And checkout the Stocking Stuffer games holiday list as well.

Two Player Games

Hanamikoji

The only two player only game on the list, but Hanamikoji is the first one that pops to mind when I think of two player games. This is a game of influence as you try and win the favor of Geisha by giving of gifts. The theme might not be up your alley there is also Jixia Academy which is the same game and a different theme.

Either game, Hanamikoji or Jixia Academy, is simple to play. You get four actions and you do one each turn. After both players have done all four of their actions you see if someone has the favor of four Geisha or eleven points worth of Geisha.

So what are the actions? You either keep one gift hidden that you’ll use to influence favor. Or you’ll put two gifts face down that won’t be used. You give your opponent the choice of three cards, they pick one and you get two to give as gifts immediately (and revealed). Or you create two groups of two cards, and your opponent picks one. That’s the game, it’s about trying to get that combination right or letting your opponent make tough decisions that influence or show you what to do. Or trick your opponent into taking that you want them to.

Dice Throne

Now we’re onto Dice Throne, a game that some people might say is only a two player game. I think it works at higher player counts with the newer king of the hill rules. But Dice Throne, as a two player game, is a head to head battle game. And how do you battle, you roll dice. You are looking for straights or different combinations of symbols to do damage.

That might sound simple, and I think the first couple of times you play, it is easy to think it’s just the luck of the dice. But you get combat points to use as well. Those combat points (CP) are used to play out cards which is wherein your strategy lies. The cards offer different things, clearing off negative status your opponent might have placed on you, changing up your attacks, or manipulating the dice. So it’s a push and pull of how you try and hold back your cards and actions as you play the the game.

It’s not the thinkiest game, even with that, but there is more going on than you’d think of just rolling the dice and hoping to get lucky. And it’s also very fun because you get a lot of different characters to play with. There are your fantasy characters like dwarves or paladins. But you can mix that with the gunslinger or an artificer. And now they even have Marvel sets that you can play with as well.

Marvel Champions

Speaking of Marvel, this transition was not intentional, we have Marvel Champions. Marvel Champions, again, can be played with more. But I like Marvel Champions best as a solo or two player game. Why, too much downtime others. Marvel Champions is a game for the person who wants to play as a super hero and feel like their hero. There are other superhero games out there, but Marvel Champions, for me, captures it best.

In this game you try and stop a villains scheme. To do that, you need to be your super hero self, but when that happens they stop scheming. Instead their now trying to just knock you out. That means that you need to spend time going between being your super hero version, let’s say Spider-Man, and your alter ego, Peter Parker, so you can heal up. But when you are Peter Parker, you don’t want to blow your cover, so you can’t stop their scheming.

It’s a cool balance that brings in the super heroes moves as well as allies for them. I really like that balance of pushing to be the best hero and getting in their and just punching the villain down. But then also letting them work on their scheme so you can heal back up. It’s a good thematic element to the game.

Magic the Gathering (or other TCG)

This one is a bit of a catch all and the example I give is one that I don’t mind at all playing at higher player counts. Magic the Gathering is a great trading card game. A lot of trading card games, I’ll put Lorcana and One Piece on this list as well, are two player games or best that way.

Most of them give you pretty simple objectives that might be similar in a few ways. It’s either reach a certain number before your opponent or take out your opponents health fastest. But there’s too much to go over for all of them, so I’m going to drop some links in for you to checkout.

Magic the Gathering

Lorcana

One Piece

Spire’s End: Hildegard

This is another game that can be a two player game or a solo game. It’s meant to be a solo game, but I think that it’d be very good two player as well. It’s kind of a choose your own adventure story experience. But done through a deck of cards that plays through chapters. Spire’s End is also another solid option for this.

The big reason that I think this would work is that I like my story games as a two player experience. Not all the time, but it’s very fun to share a good story with other people. Spire’s End Hildegard gives you a lot of story with some dice rolling and that’s basically the game.

This is going to be a good game if you and the person you’d play it with, or the people who would play it together really like story driven games. And the aesthetic, while unique, really makes the game pop. It’s what drew me to the game, and for a light, mechanism wise, but fun story wise game, Spire’s End Hildegard really works.

Ascension: Deck Building Game

Finally, another game that you can definitely play with more. But I’ll say this about Ascension, I really like it at two. Deck building games generally move pretty quickly if you know what you’re doing. So you can play with more people who know what they are doing. But when you have multiple people who are needing to learn every card, it can drag on.

That is much less of a problem at two players. The game goes fast with two players in a good way. You get your turn, you play out your cards and you go. Even if you need to double check everything, the downtime isn’t that bad.

