What to buy a gamer who has too many games? Non-game gift ideas for gamers

TTRPG fans and board gamers are notoriously hard to buy for. What do you get the tabletop gamer who already has everything?

While it seems like the obvious choice would be to just get them a new game, that’s usually not the best answer.

In this article, I suggest a number of great gift ideas for board game lovers and roleplayers that aren’t about just buying them yet another game.

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The problem with buying a new game for the hobby gamer in your life is that, for the most part, they pick up any games they want throughout the year. Plus most tabletop gamers have a lot of games and it can be really hard to know what they have and don’t. Also, if they don’t own a game already, maybe there’s a good reason they haven’t picked it up yet.

While yes you could go check their Board Game Geek wishlist, sneak a peek at what they have saved in their carts at their favourite online store, or ask around at the FLGS they usually shop at, a much better solution is to pick them up something gaming related that isn’t just another game.

These include gifts like board game accessories, upgrades for the games they own, apparel, swag for their favorite publisher or podcast, and more.

Below you will find a list of non-game gift ideas for gamers that is broken into a number of different sections. I tried to group things in a logical way though there is some overlap.

Box Inserts – We love box inserts. The Bellhop’s first law is that the best games in your collection are the ones that actually get played and one of the things a good box insert will do is to improve set up and take down time, which can lead to a game getting played more often.

The best box inserts go a step above and even improve games during play by offering better ways to sort and hold components, trays that you can pass around between players, upgraded components, and more.

A box insert for your gamer’s favourite game is a great gift. Even better would be one for any game they mentioned has a long set up time or is difficult to put away. If you hear them say “I wish we played this more!” or “I love it, but it’s hard to get to the table.” that game could be the perfect candidate for a box insert.

Box inserts are also great for games with lots of expansion boxes that each take up a lot of space. Often an insert lets you fit all of a base game and it’s expansion into one box. This gives the gamer you are shopping for one of the best gifts ever, more space on their shelves for more games!

There are a number of different options when it comes to box inserts. Foam inserts have been popular with miniature gamers for years. Feldherr offers a good mix of this style of insert, with Battle Foam being the leader in the industry.

Miniature Market recently started carrying Game Plus products which are puck foam trays and cases. These are great because you can customize them to fit components of all shapes and sized.

Foamcore inserts are less generic and generally made for specific games. These comes from companies like Folded Space and Insert Here. The biggest advantage of foamcore is that it is light and cheap, and easier to assemble and work with than other options.

Wooden inserts are sturdier and generally better looking than foamcore. Some wooden inserts are works of art and many do more than just hold your components, offering in play enhancements. Some of our favourite wood board game inserts come from E-Raptor, and Tower Rex.

Finally we have plastic box inserts. The industry standard for plastic trays comes from Game Trayz, and it’s becoming more and more common for games to come with their inserts already included. Over the last few years they have shifted their entire business model to making custom inserts for publishers. So, really, it’s probably not a great place to find a gift.

However, where you can find a lot of plastic inserts for gifting is on on Etsy. Pretty much all of these will be 3D printed. One awesome thing about this is that if you own your own 3D printer, many of the shops also sell the STL files for very reasonable prices.

What better gift than a new box insert that you printed yourself?

Component Upgrades – A great gift for a gamer who doesn’t need new games is an upgrade for a game they already own and love.

As hobby gaming has grown so has a secondary market of people making upgrades for games. Publishers themselves have gotten into the act as well, with many offering upgrade packs and deluxe editions of their games.

Today you can find component upgrades everywhere. Things like custom meeples, clay resources, replacement parts, metal coins, poker chips that are designed specifically for board gamers, bennies, health trackers, player trays, and so much more.

Meeplesource is one of the best-known and most well-established companies offering board game component upgrades. They do a ton of custom silk screened meeple and resource upgrades, metal coins, and even carry some “official” game upgrades. You can check out their store or find Meeplesource on Amazon. 

Another great place to look for official upgrades is the Board Game Geek Geek Store. We were particularly impressed by their GeekUp upgrade sets.

Next I want to recommend Levity Games who sells through Etsy. This store features adorable stickers to put on your wooden components and meeples. All of the artwork is done by board game designer Ammon Anderson, who’s game Gnome Hollow is taking the board game world by storm.

Or, if you know the gamer you are shopping for is into games from Asmodee, stuff from Fantasy Flight and Edge then you need to look at Gamegenic’s gaming accessories. They have a mix of high end generic and game specific upgrades.

I personally love browsing Etsy for board game bling. That’s where I found my Terraforming Mars overlays, and I have been very tempted by a number of Gloomhaven scenery sets.

There’s stuff out there for TTRPG players as well. Consider picking up a set of metal Fate Tokens for your Fate GM or some Turn Tracker Cards if you play a game using popcorn initiative.

One of the coolest things you can possibly do with an RPG book is to get it rebound at Geekify. How impressed would your GM be if you could somehow steal their core book for a bit and come back with it all prettied up?

Neoprene mats – While I used to find it odd that CCG players started using mouse pads and other mats when playing I’ve grown to love playing games on a good neoprene mat. Not only do they protect your cards and components from whatever may be on the table you are about to game on they also make things much easier to pick up.

Good mats do even more than this though, they actually improve the gameplay by featuring thematic artwork, giving you places to put things, or acting as the actual game board. You can also find mats with maps for RPGs and wargame scenery as well.

