A note on the 1/2″ thick pieces

Cutting half-inch birch takes a lot of power. One side of your pieces should be clean, while the other side might be a little scorched around the edges. Build your box so that the clean sides are facing outward.

You’ll probably get your hands a little sooty, too. Wiping the cut edges with a rag will help.

1) Building the outer box

Being precise is important here. The insert is measured to fit in the box with only 0.05″ of tolerance. But don’t worry, it’s not hard; just check your edges before nailing. I highly recommend the use of a right-angle clamp such as this one: Light Duty Corner Clamp

First, clamp the front and one side together, then nail them in place.

• Make sure they’re aligned correctly. The front overlaps the side, but the side (when viewed from the side) doesn’t overlap the front.
• Check both horizontal and vertical alignment; the two pieces of wood should be totally flush with each other.
• Check that both pieces are right-side-up. The rows of nail holes are at the bottom, while the screw holes (for the latches and handles) are at the top.
• The side pieces are marked ‘L’ and ‘R’. L should be on your left as you look at the box from the front, with the engraved letter facing outward.

Then, clamp the other side and do the same.

• Again, make sure the engraved letter is facing out.

Third, attach the back, making sure it’s all right-side up.

Finally, insert the bottom. It will be a tight fit, and the bottom is slightly longer in one direction. I recommend you turn the box upside-down, then use a rubber mallet, or a hammer with a rag protecting the wood, and tap it into place. Once you have it started on all sides, you can turn the box over (right-side up) and tap on the top of the box until the sides are flush with the bottom, and everything is resting flat and level on the table. Take your time to get it right, then nail it in place.

2) Building the second floor

You have two long pieces marked ‘Do Not Glue’. Slide these into the big hole in the front of the box, then press them against the sides of the box, to create a vertical support for the second floor.

Insert the second floor in the top of the box, then push and tap it down until it is sitting flush on those vertical supports.

• You’ll need to keep the floor flat; you can’t easily insert one edge completely into the box then lower the other edge down to be flat.
• Check that the floor is flat in all four corners of the box. It can be hard to tell if it’s slightly raised in the back.

Drive nails into the second floor all the way around the box, then remove the vertical supports.

3) Building the lid

The lid pieces are all cut out of one piece of wood, so if you arrange them, you can get a nice wood grain pattern that flows from one piece to the next.

• The piece with four holes in it is the frontmost lid plank. This piece and one other plank (the rearmost) are slightly longer than the other four.

First, you’ll attach the front to the lid sides. This can be tricky, and a right-angle clamp helps. What I like to do is to place the rear piece on the table, then balance the two sides on top of that (so they’re sticking straight up) then placing the front piece on top of those. Essentially assembling the entire lid vertically, temporarily. This should keep everything from being unstable, so you can drive nails into the front piece.

• The front piece is marked with two ‘F’s. The rear piece is marked with two ‘R’s.

Repeat with the rear piece. It should be easier.

Place the lid frame on the table, and lay out your planks, paying attention to which planks should be in front. Nail in one of the center planks, by aligning its edge with the angles cut into the lid sides.

• Check that the plank is straight, and flush with the lid sides. It’s common for the lid sides to be not exactly parallel after nailing on the front and rear, so you have to push or pull the lid sides together while you nail in the first plank.

Continue with the other five planks, pushing them together to form a nice curve.

4) Building the lower tray

Matt: I think I might still have the front plate here, the long 1/2″ thick plate. Let me know if you can’t find it.

The corners of the lower tray feature a series of cutouts, designed to hold the tray’s knobs without allowing them to protrude too far.

Start by inserting the small vertical stands, then glue and insert the horizontal layers, one at a time. Note that one of the layers is a 1/2″ thick piece.

• You can also do the sides of the tray and the horizontal divider first, but then it’s hard to get a screwdriver in for the knob.

Take your two knobs, and the long 1/2″ thick front plate. Insert the knob through the front plate, and the screw through your cutouts, then screw it all securely together.

Next, glue the horizontal divider into place, then the side walls of the tray. It may be easiest to do one side wall at a time, letting it dry before moving on.

Finally, glue the central vertical divider in place to finish your Fortitude/Alcohol trays.

If you’re using my Deluxe Player Boards, you’re done. However, if you’re using the normal player boards, you’re going to build a small tray out of three pieces. Just glue them and fold them together. Glue the tray into place on the right side of the tray (or just use double-sided tape, if you think you might want to purchase the Deluxe Player Boards). This gives you space for both the original player boards, and the character-specific boards from RDI5.

