Dominion in a Smaller Form Factor

Introduction

It's time for another one of Tom's crazy arts and crafts projects. This takes another look at Dominion, a game I've tried to work out my own storage solutions for, as addressed in previous posts.

This time though I want a different discussion about Dominion. Over time I've noticed it's harder to get people interested in playing this game. There are many reasons for this:

For one, the game looks pretty boring, and overall consensus is that this game is pretty much theme-less. The bland conventional style doesn't really hold up against other games on a shelf at a Barnes & Noble. I fully admit it took me years to buy Dominion (which came out around 2009), and a big part of it was that it was the incredibly uninteresting box. Dramatic games, like King of Tokyo or Smash Up are much easier sell, for instance.

Would you like Giant Monsters Battling, Dinosaurs with Lasers,
or Rolling Fields of Quiet Tranquility?

The second reason was that I heard it compared as a step above Collectible Card Games, or CCGs (the most famous example being Magic: The Gathering). In fact, the game's designer Donald X. Vaccarino expressed that his appreciation for Magic influenced him for this game. As an off-again-on-again Magic player over the years, I avoided the game somewhat because of that comparison, because "inspired by a CCG" doesn't seem like a good selling point to me. The "money pit" aspect of Magic is a pretty large deterrent for me.

When I went on vacation to the Pacific Northwest this year, I stumbled on a different game that I really enjoyed called Nefarious, that I discovered was also by Vaccarino. Also, a friend of mine raved about Dominion while I was out there, so I chose to bite the bullet and try it out.

The third reason Dominion is a hard sell is because it's kinda unwieldy. If you stuffed them into a 250-card paper box you'd probably do ok, but then you'd have what looks like a card game in a paper box. See reason #1 again - presentation really helps. When I've carried my storage solutions for Dominion around I've felt eyes on me with the same flat stare of the guy selling "real Rolexes" on the street corner with his overcoat.

I've really been relying on these posts to be a partial selling point for Dominion, because unless I start making Dominion X-TREME (The Smithy picture [tentatively!] will have Thor and a Laser Anvil for instance), this game will only really spread by word of mouth.

The third point is what leads me to the main part of this post. I want people to get interested in this game, but I can't lug around huge boxes of cards with me all the time. So what can I do about this?

A Matter of Scale

One of the things that dawned on me when I started thinking about this problem is that Dominion cards were - somewhat unnecessarily - the size of playing cards. Though these cards get filled with card descriptions and artwork, you really don't need any of it outside of the name. So my first thought was to split the size of the cards in half. Conceptually this would also help with carrying all these cards around since it would halve everything, including size and weight.

Permanent marker on a blank Bicycle playing card can get a lot
of detail - more than enough for half a card.

I've gotten packs of blank faced Bicycle cards through Amazon on occasion (recently I purchased some blank decks to make a personal version of Hanabi since I couldn't find the game through retail outlets), so testing this scaling adjustment seemed to be pretty easy. I split some extra cards in half to see how they'd be. (I recommend a paper cutter for doing this instead of scissors - your hands will thank you)

Since each blank set was 56 cards, splitting the cards in half made it 112 (with no room for error). The base set of Dominion supports 2-4 players, and minimally requires 254 (3x8 minimum victory cards, 10x10 supply cards, and 60+40+30 treasure cards), so I had to reduce the set to 224 to keep the cards manageable and not hack up a third set of cards. I worked around this by restricting this solution to 2 players and then removing 10 of each treasure card type, since if you're going through any of those supplies in a 2-player game you're doing it wrong.

The Progression of building Victory Points

All cards were they drawn using permanent marker, and I think they look pretty ok. I didn't want to be intricate with drawing these cards for a few reasons:

1. This is only meant to be a portable learning set, not a replacement for the game.
2. There was no room for error; I didn't want to waste any cards.
3. Tediousness; even only for two players I was still applying permanent marker to 224 cards.
4. I already own the cards, so why would I want to make a pretty set when I could use what I own?

In the end I got through drawing everything over 2 nights, and several hours per night. I don't recommend doing this unless you're a patient person with stuff like this.

Conclusion

You can see the end product in a little Instagram video here: http://instagram.com/p/dTa9zbpZFw/. It'll fit in two back jean pockets easily and play for 2 players without being unreasonably tiny. Cost would minimally be about $10 if you have the markers already, and probably about 8 hours of patience.

"Dominion Pocket" : Includes the Base Set Recommended
Starting Supply and resources for a 2-Player game. No rules,
but that's why there's the Internet. [Instagram]

One of the main reasons I give myself these little projects is that it helps me think about the products I purchase, and their construction. I think it's similar to carpenters eyeing IKEA furniture as a baseline for their own personal projects, and maybe I'd do that to if I had the tools and the space (one of the downsides to apartment life, though if TechShop was closer than Pittsburgh these posts would be about tables instead of table games).

In any case, this was a little different from previous Dominion posts, more in line with my posts about reconstructing games than storing them. Hope it was at least a little interesting to you. If not, I'm sure we can all look forward to Dominion X-TREME in the near future.

Dominion Storage Solutions, Version 2

Introduction

A little while ago I mimicked a Dominion storage solution I found on a website, cutting a few corners to reduce cost (if you missed it, it's here). I first wanted to mention a few minor changes I made to the initial design (found here) and then talk about a second design that consolidates cards better and is a more portable solution than what I started with.

