Dice

Most, if not all RPG players can never have enough dice. It’s just a scientific fact that eventually a die will have a poor session and need to be banished from being played with forever, or slightly longer. So more dice is always a good thing, and there are some really cool dice out there. If you want to keep it simple and cheaper, there are tons of interesting dice sets with more basic plastic, but you can also find stone dice or my favorite metal dice. There are even some companies where the metal dice don’t cost an arm and a leg. If you are going really fancy, the dice to get would be a single D20 (twenty sided die), but set of dice are also really nice which should come with a D20, D12, D10, D10 Percentile, D8, D6, and a D4, that is enough for someone to start playing D&D.

Dice Tray/Dice Tower

Both of these serve the same purpose, they are something to roll your dice into. The dice tray is simpler in that it’s only a tray and you can roll it into that without it thudding against the table and denting it, this is especially important for if someone has stone or metal dice as those are heavy. But it also means that you’re not as apt to roll off the table either. A dice tower does kind of the same thing. You drop the dice that you’re rolling into the tower and it has levels that it hits off of causing it tumble. It rolls down into a tray that’s attached to the bottom. The best part of dice towers is how cool they look. I have one that looks like a tree with some birds in it, definitely a unique/fun thing to roll dice in, and there are so many different possible designs to choose from out there for dice towers.

Custom Mini

Now, a custom miniature sounds expensive, but thanks to the likes of Hero Forge, they really aren’t that bad. Hero Forge is a site that lets you custom design a mini based off of the body parts that they have built into the system that you can then get 3D printed. So if you’re in a game with someone that you’d be giving a gift to, this is a fun option. And if you know of someone who has a 3D printer (or have one yourself) you can just print it off from an STL file which you can buy which makes it even easier. I really like this idea for a serious RPG player because it’s something that feels like it’s very thoughtful and something that a person might not do for themselves, because while the prints are a reasonable price, that doesn’t mean that they are $10, or less, like a generic mini.

Book Bag

Might not be something that is needed right away, or maybe you play digitally, but a book bag is really useful. It gives the player or the DM a way to carry around whatever books they have really easily versus having a stack in their arms. You can probably find good nerdy ones related to D&D, RPG’s or just fantasy in general that would work well. A dedicated bag is nice, from my personal experience, because it means that I don’t have to pull anything out ever if I’m always taking it to one person’s place, or if we rotate whose place it is at, I could easily see leaving stuff in there between sessions.

Notebook

Now, a notebook sounds odd, and depending on who it is for, it might be more or less useful, but there are some notebooks or binders that are made for either the player or DM. And as the DM, if they are like me, they might generally do more of their planning a notebook than say, on a computer. But the ones for players are very cool because you can have your character sheet in there, you can keep track of spell and uses, as well as it gives you a spot to take notes for the session. So it’s a one stop shop for your character. I really like the concept, and I have one that is a binder and leather bound for when I eventually am a player.

Obviously there are other things as well you could consider. There are books that are coming out fairly often for all of the main systems so you could grab them the newest one that has come out, but there is some risk in that as normally I’ll just grab the newest books right away as someone who has all the DM sort of books, minus the adventures. You could also do a new system for a game, but depending on what your group plays that might be more or less useful.

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Core Books
I say you don’t have to get just books, but definitely consider getting just books. If you know someone who has been playing D&D for a while, as a player who doesn’t have the monster manual and they’ve been talking about getting into DM’ing, get them a monster manual or the Dungeon Masters Guide. Same can be said for someone in any of the game systems. If they don’t have one of the core books, consider getting it for them. Or if you have someone who is playing Star Wars: Force and Destiny consider getting them the Edge of the Empire core book.

Extra Content Books
Hey, more books, but we’re just getting the different types of books out of the way, one more to go after this one. When I say extra content books, also known as splatbooks, I’m talking about things like Volo’s Guide to Monsters or Xanathers Guide to Everything. These provide extra content for your game and might be world or class specific in games, but they aren’t going to give you a specific game that you have to play. Most game systems the longer they are around get more of them, so consider buying your DM extra content, or find the books that have player classes and get those for players in the game.

Campaign Books
Final type of book, these are the pre-generated campaigns that DM’s can run. These I would say be most careful when getting. If the DM you are getting it for runs games in their own world or in an existing world but their own stories, they might be pretty improv heavy or like to come up with their own stories in a very specific way. So a campaign book might not be as useful for them. However, maybe that’s what your group runs, if that’s the case, go ahead and find one that your DM doesn’t have, or go onto something like DM’s Guild and there are lots of things out there for campaigns (as well as other things).

Dice
Maybe your DM or player already has all of this that they want. I have yet to meet an RPG player who wouldn’t gladly take more dice. Depending on what system you use, the dice might be different, but if they are playing Dungeons and Dragons or Pathfinder, you are going to be using the standard set of dice, so look for something that has a twenty, twelve, two ten, eight, six, and four sided dice. Or if they are playing the Dragon Age RPG, some six sided dice, or for the Fantasy Flight Star Wars RPG, the specific dice for that. Dice sets are generally not that expensive, so they make nice stocking stuffers. But it could be that you want to give a nice set of dice, consider Easy Roller Dice which can be made out of metal, so it’s a really nice set. I will say, I really like my metal dice from there, and because they are heavy, they roll very with a satisfying thud.

Dice Accessories
What are dice accessories? They are things like dice trays, dice towers and dice bags. These things just add a little bit of fun accessory wise for your game. A dice tray is nice, especially if you have metal dice because those can ding up a table or are just loud on a table. The dice tower means that your dice will roll a bit more randomly as it’s just something aesthetic to drop your dice into and have them bounce down through it. And a dice bag is really nice as it helps you move around your sets of dice more easily. For the dice bag, you could also just give them a bottle of Crown Royal whiskey as that can come with a bag that a lot of people use as a dice bag.

Spell Cards
Spell cards seem extra to the hobby, you can always just look up your spells in the players handbook or whatever supplement you have spells from. But Spell Cards allow you to track what you have available a whole lot easier and what spells you might have used or not have access to anymore. They aren’t that expensive when they are in print from Wizards of the Coast, so they can make a solid stocking stuffer.

RPG Video Game
Now, this one is completely different because it isn’t part of the table, it’s something that they can do separate from their regular gaming. While there aren’t a ton of amazing RPG video games out there, in my opinion, there are some really good ones. Consider grabbing one of them or grabbing a trilogy of them like the Dragon Age games. I’m sure there are a lot of other good ones out there, Diablo III comes to mind as well, so find one that you think would match what the person likes and get it for them on the system that they have. This can be trickier though, because they might not be a big video game fan, so if they aren’t, don’t force this one, there are plenty of other good things, or there are always dice.

I’m sure there are a whole lot more things out there for RPG players. If they are doing a podcast or video stream, that opens up a whole other realm of possibilities. Just spend some time figuring out what game they play as that might change up what they want, and I’m already thinking of other things that I could have put down, so use your imaginations for that RPG gamer in your life.

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