As many of you might have experienced, boardgame boxes tend to be much bigger then needed for their contents. This is often done to make games stand out on store shelves and to give potential buyers a sense of value for money. Alas it also means they take up more shelf space at home and are harder to bring places.

What to do?

When traveling to conventions I would usually put a few different games into the largest box. I could often fit quite a few that way. Like many I don’t like throwing away the original boxes, so when I got home I’d unpack everything into the originals and put back on my shelves. I do this also so it’s clear from my shelves what games I have. I feel I’ll forget games who’s boxes aren’t visible.

Make a new box!

I don’t like to throw away boxes cause I consider the cover art part of the value of a game, and because games often go out of print. That doesn’t stop me making a new box just for shelving the game! (and putting the old backs in the attic…). I own Settlers of Catan as a sort of default requirement for boardgamers of my age, even though I don’t play it anymore. It’s quite a large box and one I don’t think will ever go out of print, so was a reasonable box to sacrifice.

What to put in it?

I looked through the games I like to play whose boxes are generally oversized, while making sure their playing board would fit into the settlers box. After a few iterations I settled on a good spread of games that are a mix of light to medium complexity covering 2 up to 7 players.

The box contains:

  • Carcassonne, the classic tile laying game I always enjoy.
  • Rattus, I light action selection game about rats that make people horny (it’s not the theme but it is how the mechanics work!).
  • Gravwell, a drafting game about escaping a black hole.
  • Citadels, a role selection game that plays up to 7.
  • Topiary, a very relaxing tile laying game about building a garden.
  • 7 Wonders, deeper drafting game, whose box is a real size offender.

I’m really happy with the selection, all support a broad range of types of players and play times.

Putting it all together

Now I have the box and all the games I wanted to put into it. I created an image of the box covers and title banners to make a custom cover for the settlers box. I stuck these to the box using acetate sheets. This makes the box more water proof and gives my printed pages a much nicer gloss. Overall I’m really happy with how things turn out, I have a single box to easily move multiple games, it takes up less space on my shelf, and I can still easily see what games are inside.