42. Storage of Descent (tokens, cards, tiles, dices, miniatures...)

As I mentioned in my introduction, my first ever tabletop game I played was Frostgrave (because my love for Warhammer before was only platonic), and I just had boardgames before. But there is a missing link... A game which lures board gaming people to tabletop games, I think that the proper terminus technicus is "gateway game". A game in a fantasy world with stories, heroes, monsters, villains and, the most important miniatures: Descent (Journeys in the dark second edition).

Its maybe the worst time to come out with a post about Descent (I dont want to write the whole official title every time), because the game is hibernated... A new version (according to the publisher, Final Fantasy Games, its not a new edition, but a new game) is coming in august of 2021, and the supplements are official unavailable (except possible stock somewhere, and the 2-5x priced secondary market). So why am I writing about it?

1. The game is still awesome (although not perfect), its not without any reason the origo, the frame of reference for every dungeon crawler game today.
2. Descent has a giant fun-base, it will survive for a long time!
3. I want to write about storage, and the solutions can be used for every other similar board game.

I spoiled the theme just before, but lets talk about the "why" a bit longer. One of the biggest disadvantage of complicated games (let it be tabletop or board game) is the preparation time before a game. There are tons of miniatures, markers, cards, tiles, dices and so on, which are stored somehow, but belong to the table while gaming. And this step, between storage and gaming, can be a misery, so hard, that it can even discourage from gaming... There are different ready-to-use solutions for the problem, but they are mostly not perfect for a game with a lot of supplements (and if You have Descent, you want a lot of supplements), and they are always pricey. But with a bit of creativity it can be solved cheap and good!

First of all: cards and tokens. You can certainly craft some cardboard inlay in the original box, but its much easier to use a bit-box from a DIY store. It may cost time to find the perfect one, but there are so many different types, that Im pretty sure, that everybody can find something. The best are those types, where the inside can be adjusted. And one little hint: put something under the cards, it will be easier to grab them.

Next stop: miniatures. I already wrote a post about it. A little difference here is, that Descent miniatures are ready built, with proper sized base, they are all made of plastic (they are light), ande they are mostly not that big. So, self adhesive magnetic sheets, which I dont like for tabletop miniatures, are a cheap, quick, and good enough solution here. Just glue such sheets in the box, others on the miniatuers, and its ready.

I store smaller things (like end pieces, doors) and big cards (the character cards in Descent dont fit in the bit-box) in the original boxes. It would be smarter, to make an inlay, but they are not so many, that I would need it. If You need more separation here, lock-bags are Your best friends! And I separate the actual (in the campaign used) characters, with class and item cards, so they can be taken out quick.

And I saved the best for the last! Its a bit more specific, because not every game uses tiles, but Descent does, moreover, they are numbered. Still, if they are just in some box, it takes a lot of time to search for the necessary ones... But just put them in transparent envelops (I use one bag for two tiles, separated with a piece of paper) and then in a ring binder (I can just hope, that I use the proper english words for these things), You basically have a book of them, with numbered pages! Its a very easy, cheap, and really-really quick to use solution!

With these hints, You can prepare a Descent game in 10 minutes!