I’ve got a pile of cardboard, glue, a cutting mat, a cork-backed ruler, and an Exacto knife all sitting in a pile in my living room because my Father’s Day gift, Imperial Assault, while a fantastic game, is probably one of the most poorly organized boxes on the planet. Everything is in baggies and the last time I pulled it out, we spent as much time finding containers or making piles of pieces as we did playing. So I’m going to attempt to make a removable box insert.
Or I was, but then I got a hefty little box in the mail from Bitcrates!
Bitcrates is a simple concept with a masterful implementation. They’re made for exactly the kind of scenario I list above, where you just want to play, but you need containers for all of your game pieces. Rather than repurpose whatever you have in your kitchen, these little aluminum and maple cubes are perfect for holding just about every consumable you need for whatever tabletop game you’re playing.
They’re solidly constructed, stable on the tabletop, and, depending on which tier you back in their Kickstarter, you can even get a storage box to keep them in when you’re not playing (so that no one steals them and fills them with snacks). Bitcrates are one of those things that I used once and goggled that no one had come up with it sooner. They’re diminutive enough that you don’t lose small piles of components in the bottom; but they have ample capacity for all but the highest volume of game pieces. Takenoko is a great example – rather than everyone shuffling through the box for bamboo, or assigning someone as the “bamboo banker,” everyone can have their own reserve to pull from. It’s a simple change that really improves the quality of gameplay.
At over 600% funded, the Bitcrate Kickstarter is a good bet (as long as they aren’t overwhelmed by the sheer volume of product they’ll need to produce!). You can get a set of four Bitcrates for $35, then buy up from there. There’s only a week left, though, so if your gaming group wants to start using something a little classier than cereal bowls or ramekins, don’t delay!
Love the idea of these boxes, they look beautiful, but will likely just buy a few to put pieces in rather than store the game pieces inside permanently.