Welcome to our Gamer Gift Guide for board game designers or those thinking of designing tabletop games, including tabletop role-playing games.
Buying gifts for gamers can be hard. You never know which games they have and which they don’t. However, I don’t know many gamers who aren’t also interested in designing games as well. So how about thinking inside the box?
Here is a list of gift items that any aspiring game designer is sure to love. These are great gifts for RPG writers, card creators, layout artists, board game developers and more! Some of these items would also make great gifts for gamers looking to improve their existing games as well.
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Thermal Laminator
A laminator is the gaming tool you didn’t know you needed until you have one or you show up to game night and game with someone who owns one.
You can look forward to laminated character sheets that can be filled out with dry erase markers, plastic coated player aids listing all of the actions available to players each turn, and coasters that remind you of the table rules (like, “No Cheetos!”). Or what about paper miniatures that stand up on their own, unmounted hex and counter wargame boards that won’t warp, chits and components you don’t have to worry about spilling your beverage on, and more. There are so many awesome things you can do with a laminator!
You can get a high-end or a low-end laminator (or something that falls somewhere in between). For most people, something like the Amazon Basics 9-Inch Thermal Laminator will do.
If you want the ability to do thicker laminate sheets or sheets larger than a standard 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper you may want something fancier like the Swingline GBC Thermal Laminator Machine, Fusion 3000L.
Oh and don’t forget to pick up some Thermal Laminating Pouches as well!
Blank Dice
Whether you put stickers on them (some blank dice even come with stickers), paint them, engrave them, or figure out some other way to mark them up, blank dice are great for trying out various custom dice configurations.
Take a look at this pack of 48 16mm six sided dice or this great set of D6s in three colours with stickers.
Or for something a bit more colourful check out this set of 60 16mm D6s in ten different colours.
For RPG fans check out this set of blank black and white polyhedrals!
Blank Game Boards
Blank boards come in a variety of sizes. You can get your standard two-fold Monopoly-style board (like the Apostrophe Games Blank Game Board), or you can get a three-fold style board like the type that we usually see in hobby games (like this Folding Blank Game Board with Blue Pebble Cover).
Some of these blank game boards, like this blank game board from Apostrophe, come complete with blank board game boxes.
My personal favourite is this Four Piece Dry Erase Blank Game Board, since you can re-use it over and over again.
Board Game Construction Kits
If you want to go a step further than just picking up a blank game board, you can get a whole board game construction kit.
There are a number of these available and what you get varies by brand. For example, there is the Make Your Own Board Game Set, with pawns, cards, dice, a spinner, a sand timer, a blank box, and a blank board. Then there’s The White Box Board Game Design Workshop which was originally funded on Kickstarter. We’ve also spotted this bare bones Create Your Own Board Game Set.
To go along with any of these sets, consider picking up Make Your Own Board Game: Designing, Building, and Playing an Original Tabletop Game by Jesse Terrance Daniels.
Resource Cubes and Chits
They may not be quite as nice as wooden cubes, but the price on this set of plastic cubes from Learning Resources can’t be beat. Then again, if you really must have wood, you can pick up this set of 196 Colored Wood Cubes.
Or maybe you prefer chits. The great thing about chits is that you can put something different on each side. Here’s a set of 200 blank 1″ chits. If you don’t want circles, you can also get blank hexagons or blank squares. Or, if you prefer coloured chips to blanks, check out this 900 pack of Bingo chips!
Meeples, Pawns & Standees
The one component every modern Euro game must have is meeple. You can get a set of 100 meeple for cheap from Brybelly!
Some people prefer cardboard standees over meeple, and you can get them for a very reasonable price. Like this Hedral Value Pack of 12 – Blank Board Game Stand-up Player Pieces with Multi-Color Card Stands.
You also can’t forget about the traditional pawn. Etsy is a great place to hunt for vintage pawns at a great price. For example here is a set of 50 Vintage pawns for under $18.
Miniatures
There was a time, not so long ago, when the thought of buying minis for prototyping and playtesting would have been unheard of. That’s no longer true with the advent of 3d printing and the wild amount of cheap miniature bundles out there.
While the quality isn’t the best, check out this Galaxy Laser Team Space Figures set with 50 pieces! They may not look amazing but are perfect for testing out a new game idea.
For another option Wildspire Fantasy Miniatures has a fantasy set available that includes a huge dragon plus a ton of smaller figures and comes in a mix of colours.
You can even get preprinted miniatures at a reasonable price, like this set of 56 Painted Fantasy Mini Figures.
If you have a 3D printer there are a ton of great miniature options out there. For example, Fat Dragon Games has a full range of STL files for miniatures or Etsy is another great place to look for STL files.
Wooden Bits
A while back I found an interesting set of 250 wooden bits in a variety of shapes, each of which is in a different colour. I couldn’t help but think that these would be great for representing a variety of different resources or to track different currencies in a game.
I’ve also seen a variety of wooden discs out there like these 1.5″ Round Unfinished Wood Chips which look like they could be great for resources or currency.
There’s also a very cool set of Wooden Fantasy Meeple with stickers. There are two different sets, one for heroes and one for monsters.
Blank Cards
Index cards will work in a pinch, but when you want something a bit nicer you can grab a set of 500 Blank Playing Cards for under $10.
You can also get sets of dry erase index and flash cards, which I’ve found to be brilliant for use in RPGs but others have told me they are also awesome for prototyping. For an example take a look at these Dry Erase Index Cards.
You aren’t stuck with traditional card sizes either, check out these Blank Square Playing Cards, or these awesome Dry Erase Full Sheet Index Cards.
Printed Cards
It’s surprisingly cheap to get your own set of cards printed. I’ve personally had great luck with Artscow for this. They let you create your own deck of playing cards, using your own images, which can be great for prototyping any type of card mechanic.
Gamers and game creators alike have been using Artscow for some time. Here’s an example of Trait Cards for the Gamma World RPG created on Artscow. Artscow also has frequent sales where you can get three decks printed for the price of one.
DriveThruCards also has a ton of different pre-made card sets available for a variety of games (mostly RPGs) that include generic art and images that could be useful for prototyping.
Acrylic Tokens
Way back when I was running 4th Edition D&D regularly, I found LITKO. This is a company that laser cuts acrylic and produces a ton of tokens and counters. I’ve bought a number of their components and board game upgrades over the years.
There are now many different companies on the market offering acrylic bits, like these Food Resource Tokens for Wingspan that could easily be used for other games.
This particular set of Monster/Character tokens for RPGs seems great for playtesting any game using miniatures on a map. Being acrylic means you can easily write on them with a wet or dry erase marker.
Grab Bags
If you’re looking for a bunch of bits cheap or not sure exactly what you need a grab bag of board game pieces might be the answer. For example, check out this set of 75 game pieces for under $20.
There you have it, a bunch of our suggestions for gifts to give the aspiring game designer in your life. Do you have anything you would add to this list? Particularly if you are a game designer yourself, we would love to hear about some of the resources you use!
