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Descent 2nd Edition Foamcore Plans

By July 1, 2013July 27th, 2014Boardgames, Foamcore Plans
Descent Foamcore

My first set of foamcore box insert plans, for Merchant of Venus, seemed to be well received, so here’s another set of plans, this time for Descent 2nd Edition by Fantasy Flight Games.

These ones are much simpler. You have to do a bit of careful arranging to fit the dungeon tiles in the space provided (under the figure tray)—there’s a lot of stuff to fit in one box here—but as long as you fit some of the jigsaw pieces together and put them all in efficiently it’s pretty easy to do. There’s plenty of space for the figures (you could put in pieces of soft foam around the large figures for extra padding if you desire), and it’s all capped off with an neat tray for your cards and counters.

The cards are a snug fit in their spaces, so be sure to be careful to cut clean 90º angles and position your foamcore dividers at perpendicular angles. Check out Part 1 of the Using Foamcore video series for more tips.

Update: These plans have now been updated to v1.1.

22 Comments

  • Martin says:

    Beautiful! I would sit down and make this today… if only there was room for sleeved cards. T_T

    • Universal Head says:

      I know a lot of people sleeve cards, but I’m sure you understand I’d go insane trying to make plans for people who both sleeve and unsleeve them. Also … I just have a problem with sleeved cards. There, I said it.

      I know they protect cards, but I think they’re ugly, and detract from the aesthetics of a game. So I’m afraid those of you with sleeved cards will have to design your own inserts, or modify these to your liking. It wouldn’t be too hard to do either.

  • Salim Khoury says:

    Great stuff UH, keep em coming. The videos are great too, can’t wait for # 3

  • Edward says:

    What a great idea! I have so many games that could really use this kind of makeover. It’s weird how some game manufacturers take the box into consideration and give a well thought out storage solution and how some just shove it all in a box. This will be particularly useful for some of the LCGs I’ve picked up expansions for. Thanks for the inspiration.

  • Salim Khoury says:

    UH,

    I just completed the figure tray and I have an issue I’d like your help with…

    My figure tray is not sitting flush with the upper edges of the 1st main box the way your photo does. I remeasured everything and if anything all my walls are a little shorter than 35 mm. This leaves me to think that there may be some sort of way you have arranged all the map tiles beneath the tray to achieve maximum efficiency and minimum height. So, I now have re-organized the map tiles 4 different ways and can’t seem to make it any better. So I no longer think there is a special tile layout, especially because I realized that I need to shave almost 10 mm of height off the figure tray to make it lay flush. I’m happy to send you an image of my problem, and would appreciate your feedback.

    On a separate note, this idea of your’s is killer, it really doesn’t take that long and I love how functional it is. My biggest issue is that I actually can’t seem to make a straight cut to save my life, so I’m constantly going back and shaving my pieces down to get them to fit (Maybe a more detailed video on how to cut straight!).

    Anyway, thanks for all the work! If I may suggest, I’d love to see a foamcore box for Mage Knight Boardgame (with the expansion included).

    I’d also like some thoughts on your design process, to help me design my own.

    • Universal Head says:

      Thanks for the kind words. You’ll soon get the hang of making straight cuts, it’s just practice!

      As for the plans, I am so, so sorry, but I just discovered the outer box walls should be 65mm in height. I know this will cost you a bit in foamcore but you may be able to use it for another FFG game … I’m just fixing the plans now. They’re pretty complex and errors may sometimes creep in, which is why I suggest that all measurements are checked.

      I”m afraid one thing you’ll probably never see is a summary or a box for Mage Knight from me; I played it once and found it one of the most tedious games I’ve ever played. Sorry about that!

      I’ll be talking more about the design process in the next video.

      Again, my apologies for the error.

      • Salim Khoury says:

        That makes sense, I’ll see what replacing the main box walls results in. Thanks for the prompt response. Ill pretend I didn’t read your Mage Knight comment

      • Jason Reynolds says:

        Salim, I’m also having the straight pieces issue, but have noticed I was getting better as I progressed through the project. I’m sure after a few more I’ll look back on this one in horror.

        I’m glad to see I’m not the only one having the “How does he Tetris those map pieces” question.

        UH, I think I’m going to refer to mine as a first printing limited run copy. 😉

  • Nathaniel Welte says:

    I really liked your design and was inspired by it and your design for Merchant of Venus . Using your design, I created a foam core storage solution for Labyrinth of Ruin. If you like, I would be willing to share with the images and measurements. I do not have a schematic but I can share everything else.

    • Universal Head says:

      Thanks for the offer Nathaniel, though the EOG is not currently accepting content for the site. We may in the future though! Glad you were inspired.

  • Mercenary One says:

    Your are great! Thank you very much, i will rebuild it in wood. Was a long time ago a heroquest player and got decent 2nd ed for Christmas – with this ugly unsorted box but this GREAT elite monsters 🙂

  • Frank says:

    Hey there, great site and plans… Just finished my box for this game and had a few comments to help make it better. The first one is that I was exactingly precise in my cuts, and as such, all of the boxes were too snug fitting into each other, 1-2mm of size reduction in each side would vastly help (reducing tray 2’s size by this much would help it slide in and out of tray 1 for example). I ended up having to do it manually, but wish I could have had it in the plans (on my next box!). Also, in tray 3, the space between counter trays is not indicated, I stayed up till 4am obsessing over completing the box, so doing the math, an estimating at that hour in the morning was very painful!.

    At any rate, this is one of the coolest ideas, ever. My next plans might involve a gaming surface, which would include a tray of items for each player with an open play surface in the middle.

    Cheers from Canada!

    • Universal Head says:

      You’re right – I’m still in the early days of translating my existing designs to plan form, as I actually make these on the fly for myself. In future I’ll allow a bit more tolerance. It’s important to always test out and check things as you go with these however, as sizes can vary a lot depending on how precise your hand-done cuts and angles are, so in the end this is really a guide rather than a ‘machine-correct’ plan.

      Yes, tray 3 could do with a bit more detail, but again, there’s no need to math it out, just cut the dividers, put them in roughly using your components as a guide, and stick them in.

      Glad you got there in the end however! Hopefully these with improve in detail and usability as I do more. Thanks for your comments and cheers from New Zealand!

  • Craig says:

    Wow! Thank you so much for designing and sharing these plans! I’m interested in making this but the download link doesn’t appear to be working.

    • Universal Head says:

      Sorry—fixed. BTW if this ever happens you can always go to a game’s main page (there’s a link to it in the top of the right hand column) under ‘Game Library’.

  • Tomasz says:

    Hi. I just spent the better part of Saturday making my foamcore tray for Descent 2nd Edition based on your design. Everything fits perfectly. Awesome stuff! Greetings from Poland 🙂

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