Nothing Says "I Love You" Like... Pimping - Robinson Crusoe: Adventure on the Cursed Island

Well, this is the last of the custom inserts I got from Chris. Haven't made any new orders since then, although I am extremely tempted to get one done for Keyflower, Dungeon Petz, and Trajan. Haha. *Must control self...*

Anyway, its the last one for now, but the nicest one of the lot! This post does not only show the custom insert, but also a few other nice upgrades I got for some of the tokens in the game. Heh heh. Enjoy!

So first up is the custom insert!

It is a 3 piece insert which contains 2 removable trays that hold the adventure cards + discovery tokens, and the other smaller bits such as wood, food, determination tokens etc.

Before I got this insert, all my bits were in small plastic containers that I had to individually remove, open the lid, and place near the board within easy reach. The setup time was horrendous as there were just so much stuff! Wood, food, determination tokens, modifier tokens, blue+black+white markers. Everything was scattered everywhere. And keeping when the game was done was even worse.

What you see when you remove the board, rules, and scenarios

What you see when you remove the characters!! Nice! The middle portion was Chris's own design

With the 2 removable trays, all that was cut down into mere seconds. The left tray with the adventure cards can be placed straight onto the board, and the right tray with the tokens just needed to be within easy reach. And that was setup! Easy peasy, neat and quick.

What lies below the 2 removable trays

Setup complete!!

What lies below the removable trays are basically all the other bigger bits and other decks of cards.

The main tray below the removable ones hold the event decks (separated into two), the treasure deck, the deck of inventions+starting items+discovery cards, and beast cards. The tokens contained are the player pieces, extra pieces, and my custom bits! :)

As for the tiles and the dice, well, I guess you can plainly see where they are located.

I must say though, the dice come out nicely. You press your finger and lift them up, and all will come out together, but, the tiles are slightly tight fitted. I always have problems getting them out in one go, I have to do them individually and sometimes they scrape the walls of the insert. *Shudders*

I think the insert was a fantastic job except for one slight problem. The slot next to the beast cards was meant for the invention cards, but it didn't turn out right. It is about 1mm too short, so the cards only go in slanted and not flat. Which is why I opted to put them on the free tray at the top left instead. :(

I would have loved to swap them around, invention cards on bottom right and my custom bits on top left. It would have looked perfect! Well, regardless, it works, and it helps me in setup and tear down and sorting of all my stuff. One can't be too picky in life.

Next up are the custom bits!

These were done by 2 separate people

Crosses + Shelter + Huts & Village: Tabitha W ( BGG - epicycledesigns )

Crates + Stones: Rom Brown ( BGG - minksling )

Custom Crosses for Scenario 2 - Cursed Island, and Custom Shelter token

Above is my custom shelter token which I really really like. I love the detail put into it and how it stands out on the map. The crosses are just as nice although I admit it is rather extravagant considering I only get to use it for scenario 2. Haha. Still, it's nice! The wood looks ultra realistic.

Below I have pictures of the custom huts and village done for the cannibal island scenario.
I found it much easier to track which tile has a village (hut) that we cannot enter, and when defeated we could use the number tokens provided to signify that it was burnt down. Having the number tokens signify multiple things but placed differently on a tile was rather confusing. I would have liked the huts and village to be bigger to match my shelter token, but I think they function just as well in their smaller size.

Custom Huts and Cannibal Village for Cannibal Island scenario

Close up of the items from Epicycle Designs

Can you believe I pimped out my Robinson Crusoe so much ? I think I might have lost my mind. Haha.
Below you will find the discovery cards to replace the discovery tokens.
The idea was taken from that done by BGG member Doug Evans. He designed the whole thing and uploaded it unto BGG. I got mine printed at printerstudio and it turned out really well. Linen finish and all. Sweet. My friends used to love to pull the tokens from the bag, said it was the most fascinating part of exploring. Well I liked that too, so the cards took that excitement away a bit. But once we could tell what we got, "we found a goat!", I think we much prefer what the cards added to the theme. Nothing evokes story better than being able to talk about what you found rather than seeing a token and saying you have a chance for 1 meat and 1 fur.

Discovery cards to replace the discovery tokens. More thematic! With text to imply time of usage.

Stones to block off source or signify unexplored terrain

Lastly, I bought a set of stones and crates from Rom Brown in NZ
He posted a picture on BGG and I loved it, so I had to buy it. Haha.
The stones are only used to signify when a source has been depleted, or when a terrain has been unexplored. The size is just right to cover the image on the tile and I like that I don't have too many similar color cubes sitting all over the place on invention cards, morale track, etc. And it fits the theme!

He also did a set of crates to replace the cubes from the game ( some of them, not all ).

The crates have very nice detail on them and also fit very well onto the pictures on the starting item and invention cards. I just love those little boxes for some strange reason. :P

Crates for inventions and starting items

Love the detail of the crates

Crates ( and stones ) were done by Rom Brown

Rom actually did a very VERY nice set of food tokens for Robinson Crusoe. But they were extremely expensive. So I passed. :(

But it made me think very hard about buying them. So as it is, I settled for my own custom tokens taken from my Stone Age resource set. I sold off my copy of Stone Age but retained my resource stash that I bought for it. Well, don't let it go to waste!

Fishes represent the perishable food, drumsticks the non-perishable food

My food tokens. Taken from the Stone Age resource set

Close up of the removable trays

So that's it!!
The last one, but a heck of a long one.
Took me awhile to get all the images done and uploaded. But I just had to, I love my pimped copy of Robinson Crusoe too much. Haha. Just taking it out to mess around with the bits is hugely satisfying for me.
Of all the games in my collection, I think I would be most heart broken if ever something happened to my copy of Robinson Crusoe. The only other game comparable would be Horse Fever. These custom bits and insert, my custom horses, losing any of the 2 would make me weep. :(
But for now, these pimped components really help to bring out the flavor in my games, and also to aid in setting up and tearing down. With so many games to play and so little time, every little bit makes a difference!

This is probably the last pimping post of mine for awhile. Nothing else new to write about. But if I do pimp out another game soon, well, you will find out!

Jonathan