Dominion Storage Solutions

Introduction

Recently the "last" expansion for the card game Dominion was released (called Guilds), so a kickstarter popped up offering a complete Dominion storage solution. Although seriously a beautiful solution, it costs more than the entire set of Dominion games - the dividers alone are being tagged at $90(!!!).

When I began getting Dominion sets I noticed early on that a better storage/carrying solution was necessary, so I set out on my our mission to find a better storage solution. This article means to talk about the efforts I made (and hopefully will continue to make) as I try to come up with an economical and utilitarian solution.

Storage Solution 1: Simple Option

Separators [Instagram]

A while back I read this article on Tested.com about storage solutions for Dominion. It sounded like a decent solution, so I decided to give it a shot. However, I learned that some parts of the article weren't quite right for my needs, so I had to adapt a little. The article mentioned some acrylic card cases, which I chose to try out since my previous case solutions were all paper boxes for Magic cards, and this seemed like a more presentable solution. The article also mentioned plastic dividers, but the link to that product didn't look great (or correct for that matter), nor was it inexpensive.

I went to the Container Store and picked up 3 of the suggested card cases for about $15 each. I decided to cut up index cards instead of doing something fancy/overkill/expensive for tab dividers. I should note that I only have four Dominion sets at this point (Base set, Intrigue, Hinterlands and Guilds) so if you're trying to get the entire set together you may need to spend more than I spent.

Dividers [Instagram]

Index card before and after cutting

For the dividers I cropped about an inch and a half off the side of the index cards (enough so they'd fit in the card cases), and cropped the bottom to the last blue line (so cropping 2-3cm off the bottom). I created an angled tab afterward about halfway along the remaining part of the tab. I didn't make this an exact science, because I didn't feel it was really necessary to be exact. If index cards bend or wear, they should be relatively simple to replace.

Labeling [Instagram]

After creating the tabs, I used a Rapidograph pen to mark the coin costs and names per tab. A standard pen could also be used, but I like the clean thin lines that Rapidograph pens create. It also was getting clearanced out at a craft store at the time, so I splurged. (Note: Rapidograph pens are pricey, high maintenance pens that used to be used in drafting and illustration; less so in today's world of AutoCAD and Adobe Illustrator.)

After writing out all the tabs I went to my local Staples store and picked up a set of Sharpie highlighters (5 pack). The 5 pack assortment mapped really well for Dominion colors:

Coloring [Instagram]

• Yellow = treasure
• Blue = reaction
• Green = victory
• Purple = curse and randomizer cards
• Orange = currently unused

I should also add that it was beneficial to write the names on the tabs prior to using the highlighters. Not only does it make sense to write what you want your cards to be first, but it also prevents the pen ink from bleeding off of the highlighter ink (as you can see below with the Tunnel card), although you could alternatively just wait a day.

Dominion cards later mixed their card colors a little, and the highlighter colors are distinguishable enough to still look good.

Finished solution with highlighters on the side.

Bleeding inks: the card on the left was heavy handed with the highlighter,
and the card on the right didn't wait for the highlighter to dry before writing.

Additional Notes

Organizing the cards in the cases.

This effort took me a couple of evenings, and works well. I didn't use all the included plastic separators that the acrylic containers provided, but I'm sure I may use those later. If you care about how I chose to organize the cases, the base set and Intrigue are each in their own case, and Hinterlands, Guilds and Promo cards are mixed in the third case.

Each case is separated into 5 slots by the heavy plastic separators that came with the cases (from back to front: Randomizer cards, Treasure/Promo, Victory/Curse, Action, Coins/Blanks/Other).

A small separator at the front allowed
for odds and ends like the Guild coins.

I kept the base set and Intrigue in their own cases, because if you want to take a minimal amount of Dominion with you (to teach friends or you have space constraints), these are the two sets that have the most significant effects on gameplay as far as offering larger player support. If I mix the two sets though I could probably minimize it to one container that supports up to 6 players.

In the future I think I may be trimming down the dividers a little more - when the dividers stand upright too much the container doesn't close properly, so that's definitely something to address.

