Recently I've discovered a new interest - in board games. Just before returning to the UK I went to a local boardgame club in Fuzhou, China, where I was introduced to many tabletop games, including Quacks of Quedlinburg, Paleo, Dixit, Hot Pot Hustle, Coloretto, etc. ... Of which, my favourite was Quacks of Quedlinburd (or Quacks).
The game is set in the medieval time, with 2~4 players playing as quacks (or charlatans) competing to make the best potion out of weird ingredients. I enjoyed the element of luck and probability (pulling chips from your pouch), strategy (choosing what new chips to purchase and add into your pouch) and the overall art style of the game, so much that I just had to buy myself the game from Amazon, so I could play with my husband at home.
If there was one bad thing about Quacks, it would be the hassle of setting up the table before starting the game. This is because there are 8 types of chips with different tiers, meanings all of the chips need to be presented in 18 separate piles on the table. The board game came with small sealable bags which made it easy to organise the chips, but it was always time-consuming to unbag and bag the chips in the beginning and end of every game.
This is when organisers come into place.
When I first played Quacks in the boardgame club, the gamemaster had 3D-printed and painted his own crates (similar to the images below), they fitted very well with the aesthetic of the game, had sections inside the crates for different tiers of the chips, and even came with lids to close the crates, so they can be stored away neatly without any spillage.
There are a lot of sellers on Etsy selling 3D-printed organisers like these, but they are priced between £29 to £45, which is more than the game itself! Luckily, the 3D file for the crate organisers can be downloaded for free online (here), which makes it for affordable for those who have access to a 3D printer.
For me however, it was more enticing to create hand-made organisers out of cards (durable paper) and cello tape - with zero budget.
Through trial and error, I was able to create paper boxes for all of the chips and tokens - the paper boxes fit inside the game's box snugly, so they won't move around too much when carried around. They are also paper weight, so they don't add to the game's weight!
I am quite happy with the result, despite the lack of finesse and aesthetic. The paper boxes definitely serve their organising and storage purposes, and they are ZERO BUDGET! I will release the templates for the boxes soon, stay tuned!
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