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When scrolling through the pictures on Board Game Geek, it doesn’t take long to find gamers taking matters into their own hands. Custom Crokinole boards. More evocative minis. Carved, knitted, painted: whatever a person’s other hobby, it is combined into the hobby of gaming to create something of beauty. So that’s today’s question: do you add custom bling to your games? Answer in the comments! Feel free to share pictures.
@FarmerLenny holds forth:
I’m not very good with my hands, so often custom bling is beyond me. However, I do like to make my games special where I can. I sometimes follow my sister’s lead in Canasta Caliente, allowing the winner of the previous round to wear the coveted chili pepper necklace. I had great plans to pimp my copy of the 1962 version of Acquire…until I found the 1999 one at a reasonable price. How do you improve upon those skyscrapers?
It’s not exactly a case of adding bling, but I did create a new storage solution for Dominion to make all of my expansions fit in one box (just like everyone else). And if a game is complex, I’ll usually make (or find) an aid so players know what options are available to them. (Though I eschew aids for something like 7 Wonders because the aid can easily become a crutch; the iconography is easy enough to master after one game.)
I do have two bling dreams for my games: a custom draw bag for Ra and a new carved king for El Grande. If these projects ever come to fruition, you can be sure you’ll see them here.
@Futurewolfie mutters:
When most of the games you buy are from Days of Wonder and Fantasy Flight, everything is pretty blinged out already. Most of the “bling” I’ve considered adding is in the way of storage solutions – trying to find good plastic storage for SmallWorld tokens, or card boxes to keep Twilight Imperium organized (neither of which has been successful or completed in any fashion…).
However, I do have lots of minis, and the best way to bling out minis is to paint them. I’m no minis painter – I have neither the patience, nor the dexterity. Fortunately, a good friend and fellow gamer has invested some time into minis painting. I hope to get my Battlestar Galactica minis painted next week, and eventually my Star Trek: Fleet Captains minis detailed. Unfortunately none of this has been done yet, so I have no pictures to share.