One last thing worth mentioning are the rules, which I'm not dealing with as part of the solution. This is mainly because the easiest solution for this is having a smartphone with all the rules in PDF form. A lot of companies publish their rule books online, and phones are usually the secondary rules sheet anyway to look up errata or rules clarifications.

Conclusion

I think there are some additional avenues to go down for a solution to storing some/all Dominion cards. Personally I thought the kickstarter box was quite elegant is its appearance and design, and I'd love to build off of that while keeping it cheap. The folks that did the kickstarter also talked about it in a reddit post, which I plan to use as a reference for future alteration considerations. So hopefully in the long term I'll lead toward something nicer looking, but this solves the initial card carrying problem I had.

Kickstarter games

Introduction

Ok, what the hell Kickstarter backers.

I stumbled upon this Kickstarter this evening that's already been funded, and I have to be honest: I'm a little disappointed by it. This campaign was created by the makers of Zombicide, so I get why the support structure's there, but it has a $100 price tag ($90 early bird). When you compare this to really good games that are already out there, you could seriously spend that $100 better. If you don't have games like King of Tokyo, Pandemic, Catan, Munchkin, etc. (or just go to Barnes and Noble and pick any of them) please invest in one of those games that are both cheaper and proven.



Not a bad sounding game, but needlessly expensive.

Personally I feel that the gaming section of Kickstarter is one of the most abused sections because they push buttons to jack up the price of their game, notably through things like miniatures or genre popularity (The Steampunk Cthulhu playing cards had an extended print run). I also think there's a lack of discretion on the part of some Kickstarter backers, but to each their own as far as that goes. I get that Kickstarter is community driven, and that every successful project is successful because of the support it gets, but it doesn't make me feel any better.

Kickstarter's Not All Bad

The Big Fix

Don't get me wrong - I've sure some of these products are really great, and Kickstarter has provided great projects (I backed the Catan Board for instance). In fact, there are a few projects in progress as of June 14, 2013 that I've found interesting enough to back to some degree.This Kickstarter is by a guy named Alexi Pors in Washington state. It's a thematic style card game that is meant to play out like a film noir (think The Big Sleep or Casablanca). I think it could've been marketed a little better, but you can definitely see a fair amount of love and thought has been put into this game. They're nearly 70% funded with 19 days left, and would cost $5 for a PDF version and $25 for a physical game.

Kremlin

This is a Kickstarter by Jolly Roger Games. They previously made a game through Kickstarter that was 118% funded called Pirates vs. Dinosaurs, and this time they took a stab at reprinting a 20 year old game. While I personally think the original art looks better in many ways than the version on the box, I think it's a good gesture to bring back a decent product that has been lost in time to a generation of gamers. This game is already over 180% funded on Kickstarter, and minimally costs $25 for the game.



These examples are in progress as of the day of this article. Though if you really want, you can check out my backer history, which for the most part should underscore the point of reasonably priced gaming products. I really fear the abuse of Kickstarter on tabletop games though: As a niche market, bloating the price of board games with unnecessary miniatures as a marketing gimmick will inflate gaming prices in the long run (Many normal miniature based games have cost between $70 and $90; King of Tokyo with cardboard cutouts is around $30). 

Kickstarter's Not All Good

I also fear that this will destroy the board gaming community in the long run, as expensive weak gimmicky games inevitably sour backers' appetite to invest in games on Kickstarter. When I look at a business built off of Kickstarter, like Stonemaier Games [Viticulture ($35) and Euphoria ($49)], their products really made it to market because they could connect with a niche market that was willing to take a chance with them. Although I think it won't hurt larger sociable publications that used Kickstarter like Days Of Wonder or Steve Jackson Games, it will  make life harder for the more entrepreneurial game developer.

Conclusion

At the end of the day I back some Kickstarter games because I think some games deserve the chance to get legs. Sometimes you can really see the passion that people have for a game, and sometimes I think people just want to sell their product to people that will enjoy what they've invested time to make. To that end, please note every game I've listed above has only been half the price of Kaosball. The game concept sounds decent, but more and more I've seen miniatures used in Kickstarter games, and I don't care. In the end I want to play a game, not have it take a lot of space, and look good without being lavish. I hope that if game developers are truly passionate about publishing a game, This way they can look at not only making a good product, but also an affordable one.