Warning: My Gloomhaven campaign setup took 45 minutes last night

We had to sort all the monster standees and map tiles for scenario 47. Anyone know a faster way to organize this stuff?

4 comments

4 Comments

Ugh, that setup time is the real final boss. We gave up and bought a fishing tackle box for all the monster tokens, which sort of helps until you need that one specific tile buried at the bottom. Doesn't it feel like you spend more time sorting pieces than actually playing the game sometimes? I keep all the map tiles in numbered envelopes now, but even that takes forever to find. Maybe the faster way is just to never put anything away.

jakejones2mo ago

Honestly the tackle box is a game changer for me lol. I just dump all the tokens in there loose and shake it to find what I need. Still takes a minute but way better than baggies.

max_torres442mo ago

My buddy went full chaos mode and just uses a big plastic salad bowl for all his Catan pieces. Claims the "archaeological dig" vibe adds to the experience. Honestly, watching him fish for a city token is its own mini-game.

karenh567d ago

Tackle box did help me too but I found the real time saver is sorting monster standees by type into those mini ziplock baggies and labeling each one with a sharpie. @max_torres44 that salad bowl thing sounds like a nightmare but honestly it made me laugh because we've all been there just digging through a pile. For the map tiles I use a binder with clear sleeves and number the outside of each sleeve so I can flip to the right one without digging through a box. It still takes me about 20 minutes but that's way better than 45 and I can usually chat with my group while we set up. I also keep a small index card in the box with a list of every monster and tile number for each scenario so I can just pull them out in order. That envelope idea is interesting but I think the binder works better because you can see the numbers at a glance instead of flipping through a stack.