Dirt-cheap Descent 2e Box Organizer

Descent 2e box organizer

Hi everyone! 

In my last post I talked about getting into Descent second edition - only 9 years after it released - and how I was making a box organizer. Now that I have finished it I thought I'd share, just in case anyone picks up Descent 2e and wants to give it a little love at low cost.

I became interested in DIY box options after searching around and finding that professionally made options range from around 30 to 50 USD and would take a few weeks to arrive. While I could guarantee that they would fit everything, they are either foam (and sit high in the box) or made of MDF, which I don't like the look of. I wanted something that would be quite a bit cheaper and fit the colour scheme. Knowing that within 10 minutes walk I have two big dollar stores (or 'hundred yen' shops as they known in Japan) I had access to materials. The issue was how to design the organizer?

Esoteric Order of Gamers to the rescue! 

This fantastic site has hundreds of downloadable resources for games, and lo and behold, there was a PDF with design instructions for a Descent 2e box organizer made of foam board. I can get foamboard, I can get white glue! Perfect! Huge kudos to the designer.

But...

...this design doesn't work for sleeved cards. 

'Never mind' I thought, 'I'll give it a try!'

So how did I do?

Take a look below, and then we'll look at some modifications I made.

The box

Rules on top.

Box insert cut to make inside lid

Top layer: tokens and cards

Top layer - with pull tabs

Large card trays - pull tabs. Underneath is the...

...small figure tray

...which can be removed to reveal the map tray

Map tray and large model compartment

Modifications:

The original plan is fantastic, but I noticed a few areas where I could relatively easily add improvements and add to the practicality and aesthetics.

1. Blue felt inserts to give the compartments a more up-market look and be a bit softer for my models. These were cut to size and glued in with watered-down wood glue. Hint: pickup some felt that matches the external box art colours if you want to co-ordinate. A deep blue or light blue works well.
2. Red pull tabs to help me get at the cards without damaging the card edges by trying to lift them out with my fingernails. These were made from 10mm strips of wine-red ribbon, then attached in two different ways. For the long ones that went under a tray, I used 10mm double-sided sticky tape. For the ribbon inside a card tray, I glued the ribbon tab onto the foamcard, then pulled it through a slit in the felt. I then glued the felt down.
3. Larger card compartments to accomodate sleeved cards. I admit that these aren't perfect... I eyeballed them! But for all cards apart from the character decks they fit perfectly.

Not everything went perfectly, so here are some things to watch out for:

• Measure twice, cut once. I made a few wonky measurements, so not everything matched up perfectly.
• Alignment. It can be surprisingly difficult to get everything straight, so find a way to line things up/ get right angles straight (a math set triangle should help)
• If you sleeve cards, make sure you plan out your measurements with that in mind. (Sounds obvious, but you can easily forget!)
• If using glue, keep a few dressmaker's pins or long push pins to hand. Use these to pin your foamcard together until the glue dries.

Materials:

Follow the instructions in the Order of Gamers to get all the measurements you need. However you don't need much:

-Foamcard (I used black).

-Double-sided sticky tape (5mm width - make sure any you buy matches the thickness of your card.)

-Wood glue (White glue/ Elmers). You'll water this down when painting onto the foamcard.

-Box cutter/ hobby knife

-Blue felt squares (your choice of colour!)

-10mm wine-red ribbon.

In total, I paid about about 9 US dollars in terms of the materials I actually used, so not a bad outlay.

In my next post, I'll look at some of the models in the game and what they look like painted.

Cheers.