace the cardboard tokens already in the game, it makes it shinier and nicer. And there are a lot more items like this as well from Etsy. There are companies that are creating custom meeples for games, or 3D printing minis. You can get card holders that help you organize your place space for games like Arkham Horror LCG and Marvel Champions. These can range from cheap little things that might cost $10 to bigger things like for Marvel Champions that might be over $100 plus shipping. All of these things are going to make the game pop on the table more.

Finally, and I mentioned this above, you can bling out your own game with a 3D printer. There are sites, such as thingiverse.com where you can get 3D printer files and print out blinged out pieces for your own game. I’ve seen people who have 3D printed terrain for an RPG and then used that in Gloomhaven as well, or printed out things specifically for Gloomhaven. Out of all of the areas, besides organizers for some of my bigger games, this really interests me, because it means that I can bling out games I want to have blinged out without having to track down some specific Etsy shop and spend a large chunk of money. Now, buying a 3D printer is obviously a pretty large chunk of money as well, but kind of as I’m thinking about slowing down some in buying games, or there are fewer this year that are really standing out to me, this would allow me to really bling out some games and have cool minis and things to practice my painting on. I’d also allow me to create set pieces more easily for D&D games as well, which isn’t a requirement, but once in a while for big epic moments, that’d be awesome.

So those are just some of the ways you can bling out your board game. Obviously, the question is why would you do that, some of it is for convenience, like the organizers, and some is just because you can. And to tie it into food, they say you eat with your eyes first, so the same can be pretty true with board games, if it looks better on a table, you’ll probably be more interested to try it and the experience itself might be better because it looks good.

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