The Chattering Horde: Dirt cheap Mansions of Madness 2e box organiser.

Why?

For Halloween 2021 I gifted myself a board game in keeping with the season - Mansions of Madness (2nd edition) by Fantasy Flight Games.

If you aren't familiar with MoM 2e, it was released in 2016 to critical acclaim, and over the following years picked up quite a lot of awards. I wasn't aware of it until I started watching some YouTube channels for reviews of other games (e.g. Descent 2e, Arkham Horror: the card game) and MoM kept coming up.

What is Mansions of Madness 2e? In a nutshell, an app-driven, dice-chucking game set in the classic world of horror written by H.P. Lovecraft. You and up to 4 other players choose from among 8 different investigators in 1920s America, solving mysteries while peeling back the thin veil between our world and another (revealing the horrors that seek to pass between.)

Like many FFG games it comes in a big box. Two rulebooks, 30+ miniatures, lots of high quality cards and tiles, dice and more are all there. Then you download a free app (iOS, Android, PC) which will play the part of your opponent and help you run the game. (The app is a plus for me as it makes solo play pretty easy.)

What the box doesn't contain is a plastic organiser of any kind - quite a problem if you want to keep things neat and tidy and facilitate quick setup and takedown. There are several out there by different manufacturers like Tower Rex, Feldherr, Go7gaming, Folded Space, and Broken Token and they look great! BUT, they can cost anything from 30 dollars to almost 200! (no, I'm not making that up, take a look at the Mad Manor Crate...)

Having recently used a guide from the Esoteric Order of Gamers to make a dirt cheap Descent 2e box organiser I thought I'd take on a new challenge and design my own. Could I do it, and could I do it cheaply?

Sure, but note that where all those kits above ARE really valuable is in terms of time. They may cost money, but you'll have your organiser constructed and protecting your stuff within an hour or two. My solution below took HOURS to do. If what you value is your time, then the solutions above are well worth the money.

Let's take a look at what I ended up with, how much it cost and how I made it.

The End Result:

If you have time, here is a 7 minute video unboxing of my...

...boxes.

(*every time I say 'Dice roller', I mean 'Dice tray'!)

If you don't have time for a video, here are a few photos:

Rule books...

...which rest on a cardboard lid (recycled box insert)

Top view: card and token tray at top, dice tray below

Remove card and token tray & dice tray to reveal tiles & minis

Mini bases+models can sit on tiles and/ or mini storage area

All cards (sleeved) and tokens

Monster token tray sits inside dice tray

Dice tray with dice (and wonky wall!)

Close up showing dice tray support

Materials and cost:

Everything below came from my local dollar store/ pound shop/ 100 Yen shop.

5mm black foam board. (450mm x 300mm x 5mm). About 3 of these (buy more than you think you need - this stuff will be useful for your next box organiser too right?)
Green felt (x1 large piece, 700mm x600mm - lots left of this when finished.)
Box cutter/ hobby knife
5mm double-sided tape (one roll)
White glue/ wood glue/ hobby glue/ 'Elmers' Glue x1 pot
Pencil (for marking black foam board), black marker (for marking felt)
30cm ruler
Large, sharp scissors (for cutting felt)

I already owned some of these items, so my materials outlay was about 550 yen (4.80 USD, or 3.50 GBP) for the foam board x3, felt and double-sided tape.

5mm thickness foam board.

Black foam board (called 'Color board' in Japan)

Box base with home made cutting board

Green felt sheet.

Lessons learned

Between this and the previous box I made, here are some things to keep in mind. Are they obvious? Sure, but I'm not too proud to say them!

Don't forget to account for card sleeves. Although each card only adds a few mm of width that will add up as you put several stacks of cards individually...
...then leave more wiggle room! Do this even if you have accounted for sleeve sizes - add at least a couple of mm on top of that. You don't want the cards to be super snug in their space. If they are you'll find it really difficult to get the cards in, and out.
Felt looks classy, but never forget that it adds 1mm..
Prepare your work surface. Use a cutting mat or something else you don't mind getting dirty. You are going to do a lot of cutting and you'll want to protect whatever surface you have underneath (unless you have a workshop/ work table.) Also, if you are using a black marker to mark out your felt for cutting, remember that felt is very thin, so the marker might go through, marking you table/ work surface.
Plan with paper. For complex shapes with different sections (e.g. card and token tray) draft out on paper first, tracing outlines using sleeved cards and tokens etc. Does everything fit? Is there enough room? This plan will also help you keep track of what pieces you still have to make etc.
Measure twice, cut once. Yeah, it is worth saying! Measure and measure again.
Use your best parts to measure-out others. If you have a piece that is perfect, use that as a model and trace around it for other identical parts. This will save you time and reduce errors. BUT, when tracing, be careful to trace as close to the original edge as you can. Then when cutting, do the same. Every millimeter you are out adds up.
White glue doesn't work on porous foam card. When assembling, many of the edges to which you want to glue felt will be the porous part of the foam. White glue just soaks into that foam and won't work. This is where the 5mm double-sided tape is used. It won't hold the felt as well as glue, but it works.
Sewing pins are your friend. When gluing parts together, inserting sewing pins to hold the parts together will save you a lot of effort (and boredom) while the glue sets.

Plans

I'm not a designer, and I didn't want to put together a full set of plans, but here are some photos to give you an idea of roughly how things go together. NOTE: Please measure and dry fit everything yourself. These measurements are not super-precise (use at your own risk.)