I think you could substitute other deck building games in here as well. Dominion would be another one that I think works well, or Aeon’s End. Basically anything that keeps the game moving in terms of deck building. I think that Ascension is more interesting than Dominion and simpler than Aeon’s End which is why it’s the one that makes my list. But if you want to go cooperative, Aeon’s End is a great choice.

Final Thoughts

There are a number of two player games that I need to play. I own 7 Wonders Duel, the most popular two player only game and I just need to get it played. So I don’t think that you can go wrong with that.

I also think that there are a lot of games that work well at multiple player counts. You can see that on my list I have a number that can play at higher counts. But they might be best at two or, often times, they just work really well at two. So if you don’t want to lock yourself into a two player games that only play two, there are still a ton of good options out there.

Do you have one of those that sounds the most interesting to you? Is your favorite game to play with two on the list?

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The Nerd Who Likes to Drink – Get them an engraved beer glass or whiskey tumbler. You can find all sorts of interesting ones out there, and they aren’t extremely expensive. They are also better options than a shot glass, because most people have too many shot glasses from college. I have two stein style beer mugs that Kristen and I got at ConVergence with Lord of the Rings theme on them. But you can find them on Etsy with almost anything on them. If you want the rebel symbol from Star Wars, or the Vulcan salute, you can get that. This falls into that category of things that are a bit more unique. Or unique booze, that always works too.

Board Gamer Bling – Now, this is slightly different than the next one RPG’er Bling, but basically, help a person bling out their board games. There are a lot of games that use cardboard coins, help them start replacing that money by getting them some metal coins for the game. There are a ton of shops that make awesome coins. Or, maybe they play a resource management game where there are different types of resources, you can probably find little molded or 3D printed pieces to replace those. Little things like that can elevate a gaming experience. Or, maybe a game has meeples in it, you can get custom meeples of the various colors, so that the game has a little bit more of a fun factor to it.

RPG’er Bling – If this was like board gamer bling, I’d just say look back at the RPG list. However, I am going to add in some apparel stuff this list or little fun things. You can get things like D20 (twenty sided dice) earrings that are different, and there is even one place where you can get some glow in the dark ones. There are also necklaces that have D20’s or various dice hanging from them that you could go with. And, tons of goofy RPG related t-shirts that you could consider as well. In the RPG listed, we did some table bling, this time, the suggestion is bling out the player or the DM.

Collector’s Sets – This is really for anything nerdy, and I talked about it in fantasy, while people might have a version of something that they like, they probably won’t, since they already own it, go with the nicer version. So you can do that for them. This can be for books or movies or whatever it might be. But a hard backed version of a book, or the cool collectors version of a movie that comes in a nicer case or with something extra, that is fun. For, for video games, you can sometimes get a larger release pack that comes in a cool case or comes with a figure. With a video game, I would try and get a game the person doesn’t have, as compared to books or movies which can replace the old version on the shelf. I’ve found that people tend to go back to video games as much or at least display them as much. Now, that might be who I hang out with, but that’s my recommendation.

Manga/Anime – This one is pretty simple, if they have the anime or love the anime, consider getting them the manga. If they love the manga, consider getting them the anime. You can also look at what anime or manga that they like and find things adjacent to that, but it can be tricky with some o books or shows, because they are pretty unique.

Experiences – There are plenty of experiences that you can give a person when it comes to nerdy things. A lot of escape rooms have a nerdy theme to them. If the person is traveling or lives near a theme park, you could give them the experience of Star Wars or Hogwarts. Or maybe there is a convention that they’ve wanted to go to locally or not, you could pay for a ticket into the convention. Know the persons means to get to go and do these things, but experiences, as I’ve gotten older, are often just as good a gift as something that will just sit around. Now, that isn’t to say that there aren’t some things that people just really want to get, I know that there are some things that I want, but experiences can be something fun and different. Even if it’s just setting up a gaming time where they get to pick all the games and you’ll play games you normally wouldn’t with them, that would be a great gift that is cheap.

There are a ton of nerdy things that you can get for people or experiences that you can share with someone around the holidays. And, obviously, these aren’t tied into Christmas, they work great for birthdays, anniversaries, or maybe the person just needs a pick me up, and you can do that for them.

Hopefully these lists have helped jog some ideas for you for the nerds in your life.

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Just Ask: This is the simplest and most obvious solution. If the person you are buying the gift for is a close friend, significant other, or family member, it is okay to just ask what they might like for the holidays. Even if you get them something directly off their list, you know they are going to appreciate it, because they asked for it.

