Thread: Cthulhu: Death May Die:: General:: Storage solution - New Year’s resolution edition - not for the faint of heart

by zenmazster

Cthulhu Death May Die is one of my top ten fav games of all time. I love it dearly, just received Seasons 3 and 4, and have already kicked the new kickstarter, so I’m all in. But as of late, it’s become a bit…unweildy.

There a funny story of me bringing DMD to gencon to show some friends, only to find out that I didn’t bring some essential components, huge letdown (poor planning).

The following year I brought nearly everything and it took me a long long time to dig through stuff, set stuff up, things scattered everywhere, only to die like 30 minutes later. It just seemed like a lot.

So this week as a new years resolution, my plan is to organize everything in a way that fits MY personal needs. This isn’t for the faint of heart as I know a lot of these choices aren’t for everyone, but I’m happy with the results.


CHAPTER 1 – in which Aaron ditches the inserts.



For me, CMON inserts are really great for shipping fragile things to me. After that, they become kind of a burden. Everything doesn’t fit right in the box, having to place every single mini back in the individual slot in the insert just takes too much TIME and SPACE, things that will become a familiar topic and come at a premium. I don’t want to spend 30 minutes at gencon or even at my own house putting away things, I’d rather be playing more games.

Time is the most valuable resource I have. Now that I’ve ditched the inserts, it’s like a breath of fresh air. I love zip lock bags as an alternate system. It just works well for me, and is much faster and easier. I did the same for Dune: War for Arakkis and absolutely love the results. Off the recycle bin with ye!


CHAPTER 2 – in which the episodes are all together



Having all the episodes together just makes sense to my brain. Keeping them all in the Season 2 box since there weren’t any other tiles or fluff in there. Still have space for season 5 and 6 and then I think I’m done with more stuff for this game. This would already take me 129 lifetimes to play all this stuff.

I have the lost episodes in the Unknowable Box.

I’ll also be keeping a small journal in here to help me take notes on and rate the episodes and GOO. SPEAKING OF GOO.


CHAPTER 3 - in which Aaron proudly displays his Great Old Ones.



I’m keeping these proudly OUT of the boxes, and just putting them on my shelves. Kind of like ‘all in Cthulhu Wars’, I like displaying my faction stuff to remind/show what I have, and these guys will proudly adorn my game shelves. (I haven’t put them on the shelves yet, this is a work in progress)


CHAPTER 4 – in which redundant components can finally be sunsetted. And useful ‘always needed’ components are always together.



There are ‘carryover’ redundant components. It just feels great to separate these from the useful lot. I probably won’t throw them away in the .01% chance I have to sell something in this lot in the future, but I will keep them labeled on a back storage shelf somewhere. On the flipside, I have all of the ‘required’ base components together in one place in a nice bag where I’ll always include it. For cards I can keep relics and insanities. I keep all dice (combined from S1 & S3 woohoo!), fire, life, abilities, gates, etc.

Next year at gencon, with better planning, I plan to take once scenario, one GOO, and the necessities all in one box, so like a ‘travel box’ of sorts, to where I just open it and let’s go.


CHAPTER 5 – in which Aaron eats Indian food for lunch.



Hey all of this rearranging is hard work. I deserve some Indian.


CHAPTER 6 – in which we combine ALL investigators together.



Hey, they’re all friends, all fighting for the same cause. They should stick together and get to know each other better. I’ll keep them in one of the boxes, probably the S1 box for now, it doesn’t really matter what box they’re in.

Also I’ll keep a few index cards with the investigator and they’re corresponding number on the bottom of the mini, then separate the minis into bags of 1-25, 26-50 etc. It’s a bit of time and work up front, but I’m technically working from home and waiting for phone calls, so I’m ‘making good use of my time’ which I wait. 😉 Keeping all of the boards of the investigators together in one place I feel is a huge upside.


CHAPTER 7 – in which all of the monsters get labeled and put in their own ziplock back.

Honestly monsters are probably my least favorite part. I mean they’re fun while you’re playing, but the setup time and putting them away just seems like a big time sink.

I’ll make a fe index cards with monsters in alphabetical order and corresponding with number on bottom for similar storage. I think this system will hopefully cut a bit of time off.

This may be a good time to mention that myself and my group really didn’t care for Unknown Monsters, as they don’t seem to add a lot of fun to the game, yet they double the setup time of the monsters themselves. I’ll happily keep all of the Unknown Monster cards together if anyone wants to try them, but won’t be advocating for them for future games. Which also means I most likely won’t be using Relics much, but oh well, not a problem, as the game is just simply perfect the way it already is. Monsters will take a full box and then spill over to a second box to store. We have plenty of room for them after ditching those inserts. Bye inserts. I still don’t miss you.

That’s about it for now, let me know your thoughts or suggestions, whether you think Arcane Mastery is the ‘best’ ability, and what your favorite Great Old One is. We just played Season 4 episode 1 (the airship, which was awesome) and played with Nyarkathotep. Unique and difficult and fun, we lost our asses.

Also let me k ow if you have a better suggestion for storing the minis for investigators and monsters, always happy to hear suggestions.