Project: Shadows of Brimstone Storage Upgrade

Tower of Doom

This is Part II of a series.  See Part I here for card storage.

Shadows of Brimstone is a frikkin' sprawling game.  Oh, it's fully playable with just one core box, but what fun is that?  The whole point of the game is to dive a dungeon, then jump through unstable rift gates into all kinds of trouble.  The more options you have, the more fun it is.

At the time I'm writing this, there are two gigantic core boxes, 4 Otherworld expansions, 5 Mission Packs, several "Deluxe Expansions", and a ton of other addons, monsters, terrain, and heroes.  And I'm not including the Forbidden Fortress (Kickstarter 2) content, which is starting to become available.

As I mentioned in Part I, I finally admitted that the way that I had things stashed all over the house was a crime, and I set out to consolidate and organize all the content before KS2 content arrives.

Here were my goals as I started to assemble a strategy:

1. Reluctantly, the factory boxes need to go.  This makes me sad (they're pretty cool looking).  But they're mostly air, which means they take up a lot of shelf space AND they're clunky to use at the gaming table.
2. I need quick access to random content.  In a lot of sessions, we jump into the Mines, then if a gate is drawn, we pick an Otherworld card at random and then see where we're going.  That means I won't know what content I need when we set up.
3. I need a reasonable clean up scheme.  If I'm tempted to mix up the content, I'll never keep it straight.
4. Low risk of damage/warpage.
5. Scalability/expandability as more content is added.

SoB has basically five types of components:

• Cards - Covered in Part I
• Minis - Covered by the Ikea Hellquest
• Tokens and small bits
• Printed reference cards for Monsters, Heroes, and town shops
• Map tiles and large bits

Although I've got a good start, I've got a few things to address.

Tokens first. 
SoB has a gob of different tokens, but honestly this was the easiest and best investment I made - small Plano tackle boxes.  The difference in price between my two boxes was significant, BUT the more expensive #3700 Hydro Flow included dividers for every possible space where the cheaper #23730-05 did not.

The strategy with the tokens was to organize them so that I could leave only ONE box open during play with the remainder safely latched and stowed except during setup and teardown.  

Common use tokens required throughout a session are nicely in one box.  This is the 3700-series box.  Using the poker chips for XP really speeds things up vs. pen and paper.

Less frequently used tokens go in a pair of Plano #23730-05. Shown here is the carton I generally use at startup. I have a second 23730 for monster or hero specific tokens that see less use.

Reference Cards next. 
I bought a few Large and Small 3-ring binders and sheet protectors to collect all the cards and addon rule pages that have accumulated.  The Large binder is a Samsill Large Vintage Hardback Style binder, and the smaller one is the 5x8 version.  (The description on the small one says it doesn't work with sheet protectors... but it does!)

No, the small page protectors fit with a little bit of slop, but I love them anyway.  I paid a few bucks extra and got the thematically faux leather, but any cheap binder would work.  

Large and small faux leather binders for Reference Cards.

The large binder holds the town reference cards, addon hero, and XXL monster cards.  No, the sheet protectors don't fit "perfectly" but the ability to flip through the binder really speeds up our town phase.

The small binder holds smaller monster and hero cards.  They're generally sorted by theme/otherworld so I can flip quickly.  At the start of a fight, I pop open the binder, grab the sheets we need, and toss them on the table.

My level 1 Nun (Preacher) in action.

Map tiles last. 
I found these molded boxes from Iris at the local mega-mart in the scrapbooking section.  They're about the size of a medium pizza box, and a little thicker.  They're perfect for map tiles and other large cardstock tokens (the Gunslinger's 6-shooter template, or the Depth Track for example).  

I like that they stack well, latch securely, and are translucent.  It's pretty easy for me to locate the right box, flip the lid open and rummage around for the map tile I need (moving unused map tiles in the lid while I sort).

I bought a couple to play with (about $9 each) and then hit Amazon for a bulk pack.

Close up of the Iris label.  I found these in the craft/scrapbook section of our local mega mart, but Amazon also has 6-packs for a little cheaper.

Two core boxes and three Otherworlds, in about the same shelf volume as 2 cores and 1 Otherworld, and a smaller footprint.  The translucent plastic helps me find the right box in a hurry. 

Derelict Ship content.  I still put the gates/endcaps in a sandwich bag for my own sanity.

Wrap Up.
This is still a work in progress but it's starting to settle out.  I still have some monster packs in the closet awaiting assembly, and I haven't really dealt with the Frontier Town content yet. 

But, our initial play sessions with this scheme went a lot smoother.