Arkham Horror Space Woes

The New "Innsmouth Horror" expansion set has finally been distributed.

Like each of the <Blahblah>Horror expansions for this game, it is packaged in a box of about the same dimensions as the original game, and contains several additional cards for the existing decks as well as a fan of entirely new decks of cards to add to the game along with a board expansion of around 1/3rd the size of the base game board.

Put four people round a table to play this game and the problem becomes one of finding enough space for the player cards, status display sheets, various tokens that indicate money, sanity and health and I don't know what-all else, The card display for the big monster, the board, the extra board and the two dozen card decks now required to play the blasted game.

I've said elsewhere that FFG could have gone the "Formula One" route with the player displays and made them gust-of-air proof either using dials or pegs to keep track of the various customizable settings each character has. That would, of course, have driven up the cost but would also have made for one component that could be stood upright to save space. Ditto the main monster display.

But the board aside, the biggest consumers of table real estate are the card decks.

The cards vary in size. Some are the size of Pinochle cards, some about half that.

If only some way could be found to stack them in such a way that they use less space while still being easy to reach and draw cards from.

I'm working on this, but the old brain is not co-operating (as usual). I'm thinking that some sort of stand in which decks of cards can be stood on end at an angle would work. I originally thought of a slotted wooden stand, but the slots would have to be very wide to accomodate some of the decks, and there are no two decks of the same thickness, leading to more wasted space. Not only that, these bolt-on expansions always add a few inches to the overall deck thickness. Whatever it ends up looking like, the stand must be able to cater for this factor.

It's a puzzler and no mistake.