Trying out the tools

An orientation to Boardssey's small tools. What they do, how they are grouped, and which ones to try first.

Last reviewed October 11, 2026

Boardssey ships with 16 small tools: the jobs that would otherwise have you opening another app mid-session. This page is a quick orientation: where the tools live, how they are grouped, and which ones to try first. Each tool has its own article in the Tools collection.

What this page helps you do

Find the Tools area and filter it by category.
Know what each tool does in one line.
Pin the tools you use most.
Pick one or two to try today.

You'll start from Tools in the sidebar.

Where the tools live

In the sidebar, open Tools. The group expands into All Tools, Brainstorming, Pre-production, Playtesting, Prototyping and Designing. Click a category, or click All Tools to see the whole grid.

Helpful details

Key areas: a Search tools.. box at the top, category chips, and a card per tool. Some cards carry a NEW or BETA badge.
What you can do: hover a card and click the pin. Pinned tools move to a Pinned Tools section at the top of the grid and also appear when you press Cmd+K or Ctrl+K.
Good to know: every tool is included on every plan. Brainstorming is empty right now; its tools were retired. A few tools appear in two categories because they help at more than one stage.

Pre-production

Tools that turn a finished design into something a manufacturer or a client can use.

Carton Marks: a PDF label for the shipping cartons your manufacturer packs (SKU, contents, origin, destination, weights).
Dieline Templates: cutting templates for boards, punchboards, two-piece boxes, tuck boxes, cards and paper parts. Also under Prototyping.
Digital Mockups (beta): drop your art onto a ready-made product scene and download a PNG. Teams with 3D Mockups in the sidebar do not see this tool.
Invoice & PO Generator: invoices and purchase orders for client work, saved per game.
Component Spec Sheet: manufacturer specs for meeples, tokens and other pieces that are not printed on paper, with sizes and PANTONE colors.
Color Blindness Simulator: see up to 10 images as players with red-, green- or blue-blindness see them. Also under Designing.
Size Scale Reference: show your product next to a person or a pair of hands at true scale. Also under Designing.

Playtesting

Helpers for the table.

Score Pad: players in columns, scoring rows you name yourself, totals at the bottom. Saved to your account.
Starting Player: a random condition such as "the player who drives the smallest car", with Get New Condition for another.
Coin Flipper: one coin, a running count of heads and tails.
Dice Roller: d2 to d100, a modifier, a typed expression such as 2d6+1d4+3, and custom dice with your own faces.
Timer: a countdown with presets from 30 seconds to 1 hour, and a chronometer that logs each pause.

Prototyping

Tools for getting prototype components into testers' hands.

P&P Cards Layout: arrange card fronts and backs onto printable sheets, with a gutterfold option and a save-to-game button.
TTS Deck Editor: deck sheets for Tabletop Simulator from your card images.
Rounded Corners: round the corners of card images in millimeters. Also under Designing.
Dieline Templates: see Pre-production.

Designing

Variables Distribution: turn a list of values into groups or combinations, by count, across lists, or by weight, and export them as CSV, PNGs or a print-and-play PDF.
Also here: Rounded Corners, Color Blindness Simulator and Size Scale Reference.

Where to start

Pick the tool that matches what is in front of you right now.

Just made some cards? Run one through Color Blindness Simulator.
About to print a prototype? Use P&P Cards Layout.
Planning a box? Open Dieline Templates and pick Two Piece Box or Tuck Box.
Hosting a playtest tonight? Open Starting Player and Score Pad ahead of time.
Talking to a manufacturer? Start a Component Spec Sheet.

Helpful details

Key areas: the dashboard also shows a row of tools: the ones you used recently first, then popular ones.
What you can do: jump to any tool by name with Cmd+K / Ctrl+K.
Good to know: bigger features that used to be called tools now have their own sidebar items: Prototypes (Components and Virtual Table) and 3D Mockups. Both are in beta and need Pathfinder or higher.

Tips & common questions

Why do I count 15 tools, not 16? Your team has 3D Mockups in the sidebar, which replaces the Digital Mockups tool in the grid.

Can I pin my favorite tools? Yes. Click the pin on a card. Pinned tools sit at the top of the grid, stay visible whatever category you filter by, and show under Pinned Tools in the command palette.

Where is the Probability Calculator? It is not in the grid or the command palette at the moment. Its page still answers at /home/<team>/tools/probability-calculator if you type the address.

Do tools save my work? Some do. Score Pad, Dice Roller custom dice and Variables Distribution inputs are saved to your account; Component Spec Sheet and Invoice & PO Generator save documents per team. Most others are one-shot: use them and download the result.

Are there more tools coming? Click the gift icon at the top of the sidebar to see announcements and vote on ideas.