Some boardgames are a pain to set up with multiple bags of tokens to hand out to players, draw decks to separate out and place around the board, or pieces to assemble – all of this slows down the amount of time it takes for the game to get from the box to the table (and vice versa when clearing up). As a means of speeding up game setup, I’ve been looking into making custom inserts for board games.
This train of thought started with me stumbling onto a website called The Broken Token, which does custom game accessories, including laser-cut boardgame inserts. I’m particularly enamoured with their Cosmic Encounter insert. Immediately covetous, I started researching game inserts and came across the concept of foamcore.
Foamcore is essentially a sheet of material which consists of two very thin layers of cardboard with a sandwich of foam in between. It can be cut to size and shape and is quite rigid, so it has picked up quite a bit of use for making custom inserts for boardgames.
This sent me down another rabbithole of research. Starting with The Esoteric Order of Gamers‘s YouTube tutorial on foamcore, then finding the mega list on BoardgameGeek of “Foam core insert modifications“, I was inspired and set off to the local Art & Hobby Shop.
I picked up 3 A1 sheets of black 5mm foam board, a self-healing cutting mat, a cutting blade, and some glue and was ready to go. I couldn’t find anywhere selling dressmaker’s pins, so I liberated (and destroyed – sorry!) my girlfriend’s set.
More on this obsession as it develops.