5) Attaching the hardware and decoration

The handles and hinges go on easily, just open their packages and screw them into place. Same with the hasp and hook.

For the front latches, there are some 1/8″ plates that need to be screwed between the latch and the box.

• The extra space is necessary to prevent the screws from protruding into the card area and scratching up your stuff.
• I recommend you place the hinge on the plate and put a screw through the three holes until it’s just poking out the other side, then using those screw-points to align the plate with the holes on the box.

The large gold screws you have will add extra strength to the box near the hinges. There are four large holes in the back of the box. You must drill pilot holes before screwing, or the wood will split. Use a 1/8″ drill bit, or slightly smaller. Then screw in the gold screws.

Finally, you have four tiny decorating nails, and a nice Red Dragon Inn logo. Align them together on the front plank of the lid, and hammer into place.

6) Assembling the lower card trays

These interlocking dividers will provide you with 42 convenient deck slots, and two double-sized slots in the corners. Insert these dividers in the right order, and it’ll take no time! Glue is optional, but not necessary here.

1. Rear wall
2. Left wall
3. Full-width horizontal divider (left/right matters)
4. Full-width horizontal divider (these two are identical)
5. Right wall
6. Leftmost vertical divider
7. Short-width horizontal divider
8. Rightmost vertical divider
9. Another nine vertical dividers, all identical

In the double-sized corner slots, you’re going to insert a spacer to keep the long cards away from the walls. Glue this to the outer wall.

(Matt: The picture is incorrect. Your spacers are rectangular pieces with no tabs on the sides, and a scoop along the top.)

This is because the lid stays are directly above these slots, and I want to make sure there’s no chance of your cards slipping up and getting your cards bent, if you happen to turn the box upside-down. If you don’t think this is a concern, you don’t need these, but you should have enough space either way.

7) Attaching the lid supports

The lid supports are reversible; align them so that the joint bends forward as the lid is closed.

There’s no pre-drilled hole for the upper screw of the support. Align it to the center of the rearmost card row, and about 1/4″ from the bottom of the lid.

For the lower screws of the support, there are tiny holes on the sides of the box to guide you.

8) Assembling the top tray

There are a lot of unique pieces here that need to be inserted in the right order. It might be worth doing a dry-run before using the glue.

The order is as follows:

1. Central horizontal wall (tallest)
2. Rear left inner vertical wall
3. Front left outer vertical wall
4. Rear right inner vertical wall
5. Rear right outer vertical wall
6. Rear horizontal wall
7. Front horizontal wall

Next are the card slot dividers. There are three types.

• 10 dividers with closely-spaced bottom tabs, and side tabs which fit into the front/back horizontal walls.
• 3 dividers with wider-spaced bottom tabs, and no side tabs. The question here is whether or not own Gambling, I’m In! and whether you sleeve your cards.
  • If you don’t own Gambling, I’m In! insert all three dividers, two in the back, one in the front.
  • If you own it, and you don’t sleeve, insert two dividers in the back, leaving a double-size slot in the front.
  • If you own it, and you do sleeve, insert one divider in the front, leaving a triple-size slot in the back.
• 2 dividers with three tabs on the bottom. Do you want a space for your RDI5 boards in the top tray?
  • If you want that space, use the divider with a scoop taken out of the back, then glue the large horizontal divider into the side of that divider and the slot in the bottom of the tray.
  • If you’d prefer to just have lots of gold space, use the solid divider, and no horizontal divider.
    • If you want to have dice in the box (for Gambling, I’m In!) there’s another divider with no tabs. Glue it into place wherever you’d like it.

Finally, you have some short walls around the edges of the tray. Put the short ones in first.

9) Removable token trays

The token trays use a 1/2″ thick base, and 1/8″ thick walls. The back of these may seem like they have a section missing; you’ll glue nameplates in later.

The front tray holds three small trays (for Natyli’s curses, Sea Progress tokens, etc), one medium tray (Remy’s marks) and one long tray (Zariah’s summons, Cormac’s rage, etc.)

The rear tray holds four small trays and one long tray.

You have extra pieces for a long tray; this is just future-proofing.

10) Nameplates

I recommend you plan out your nameplates, and use white glue, so they can be removed later if desired.

Insert the nameplates from the right side to the left, fitting together securely.

The larger nameplates, for gold, drink decks, the token trays, and such should be obvious where they go. You have two nameplates for the Rogues & Warriors Deck, based on whether you left yourself a two-slot or three-slot space for your deck.