Pay Attention: Believe it or not, people talk about what they like or find cute or fun. With Kristen, I try to pay attention to what she is interested in, so that when I’m looking for a gift, I have some good ideas to choose from, or when my parents come asking what they can get her, I can give them a list, even without asking Kristen. Kristen is into books, knitting, crocheting, writing, drawing, and baking, and if I’m paying any attention, I notice that she has dropped dozens of hints throughout the year (and when I say hints I mean that she’s said she likes something, not that she’s indicated I should store this information away and remember it).

Be Willing to Ask the Experts: When I was getting into comic books and wanted to start reading them, I was very overwhelmed at first. I knew that I wanted to read them, and I knew the stories and characters interested me, but I didn’t know where to jump in. So I asked people what comics they thought were interesting, I researched online to see what the experts were saying were the best ones, and I talked with the people in my favorite comic shop. Many of them were a wealth of information and would recommend new stuff that was coming out that I hadn’t heard of before. The same goes for when I go into a board game store; many of the employees know much more than I do, and are more than willing to offer suggestions and help explain a game I don’t know.

Ask Friends: This is the non-threatening version of asking an expert. Your friends, whom you already know quite well, can be a fount of information when it comes to nerdy ideas. For example, a couple of former co-workers of mine are still the people I go to when I’m bouncing an idea for a Magic: The Gathering deck around in my head. And they have helped me find out about games, movies, and books that I wouldn’t have otherwise.

Mainly, it is about being willing to learn. When you want to find someone a nerdy gift, reach out to the people around you and research on the internet (just be careful not to get lost down a rabbit hole) for a lot of amazing ideas. And be willing to take risks — for example, if someone you know likes Lord of the Rings, be willing to give them another fantasy series that they haven’t read before. Or if you like a certain movie and you have a friend who likes most movies that you like, be willing to go out on a limb and give it to them to try. Really, in the season of giving, it is often the thought that counts as much as a gift. And, on the opposite side, if they don’t end up liking the gift, don’t take it personally. Maybe they don’t get as much enjoyment out of a television series as you do, but they still like you, and that is the important part.

So, happy gifting, and have a great nerdy holiday!

I leave you with a quick-pick list of nerdy comics to get your gifting creativity flowing:

• Hawkeye (Matt Fraction)*
• Saga (Bryan K. Vaughn)*
• Civil War (Marvel)
• Blackest Night/Brightest Day series arc (DC)
• Powers (Brian Michael Bendis)*
• Daredevil (Brian Michael Bendis)
• Marvel Secret Invasion
• American Vampire

*Not for young readers.

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Never fear! There are other ways to show the nerdy love without having to wade through waves of humanity, risk your neck on the open road, or spend all your hard-earned moolah. Yes, I’m talking about crafting!

“But handmade gifts are so lame!” you say. “Nobody ever wants that crap!” To which I say, you’re probably thinking that way because of bad memories associated with the macaroni portraits and construction-paper-based oddities of our youth. But I encourage you to dream a little bigger. With resources like Pinterest and Ravelry and the scads of great crafting blogs out there, crafting is easier and more accessible (and less corny) than ever. Even novice crafters can find something that appeals to them and learn new skills to create a finished product they’re proud to give to someone.

One of my favorites for this purpose is crochet and knitting. There are patterns for anything you can think of, from Doctor Who scarves to plushies to cat-ear hats. And even if you’ve never knit a stitch in your life, there are plenty of step-by-step videos on YouTube for any technique you could wish to learn. Best of all, many patterns online are free, or a few bucks at most.

If crochet and knitting aren’t your thing, you could try your hand at some old-fashioned artwork. Make some fan art of your friend’s favorite character, or do a hand-lettered or calligraphy version of your brother’s favorite book quote. If you’ve got a steady hand and a good eye, there are tons of possibilities here!

If neither of those are hitting the right notes for you, there’s lots of options for constructable gifts. Build a dice tray for your favorite D&D player, make comic book magnets, or put together a hobbit hole terrarium!

And of course, there’s the ever-popular food gift! Bake some Star Wars sugar cookies, make a batch of lembas bread (my personal favorite), or put together a kit for making a nerdy cocktail (Sonic Screwdriver, anyone?).

These are just a few ideas to get your creative DIY juices flowing. But don’t stop here! Go forth and find what inspires you, or make something up from scratch. We’d love to hear about your ideas — share about your handiwork in the comments! Or if you’re not making handmade gifts this year, tell us about the best handmade and/or nerdy gift you’ve ever received.

Happy giving!

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