A little while back, Jayden wrote in to ask a question about box inserts (You can check out Are Box Inserts for Board Games Worth It? article or listen to Episode 4 of The Tabletop Bellhop Live – Insert Tab A for our answer to that question).

In this follow up question Jayden W. asks,

What are your MUST HAVE gaming accessories?

Must-Have Board Gaming Accessory, The Short Answer:

To directly answer Jayden’s question, the only things you MUST HAVE to enjoy playing a game is the game itself, some players (or maybe just you if you are playing a solo game), and somewhere to play. None of those are things that I would consider accessories. You don’t need accessories. That said, there are probably some you want.

I am all about speeding up game set-up, getting to gameplay quickly and then being able to focus on the game while you play. To help with all three there’s nothing better than having some way to organize the game components during play. I personally use shallow wooden salad bowls for this. I started off with only two (which I had originally bought for use at SCA events) and spent many years slowly adding more to my collection as I found them. I’m up to about 12 now and that’s more than enough for most games (though not The Colonists).

What I dig about my bowls is that they look nice, they have a wide flat base so they are not easy to tip, and they are shallow so you can see into them and it’s easy to get bits out. Because they are so shallow, if you do tip one it usually just means a few of the bits will spill out and not that you dump the entire contents of the bowl.

So if you are going to pick up any kind of gaming accessory, the first thing I would pick up is something like these wooden bowls so that you have some way to store and sort game components during play.

Must Have Tabletop Gaming Accessories, The Long Answer:

As noted above, you don’t actually need any special accessories to enjoy your games, but there are some you may want. So I’m going to take a look at some of the gaming accessories I own and some I don’t and talk about what value they can add to your game night. Some of these items are definitely more useful than others and some are also way more costly than others. It’s going to be up to you and your group to make the decision on whether or not a particular accessory is worth it.

Also, I’m not going to talk about box inserts in this article as I already have an entire blog post dedicated to answering the question, “Are box inserts worth it?”.

Game Accessories to help with Component Organization:

Something to help with component organization is my number one accessory recommendation. Having your components organized not only helps speed up gameplay but can also help with set up and tear downtime.

Over the years I’ve seen a wide variety of options for sorting your game bits during play. The wooden bowls I mentioned above I found at resale shops and secondhand stores. You can also find these style of bowls on sites like Amazon but they aren’t cheap, https://amzn.to/2OPmDVowhich is why I recommend checking thrift stores.

Another sorting tool I’ve used is a muffin tin. Yes, a muffin tin. I first started using a tin to sort dice for Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, but I have also used it for board game components. The great thing about muffin tins is that they are dirt cheap. They also stack nicely, which makes them easy to store. 

What I see folks using more often than a muffin tin are silicone cupcake liners/baking cups. These come in a variety of colours, shapes, and sizes and are very inexpensive. Personally, I find them a little flimsier than I would like. I find people often spill bits out when trying to grab their pieces as the liner walls collapse at very little weight. 

If you are into chit and counter wargames you have probably seen or used a Counter Tray. These are so popular, that most wargame publishers sell them on their websites alongside the games. While designed for holding cardboard chits they will work for other thin components. I’m thinking this may be what I need for The Colonists.  One of the things I dig about counter trays is that they come with lids.

Similar to counter trays for wargames, there are a few companies out there making sorting solutions specifically designed for tabletop games. Game Trayz has their Treasure Trayz. Zen Bins has their own Two-in-one Token Trays. These are also plastic but designed to hold more and to stack for easy storage when the game is done.

My last suggestion is to check out Etsy. There are all kinds of very cool handmade component organization solutions people have come up with. Like these funnel-style bits trays specifically designed to help put the bits back into baggies when the game is done. There are a lot of game specific options available on Etsy but also generic items great for a variety of games.

Hack For Parents (or artsy types): Another option, which is a bit of a secret tip, is using the small resealable containers that air-dry clay comes in to store board games bits, both in the game box and on the table. We buy the kids a box of airdry clay and once they’ve used it all up we are left with tiny round resealable clear plastic containers that are perfect for holding board game components. 

Help for keeping board game tiles or dungeon tiles in place:

Have you ever experienced the Earthquake of Catan, when someone either bumps the table or accidentally pushes something into your Catan board and moves the tiles all over the place? This was such a common problem that newer versions of the game now come with a frame to put around the board to keep everything in place. But what if you don’t have a frame or you play other games with tile-based boards?

Shelf liner to the rescue! Of all of the game night tips I’ve shared over the years, this one is by far the most popular. It seems like every time I share a picture of a game using some shelf liner someone will comment about how brilliant it is to use this non-slip surface for gaming on.

I first started using shelf liner back in the 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons days, when I was using the licensed Dungeon Tiles to create my in-game maps. I actually bought liner in a variety of colours, so I would use blue for sea/water based maps, brown or green for outdoor maps and black for dungeons and pretty much everything else. I still use shelf liner for dungeons but nowadays it’s more likely to be for when we’re playing Gloomhaven.

