Hot off the Desk: Broken Token Gloomhaven Organizer

Looks simple. How long could this take?

This weekend's project wasn't painting, wasn't assembling little plastic beasties, and wasn't spent cleaning the airbrush.  It was all about laser cut plywood.

At PAX Unplugged, we did a bit of Christmas shopping for each other.  Mrs. Zoxe snagged the Broken Token Gloomhaven organizer for me, and it's been staring at me in its unopened box for the better part of a month now.  I had time on Friday to get started and figured I could knock it out before dinner.

Hah! Oh, I was wrong.  So wrong. 

I worked off-and-on Friday and Saturday on the trays.  It started rough but I got better with repetition.  I let the glue cure overnight (admittedly overkill), and then tore the shrink wrap off my copy of Gloomhaven today, punched out all the cardboard, sorted all the cards, and put the trays to use.  I took a lot of breaks, and wasn't in a rush, and may have sipped some whisky while working, but I have between 6 and 8 hrs in this little project.

To be honest, this was an expensive addition ($80 organizer for a $99 game).  When we first walked past the Broken Token booth in Philly, I wasn't sold on the value for money.

Later in the day, we came back by the BT booth and actually got a demo - the player trays and the monster tuck boxes are what sold me.  The player trays (not specifically shown in my pictures, but are dead center of the box picture above) allow players' cards and stats to be kept together between sessions for hassle free pausing of the campaign.  The additional (red) tuck boxes keep the monster cards and cardboard standees organized for easier setup with less sorting. 

Getting started.  The instructions are pretty good, just be sure to follow the steps in order.

There are a LOT of panels / parts. I chose to spread everything out on the living room floor.

The monster tuck boxes arrive flat.

This is where I stopped on Friday.

All trays built. Stacked oddly so I don't accidentally glue them to the carpet.

All Gloomhaven bits punched and sorted.

Stacked in the box. The design is such that the parts you use LEAST are at the bottom and trays you'll use MOST will lift out of the top.  Very slick.

I have 3 white tuck boxes that don't have a home. I put them here for now.

All up. My box lid is about 3/4 inch from closing fully. Maps are messy, will repack.

Complete.

All of these were tasted as part of this build.  Trying to get smarter on Ryes.  Michters was the best.

A few final notes.

• It's evident that a LOT of thought went into the design.  Not only are the individual trays designed well, they go into the box so that the ones used least are at the bottom.
• My game is unsleeved but it looks like there's easily room for sleeved cards. (I'm a little worried about the additional thickness of sleeved cards in the monster tuck boxes, but we'll see).
• It's actually kind of hard to assemble incorrectly.  Some of the parts are laser etched with icons, make sure you have the right side up.  Otherwise, follow the steps in order and you should be fine.
• Fit and finish was very good.  All of the parts fit tightly and only a few required any sort of finesse.  Only the large tray could have used some trimming but I made it work without.