[Loremaster]

Seriously, I need a tool chest, a rolling cabinet, or something to keep all of my games together. What do you use?

Being a pack rat, and soon-to-be college student again, I have to consolidate the games I own to portable packages. Too much space to haul around a bunch of long, narrow board game boxes, so I pull all of the boards for my board games into one long plastic box (think Tupperware with hatches), and then commonly used game pieces like dice, counters and play money goes into what is best described as a narrow fishing tackle box, or multi-compartment sotrage container. I don't have a huge amount of games, but sone games (like RISK) have a lot of little parts, and I'm trying to find a way to keep it all together while staying *portable*, *unable to spill* and not being spread out amongst a bunch of different boxes.

Card games are easy enough; card boxes can hold 6-10 card games, plus the rules. Then you get one box to hold them all. And you don't have to keep the counters for EACH game; one set of counters is good, and dice can replace a lot of custom pices in a pinch. But I go and buy a game like Tomb, and the punch-out parts NO LONGER FIT IN THE ORIGINAL BOX: rules, two square boards, 84 cardboard characters + bag, twenty plastic stands for them, 21 custom dice, cardboard damage counters, and about 300 custom cards. Games with lots of pieces stay in the boxes that they came in (A Touch of Evil, Settlers of Catan, Mouse Trap and the like). But there's not vrey many good boxes or cases for a long, traditional-length board for a board game. Thank goodness for the newer square ones!

I know people who use a rolling toolbox for all of their RPG gear. One had a lift-away toolbox on top for all dice and counters, with a large well with wheels beneath that held books and papers. But if you put it in your car trunk, all of those counters turned upside down will get mixed up in the top. I have a professor's satchel for all my D&D stuff, which works good. Settlers and three expansions works in a single plastic box. All of my card games are in cardborad boxes within a larger plastic box. My Magic draft is in one plastic box, my Magic decks are in another plastic box (all in deck boxes). One more long box currently holds my board games AND pieces, but little room for growth.

...Must... breathe... All right, your turn.

[lowfly]

Tackle boxes work great for this situation. I play a lot of minis games (Star Wars, Pirates, Battletech, Mechwarriorr) these games require the mins and a tackle box works great for these. I also use pendaflex folders and backpacks for everything else.

[KorinWhiteFang]

hey if you want it I could actualy make you something in the shop. Just email me what you would like.
I use;

1. Tackle Box
2. Treasure chest
3. Rolly Kit
4. VAN

[Loremaster]

Where this started was from the Cheapass Games philosophy. James Ernst, who founded the company and I believe is now with Steve Jackson Games, said it like this in the documentation of each of his products. I'll paraphrase: "Up to 75% of a game's cost comes from the box, pawns and pieces that often can be substituted with generic playing pieces... It's kind of like having to buy a can opener with every can of beans. You can just get one good set of gaming paraphenalia, and our games will just give you parts that you have to have."

A lot of games do this already, collecting dice, counters and the like. My kit is mostly dice, four sets of colored pawns, some counters, Monopoly money and some pencils. Then the parts that are unique to a game, like the cards to Clue or the houses and cards to Monopoly, are stored in their own containers.

The point of this is to take the games that I have and make them fit in less space. If a bunch of board games have the same kind of pieces, then I put them all in one container. The games that have a lot of pieces stay in the boxes that they came in.