I’ve recently started making my own inserts. Why pay for something when you can make it yourself, I thought, and so off I went. I already had a box of foam board and everything else I needed was knocking around the garage – knives, glue, cutting mat, etc – how difficult could it be?
Well, not particularly actually. The biggest difficulty lies in the planning; trying to work out how to get everything in the box whilst shortening set up time and making it as user-friendly as possible. Once that’s been figured out the rest it pretty simple, if you follow a few simple rules that is.
With that in mind and knowing that many people have never worked with foam board before, I put together a quick guide, giving a few pointers and tips that I’ve picked up whilst using it, which you’ll find the link to below.
My first insert, Eldritch Horror, has worked really well for me. This one I took a good look round to see what everyone else was doing and so it’s nothing particularly new and suffers the same as the rest in the fact that the box is never going to be big enough to fit all the available expansions, or even half of them, so you have to go with what’s best for you.
Anyway, as I put the plans together I’ll add them to this post, as well as a roster on where I am with the next few in line…
Working with Foam Board – My tips on working with, well, foam board obviously!
Game box insert plans
Eldritch Horror – The insert fits the base game and two small box expansions, though I also managed to cram some of the Mountains of Madness components in there too!
Coming up
Arkham Horror 3rd Edition – Insert complete. In the process of putting together a PDF.
Gloomhaven – Planning stage. This might take a while!
Time of Legends: Joan of Arc – Planning stage. Another one that’s going to take some planning. It will also take up a couple of boxes!
Waiting in the wings
Nusfjord, Obsession, Teotihuacan, Robinson Crusoe, and many more.
I’ve currently steered away from games that use miniatures because when painted I store them separately, as I imagine do most people. There are some though, such as Mansions of Madness, that could do with an insert even if the figures are kept separate, and I’ll get to them eventually.
As everything in my world, progress will be slow – I find I have too many hobbies to do anything quickly, lol!
The Solo Meeple 