Boardgaming in 2020: the year of the, uh, post-minis era? We can only hope!

Yeah, it’s foam core, not foam (most likely).

There are tons of instructions out there for making your own foam core inserts for games. It’s pretty straightforward, if you’re at all handy (I’m not, and I still kind of mangle the stuff together), and it’s pretty cheap to do.

Yeah, my buddy James’s brother is pretty handy with tools and the like and makes him nice foamcore inserts for a couple of elaborate boardgames every Xmas and birthday. He’s got a decent little collection now!

I wish I knew someone like that. Or had better spatial layout skills myself. I think I might be able to do the actual cutting out, but my problem is the stuff I really want better inserts for are expensive games with small audiences (which is to say, Kickstarter stuff that’s more niche than your Gloomhavens or CMON releases or similar) and I haven’t seen foamcore designs for them, much less insert company support. And I can’t imagine me coming up with one on my own.

I say we just take old memory foam pillows, stick it in a box and cram our pieces into it. Like storing them in marshmallow fluff! Except, you know, less sticky.

Big week for new games!













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I was like “wait why is Anachrony at retail when I don’t have mine from Kickstarter yet?” but it looks like that’s just a reprint of older content and not the new expansion I backed (w/ older stuff bundled and special box). So that’s all right then.

Regarding Folded Space inserts, I found this page about the material it’s made out of:

Really digging hall of the mountain king via KS!

@Brooski or anyone else remember the Avalon Hill game Dune? Apparently a new version came out last year.

Edit: I guess it was mentioned in the boardgame podcast last year. My discourse search skills leave something to be desired.

So people know, they come flat packed like this:


and you have to punch them out and glue them together yourself.

Yep! Same as Broken Token and Go7 (albeit different materials)

If given a choice between a Folded Space or a Broken Token insert, I’d use the Folded Space one without a doubt. Much more easier to punch out for one and I find assembly a lot more easier too. Obviously not as sturdy as the wood, but decent all the same.

Rob Daviau gets a Bloomberg article:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-21/board-games-from-the-80s-are-rebooted-for-generation-x?srnd=premium-europe

Well, I imagine it’s about more than just his games, but I’m not using one of my 10 articles for it, sorry.

Yeah, I’ve never bought a 3rd-party insert or “game chest” thingy that didn’t need to be punched out and glued for assembly. And I’ve got (and am very happy with) a number of such products. (Gloomhaven, Arkham Horror LCG, Mansions of Madness, and Elder Sign, specifically).

What would be most interesting to me about the Folded Space inserts is that I’m assuming they’re MUCH lighter than the wooden products from Broken Token. My loaded up Mansions of Madness box weighs about 50 pounds I think.

I have a few Folded Space inserts (Champions of Midgard, Robinson Crusoe, and Spirit Island) and would definitely get them again over the wooden ones. Sturdy and definitely lighter.

My two wooden inserts so far (neither Broken Token, but similar designs) didn’t need gluing. Assembly, yes, but it was like five minutes.

That video alleviated a lot of my concerns with foam. I didn’t realize it was an entirely different type of foam, and now… I might be interested.

Thank you.

I have built a few custom foam board inserts of my own. A decent 1/4" or so foam core takes a ton of abuse.

I built a few foam core inserts for Mage Knight and the like. I can try to take a picture if anyone wants to see what it can look like.

I would be up for that, though, as discussed, I haven’t played before.