As I’ve mentioned in previous posts on the game, Firefly can have an enormous footprint when fully deployed, and the expansion packs just make it more so. With up to seven Captains at the table each with a ship card and crew/upgrades, and seven Job decks (with discards), and six Supply decks (with discards), and Misbehave deck and three Nav decks (and their discards) and and and…well, it’s a lot of space needed.
Having noted this issue when playing Arkham Horror a few years back, Craig came up with a solution that is brilliant and effective, and when he saw Firefly’s footprint he used the same solution. Hot glue and foamcore board make for a sturdy set of carriers and covers, allowing easy transport and blazing fast setup. The footprint of the whole system, packed up, is barely larger than the folded board. Unpacked, it’s about twice that size.
The first pic shows the entire game, covered and stacked up for transport. The covers go over the two stands, which sit back to back on top of the box, which holds the other trays.
Unfolded, the system looks like this. Note that short of distributing money, this game is now pretty much ready to get into the startup procedure of placing things on the board. If the decks are shuffled up before putaway, you can be choosing Stories, Ships, and Captains within five minutes.
The multi-level design allows for clear identification of the Job decks and their discards (including room for Lord Harrow and Mr. Universe). It’s harder to see here, but this tray set has a deeper compartment to the right, where the ships and dinosaur are kept, and shallower compartments to the left, where the Goods, Passengers, and Warrants are.
And lastly the Supply deck stand and bank. The stand repeats the multi-level design of the Jobs stand, while the bank helps keep the money tidy throughout a game where it’s coming in and out constantly.
The box, in which the trays stack, also has a compartment at the bottom to contain the various rule books. All told, the entire game comes to about six pounds (2.7kg), so it’s easily carried.
I’ll be trying to prevail on Craig to write up his plans, so we can post them here for anyone else who wants to use it. If there’s interest, I’ll see if I can get the same look at his Arkham Horror setup.
I would love to see some instructions and materials needed in order to make this!
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Wow, there are a lot of people saying that! I’ll try and poke Craig tonight when he gets home from work. The short version is that it’s made from 1/4″ foamcore board, which you can get at an office supply store, and held together with hot glue. Unfortunately, having Craig make them for people would be prohibitively expensive (and if it’s not for you, why aren’t you donating some of that money to me? 😉 ), given it took him something like 15 hours to build. Any kind of reasonable hourly is going to make that A Lot of Money, never mind shipping for a lot of air. I suspect the build time could come down some with mass production, but Craig already has a job as a part-time chef in the daytime, and is an independent filmmaker at night.
However, I will point him to this post tonight. We took the setup to a local Games Day last week, and it was a big hit with the players and passers-by. Thanks for the comment, and sorry for the slow reply. I’m gonna keep trying to get better at that.
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Second reply to this, having talked to Craig: he thinks if we’re producing a few of them, we could make them for about $75 Canadian (currently about USD60, EUR55, AUD75), plus shipping. For another CAD$25, we could put graphics on it (copies off the box graphics most likely, printed and glued on). Both of us have worked as graphic designers, so we know how to do that properly.
If anyone’s still interested, just let us know and we’ll get in touch.
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Any chance we can get some instruction or help to make our own? I’d especially like to know about the tiered deck organizers.
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See reply to Steven above; thanks for the comment, and my apologies for being slow getting back. Still working on getting better at that.
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Please please please write up the set up. 🙂
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See reply to Steven above; thanks for the comment, and my apologies for being slow getting back. Still working on getting better at that.
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“I’ll be trying to prevail on Craig to write up his plans, so we can post them here for anyone else who wants to use it.”
Oh, please do that! Definitely interested!!
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See reply to Steven above; thanks for the comment, and my apologies for being slow getting back. Still working on getting better at that.
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Please, please, PLEASE do write up the plans… I need this like yesterday! Lol!
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See reply to Steven above; thanks for the comment, and my apologies for being slow getting back. Still working on getting better at that.
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Please, please, PLEASE do write up the plans and share them here. I need this, like, yesterday!
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That is very awesome! Would definitely make life a lot easier when setting up. Please if you can post plans, that would be extremely appreciated!
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See reply to Steven above; thanks for the comment, and my apologies for being slow getting back. Still working on getting better at that.
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Awesome! I want to make one! Great idea!
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See reply to Steven above; thanks for the comment, and my apologies for being slow getting back. Still working on getting better at that.
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oh goodness! Please yet either post plans or offer these for sale. My Firefly board game NEEDS this and no way can I figure out how ot do it without step by step instructions. 😀
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See reply to Steven above; thanks for the comment, and my apologies for being slow getting back. Still working on getting better at that.
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Would LOVE instructions to this!!!!!
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See reply to Steven above; thanks for the comment, and my apologies for being slow getting back. Still working on getting better at that.
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I would be interested in instructions on how to build this myself.
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I think this is an amazing idea! Would love to find instructions on how to make stuff like this. Great job!
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See reply to Steven above; thanks for the comment, and my apologies for being slow getting back. Still working on getting better at that.
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Do you have any instructions on how to build this?
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See reply to Steven above; thanks for the comment, and my apologies for being slow getting back. Still working on getting better at that.
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And if you read down this far, sorry for spamming you all with the same comment, but it seemed easier than trying to type out the same thing 13 different ways. 🙂
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Pingback: Firefly: The Board Game – Review | The Expansion Board
I see a kickstarter in your future. I would love for you to produce this product.
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Hi Cam – sorry to be so wretchedly slow, still working on the depression thing. We’re talking about the possibility, but thinking that if demand is great enough, it might be worth looking into the possibility of sourcing local manufacturing (laser-cutting of wood), which might allow us to make a kit that people could put together themselves. Anyway, we’re looking into the possibilities.
Temporarily, we’re looking at offering them for about CDN$75 plus shipping, where “shipping” could be the tricky part. Weight-wise it’s not much, but it’d be bulky unless shipped only mostly-assembled. Mind this space for more. 🙂
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Love it! Would also love to see a plan on how to do this myself as it will be expensive to have it made and sent to the UK
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See my reply to Cam just above for the update – I should write another post about it, be more easy to concentrate the discussion. We’re looking at about CDN$75 to make one, plus shipping, and the shipping’s the tricky bit. More in a post shortly. For some value of shortly. 🙂
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i would love to buy one i live in the uk if you’d let me know what shipping to there would be i was considering attempting to make something like this but far less awesome which is how i found this
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Hi Ian, see my responses to Cam and Trine above, and look for a new post soon about the updates on this.
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Hi,
Did we get any more progress on this?
Thanks.
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