Version 1.0 adjustments

Version 1 mainly constituted of a couple acrylic card boxes.

I made a couple additional changes as I noticed some little annoyances when using my initial model. Neither change was that drastic, but I've found they're nice little adjustments to have made.

The first problem I had was the lid not closing if the tabs were vertically upright. To fix this, I trimmed each tab about 1/8" from the bottom (or halfway to the index card's next blue guide line). It was a little time consuming, but it worked out well. The tabs still stuck out and were readable; I guess I didn't need as much clearance with the tabs as I initially thought.

Tab sliced, above a tab that wasn't sliced.
The bottom part is the difference between the index cards.

The second problem I had was when tabs fell over in the acrylic case - sometimes it was a little tricky to pick them up, especially when they shifted under other cards and tabs. My brother made a great suggestion of slicing a coffee stirrer vertically with a razor blade and putting one on either side of the card to act as a little bumper. If you cut a standard coffee stirrer into quarters, you're able to add bumpers to 2 index cards per stirrer.

Tab after adjustments.

You can get stirrers in bulk at a store like Staples. If you want to test out the idea I found my local Qdoba had some on hand.

Version 2.0

Although I liked my initial solution, I wasn't particularly thrilled with it for portability. I currently own Dominion (base game), Intrigue, Hinterlands and Guilds and it was 3 card boxes to carry everywhere. On the one hand it was nice that I could pick and choose what to take (since I'm introducing people to Dominion still I don't usually need to take anything beyond the base set and Intrigue with me), but that's still 2 card boxes to take and I can do better.

Additionally I had carry games in recyclable tote bags, and those card cases are a little larger than those standard sized bags. I've been noticing my bags starting to have holes wearing through them, and it looks like it's due to those longer boxes.

Boxes

I think we need a bigger box.

I had a 40% off coupon to Michael's so I went browsing. I stumbled upon a Large Photo and Craft Keeper by Iris, which is meant to hold 4x6 photos. With those dimensions it seemed like I could put two stacks of cards per box. Assuming each box holds 2 stacks of 60, that'd be about 120 cards x 16 boxes for 1920 cards. Though all Dominion sets [based on Wikipedia data] add up total 2850, it sounded like this would handle the 1450ish cards that I currently had.

I chose to take a cheap route to splitting each box in half, folding a regular envelope up to become a tray.

Doubles as a paper airplane.

I chose to mostly keep the supply cards bundled by set still (at least for Intrigue and the base set), though I may move away from this soon.

Tabs

Playing with tabs.

I liked the ease and cheapness in making tabs with index cards, so I chose to stick with that. This time around though, after a little bit of thought, I moved more toward vertical tabs. I liked the tabs from my first attempt a lot - I liked the readability and the color coding of each tab to make them easy to find, but with this effort I had two major hurdles to go though.

The first problem was how to get the tabs mixed in with the cards and be as readable as possible. Between looking through the plastic and looking all around the edge of the case to read the contents, I decided against large tabs and opted for little numbered tabs.

Sometimes easier is better.

I chose to stick with 6 numbered tabs, with identifying text for each tab on the front of the first tab of the set. I would've liked more, but it was pretty much at the box's capacity. I've been considering adding color to the tabs or the text up front, but I can't say it seems like much of a benefit at this point. While a nice indicator, the color of the Randomizer Cards don't seem to be as important as being organized alphabetically.

After a while I got lazy and only cut one side of the tabs off instead of both. I'm not sure if this approach is better, but it may hold up better over time. I'll have to see how it holds up over time.

The other good thing about not adding color is that I won't feel as bad if I get another set and have to readjust some or all of the tab sets. With the tab information all being on the first card, changing the ordering only requires replacing the (1) tab.

One card box containing 12 sets of Supply cards.

Result

Version 2: Less colorful right now, but more portable.

When I finished up, I had a box with a handle that contained all my cards easily. While it doesn't look like it'll hold all Dominion cards, I like how it's a compartmentalized solution; should I wish to take a subset of cards, I can mix and match easily, or just take the packs I need (if I organize them effectively).

Top Cards and Tabs roaming free in their boxes. ಠ_ಠ

There are still some little inconveniences though. Some of the tabs/cards slide around in the individual boxes, in spite of my efforts to prevent it from happening. I'll probably wait a little bit before considering how to correct this though, since I'm not sure if it's that big a problem. If it's only the top card or two, I'd rather they shift a little in transport than adjust the boxes so I lose more space.

Because I really don't want to confuse Randomizer Cards
with all the other cards.

Also there's a matter of labeling. Since there are now many little boxes I'd have to take them all out to see their contents. I'm considering stickers or tape labels to help with identification (I used painter's tape to label some things like the Randomizer Cards, but that was along the front). I'm also considering taping a guide/map on the inner part of the box for identifying the smaller boxes.

If only there was something on the top part of the box
to describe the bottom part of the box. Hmm.

Conclusion

So this is what I have at the moment. As you can read, there are a few more things to adjust, and my overall goal remains working toward an economical version of the kickstarter I initially saw. I think I'm getting closer, but there's still a way to go from here. If you have any suggestions feel free to let me know via the comments here, or wherever (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, email, etc.)

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.