An Earthquake of Catan is what first inspired me to use these shelf liner board games. Now I roll one out for pretty much any board game we play but they are most useful for modular boards and tile-laying games. I actually can’t imagine playing something like Isle of Skye or setting up Wasteland Express Delivery Service without one.

Sometimes called Drawer Liner, Non-Slip Netting, or Grip Liner you can find this stuff pretty much everywhere. You can get it at any kitchen store, hardware store, Walmart, Amazon, etc. Check your local dollar store as well. Dollarama in Canada tends to carry it on and off and when I find it I usually buy a couple of rolls.

So now that your boards and tiles are staying in place, what about the components on the boards? This next suggestion also goes back to my D&D days. For years I’ve been using Stick-Tac to hold chits, counters, scenery and more in place on my game boards. I personally use some blue stuff that I’ve had for years which I think is Fun-Tak brand. As far as I can tell there isn’t really a difference between the blue and white. The stuff I have been using, and re-using, I have had for many, many, years. Like more than twenty. So you basically only ever have to pick up one pack.

HEADS UP: If you do use stick-tac make sure you remove it before you put your game away. If you plan on leaving a game set up I also recommend removing it. There is some oil that is used in the adhesive putty that will sink in and stain your tiles over time. This does take a while, weeks, but it’s worth taking the time to remove any adhesive you use just in case.

Poker Chips for Board Games?

I don’t know what it is with board games and crappy money. People have been hating on paper money since Monopoly, yet companies continue to use it in their games. The most common replacement for paper money in games is Poker Chips. A local gamer introduced me to using Poker Chips during a public play event where we were playing Power Grid and I was hooked after just one play.

Now there are a ton of different options out there at a huge range of prices. Personally, though I’m in love with the Iron Clays from Roxley Games. These came with my Kickstarter copies of Brass Birmingham and Brass Lancashire but you can buy them separately. They are high-end chips that don’t have the usual Casino iconography on them (no card suits or d6s). Instead, they are much more generic which I really like.

Some people do like their paper money and there are plenty of other alternatives to poker chips. Actually, there are some really cool ways to replace the money in your games with things like metal and plastic coins, acrylic crystals and more.

I highlight a bunch of these options in my Money Money Money Gamer Gift Guide.

Other Board Game Upgrades:

Pretty much all of the above suggestions are things that will actually improve your games by making them easier to play, decreasing game time, helping with set up, etc.

Now this section here may not actually make your gameplay any better but it does make the game experience cooler. I’m talking about adding some bling to your games, making them more immersive or visually pleasing.

I’ve got an entire Gamer Gift Guide on Board Game Bling and I’m not going to repeat the list here. On that post, you will find fancy game mats, replacement components, light up dice, fleet movement stands, RPG tools, and more.

Just know that there are a ton of creative people with big imaginations out there making awesome things to bling out your game collection.

Game Room Upgrades:

Instead of simply improving how your board games look, how about improving how your game room looks? There are tons of ways to bling out your game room.

One of the most important things in your game room, after the actual games, is the table you are playing on. Personally, I have a nice big 8″x4″ boardroom table in the centre of my room, but what I would love is a custom game table.

There are a lot of companies now offering custom board game tables. Check out The Table of Ultimate Gaming and the huge number of options at boardgametables.com. What I like to see is that there are more options and some lower-priced options starting to show up on the market.  In particular, I have been impressed by Game Toppers which offer table tops you place over top of your existing furniture.

Something else you can do to improve your game room is to swap over to programmable LED lighting. For example, my game room is set up with Phillips Hue Lights.

These are great for being able to change the light to enhance the mood of the game we are playing. Even when just playing a strategy game, I love being able to change the lights to the “read” setting, which ups the brightness and makes colours easier to distinguish.

However, it’s when I’m running RPGs that these lights really shine. With the right app, I can have all of the lights in the room go dark, or flash bright like a thunderstorm, or I can have them flicker like a hearth fire or cycle through blues and greens for an underwater scene. You can even tie the lights into the speaker on your phone or sync them with sound effects or music.

Check out Episode 7 of The Tabletop Bellhop Live – Tech at the Table for other ways technology can enhance your game night.

So Many Awesome Tabletop Accessories:

At this point, I’ve already talked about a ton of stuff. There are truly just far too many cool gaming accessories to talk about.

I didn’t even get into transporting your games. Solutions like the awesome Quiver card carrying case, or seeing just how many games fit in a Cajon Bag. I didn’t talk about Dice Towers or Dice Trays. Dice Bags, GM Screen and lots of other RPGs items got missed. Even though I talked about game collection organization last week, I didn’t get around to talking about cube shelves for storing your board games.

Really, each of these topics could probably be their own blog post. Heck, maybe someday they will be.

For now, I hope I’ve at least given you some ideas for some great gaming accessories. While none of these is literally a Must Have, there are some, like component organizers and grip mats, that I think are pretty darn close. Then there is a slew of other stuff that is just nice to have. It’s up to you and your game group to decide exactly what you really want.

(We also discussed this topic on Episode 17 of the Tabletop Bellhop Gaming Podcast: Accessory to Gaming.)

So what gaming accessories do you own? Let me know in the comments below!