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Ever since picking up the card game I thought a spinning playboard to hold the cards would be nice, since there can be a lot of locations and it can be hard to read/reach them all from a single point around a table.
So this weekend, I made my Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Playboard
It has spots for all location and their decks, and the blessings deck/discard pile. The tray holding the blessings deck can be removed, in the event you want to place it near a single person that handles advancing the blessings (which is how my group plays). The foamcore is thick enough that it can hold 12-13 sleeved cards before you have to worry about them sliding around (and even then you have to be pretty careless with how you turn the board). Since location decks start with 11 cards...you got room for the villain to run a few times before a location is overflowing.
There are no locations for the current adventure path/scenario cards, but we tend to have those laying off to the side anyway. There also aren't any locations for the character cards, but my group plays with either minis or pawns of their respective characters that we stand on the location card.
The whole thing is 23.5" in diameter, and is made from two layers of foamcore with a printed poster on top for the design. The first layer of foamcore has the inserts cut out so that the cards can be placed in and not move around when the board spins. The board itself is attached to a turntable meant for being placed under a TV, so it's not as free spinning as your typical tabletop "lazy susan" which is perfect because it doesn't drift when you turn it...you spin it to your desired location, and it stops. All slots are designed to fit sleeved cards.
Sorry I don't have any shots of it in play...haven't had a chance to actually do a game with it.
Turntable (via Amazon) - 9.99
Black Foam Core 20x30 (x4) (Walmart) - 2.97/each (Couldn't find anywhere local that had 24x? to fit the whole board...had to create each layer as two pieces)
24x36 Poster printed at Office Depot - 19.99+tax
Board is attached to turntable via 3M Command Strips (the kind for hanging picture frames) so that it can be detached from the turntable and then the turntable can be used for playboards of other games.
Lessons learned:
- Cutting foamcore with an exacto knife sucks because you have to make multiple cuts over the same location due to it's construction
- Cutting 1 inch circles (or half-circles in this case) in foamcore sucks even more because it's tedious and difficult (if I were to make another, my half-circle notches would become squares)
- The location card is a single card and lays flat in a full depth slot. A remake would probably have the card laying at an angle (with the top of the card higher than the base of the board) which could shave a few inches around the overall diameter of the board (maybe even getting it within the 20" size of the foamcore I used)
- Cutting foamcore sucks
- The poster print was the most expensive part and is cosmetic only, next time I think I'd plan better and find a cheaper place online than Office Depot (or not print one at all)...but I got it printed the day I wanted to make it, so there's that.
- Cutting foamcore sucks
This is very cool. I really like it. I'd be interested in hearing about the playing experience.
I definitely think it would help to angle the location cards to make them easier to read.
Do you use miniatures to place characters at locations? Because there's not a lot of room here for tokens.
Very nice looking. Would you mind sharing a link to the exact turntable you got from Amazon? I' curious to understand it more.
This is very cool. I really like it. I'd be interested in hearing about the playing experience.
I definitely think it would help to angle the location cards to make them easier to read.
Do you use miniatures to place characters at locations? Because there's not a lot of room here for tokens.
Thanks! I'll try to remember to make a follow up post when we get to play, hopefully over the weekend.
I plan on making a couple more of these, for each friend that has a copy of the game, so that I don't have to carry this thing with me when I go somewhere to play. So I'll probably test out the angled location cards on some scrap foamcore and see how it works...and if it works, go that route. If I do, I'll post some updated info on the newer revision.
Yes we play with minis, which is why I left out room for tokens. Interestingly, the official playmat doesn't appear to have a lot of room for the character cards either.
The minis we play with were a Christmas gift from a friend, though I just noticed she missed Amiri and Sajan...probably because none of us ever play them.
Very nice looking. Would you mind sharing a link to the exact turntable you got from Amazon? I' curious to understand it more.
Thanks! Sure thing... Turntable link
Thanks for the link!
Very cool! Nice job, on both the mechanical and illustrative design.
So, the cards go in those trays? Do they ever get stuck, or are the trays cut a bit wide? The finger notches probably help a lot. I would be concerned about the sides of cards getting dinged by grasping fingernails, but I imagine if you're going to this expense, you're probably already sleeving. 8>)
Very cool! Nice job, on both the mechanical and illustrative design.
So, the cards go in those trays? Do they ever get stuck, or are the trays cut a bit wide? The finger notches probably help a lot. I would be concerned about the sides of cards getting dinged by grasping fingernails, but I imagine if you're going to this expense, you're probably already sleeving. 8>)
The cards are sleeved yes. The sections for the cards are cut a bit wider than the cards. I've update the album linked above with a new picture.