We’ve seen some really nice mats from Gamegenic, like this Twilight Imperium 25th Anniversary Game Mat or this Marvel Champions Game Mat. Another great example is the two sided Fantastic Factories Playmat from Friendly Skeleton, where one side is for solo play, the other is for multiplayer, and it includes game reference info right on the mat.

If a games publisher doesn’t offer an official game mat you can take a look at the files section for that game on BoardGameGeek, and then use a site like ArtsCow to print your own.

Generic mats can also be useful, and are available in various sizes and patterns. Things like a star map for sci-fi games, or a grassy fields mat for wargames can improve the experience when playing a wide range of games.

We personally picked up a plain black mat that is useful for protecting our games, helping to keep components in place, and making cards and tokens easier to pick up. If you want something a little more deluxe, Board Game Tables (aka Allplay) has a Thick Super Cushioned Stitched Edge Water Resistant Playmat that offers extra strength and longevity.

For RPG fans consider getting a mat showing an overland map of your GM’s campaign world of choice or a blank mat with a grid for drawing maps as you play. Companies like Inked Gaming specialize in neoprene mats and Game Toppers has branched out from not just making tables but also making mats for them.

Overall there are a ton of different styles of game mats out there and it’s worth shopping around to find the perfect one.

Dice Towers and/or Trays – I don’t know many gamers who don’t love dice (and who don’t have a ton of them). While TTRPGs are the main games you find that require a ton of dice there are plenty of dice based board games out there.

If the gamer you are shopping for loves their dice or their dice based games, consider picking them up a dice tower or dice tray.

For dice towers you have a ton of options. If you want something portable and easy to bring out to game night check out these Fold Flat Leather Dice Towers. For something a bit less portable, but that still folds up, there are a number of laser cut towers like this Cthulhu Themed Wooden Dice Tower.

If you want more of a centerpiece, there are a number of gorgeous heavy duty resin and 3D printed towers out there. We are particularly fond of this Forged Dice Co. Dragon’s Keep Dice Tower (it even lights up!).

Etsy is filled with all kinds of dice towers, all of the types mentioned above and more. There you are going to find the most unique items as well as items themed towards specific games.

Moving on to dice days. Our favourite trays are the PU leather trays from Easy Roller Dice. We have one of the larger ones with a staging area for the dice and my gaming group loves it. It’s great for any game where you are building a dice pool and have to pass the dice between the players. It’s been great for our games of Star Wars Edge of the Empire and board games like Sorcerer.

We’ve also been tempted by snap dice trays that lay flat when not in use. I know people who buy sets of these for specific games and keep them in the game boxes.

I know some people also like Wooden Dice Trays, for an example take a look at this Wooden Rolling Tray with Dice Vault. There are also some really over the top designs, like this Castle Dice Rolling Tray.

For unique and artsy trays I am, of course, going to again recommend Etsy.

Component Organizers – One of the most useful things any gamer can have is some way to manage game components at the game table.

Personally, I like to use wooden bowls. Especially shallow ones with wide bottoms that won’t easily spill like these Wooden Calabash Bowls. You can often find vintage ones at thrift stores and they are something we are always on the look out for when out thrifting.

We have a number of friends who use silicon muffin cups. You can get them very cheap and they are pliable enough that you can fold them flat and toss them into your game boxes. Collapsible Board Game Storage Bowls are also very popular, these lay flat but snap together in the corners to hold components.

Etsy has a number of specially designed component cups with spouts for easily putting bits away when the game is done. A number of companies offer a variety of different plastic component trays, like these nice Two-Cell Boxes and these Round BitsBins. The advantage of these is that they have lids, so they are also great when packing up a game at the end of the night.

Be sure to think outside the box. An organizer doesn’t have to be for games to be useful for gamers. Nailpolish organizers are a great gift for a miniature gamer and are much cheaper than custom racks for holding paint pots. While Bead Organizers, on the other hand, could be great for storing small components.

Then of course there’s Plano, and other tackle boxes, which folks have been using to organize their game components for years.

Gamer Luggage – While some of us have our own game rooms at home, many gamers play elsewhere. Whether that’s at a friend or family member’s house, at the local game store, at a local board game meet-up, at work, or somewhere else, the one thing that stays the same is that they need to transport their games around.

So, depending on where they play, a great gift for the gamers on your shopping list might be a better way to transport their games.

A very reasonably priced option (probably because it’s not designed specifically for games) is to pick up a Cajon Box Drum Bag. These are great for holding a solid stack of Ticket to Ride sized game boxes.

Then there are the official gamer backpacks, with something for pretty much every type of gamer or game. The Allplay/Board Game Tables Bag is really nice and has the bonus of laying horizontal. Guilt Free Gaming’s Ultimate Board Game Backpack has all kinds of different pouches and storage areas, including a spot for a laptop, and even includes a detachable dice tray.

There are also backpacks out there designed specifically for TTRPG players. Like this Enhance RPG Travel Bag with spots for books, miniatures, and even rolled up maps. While that’s great for DMs, players may be more interested in something like this RPG Organizer Case that has enough space for a book or two, character sheets, dice, mins and other accessories.

For the card gamers, I have to strongly recommend the Quiver card carrying case (you can read my Quiver review to find out why). Quiver also makes the Citadel Deck Block for duelling card game players, it’s one of the most durable deck boxes out there and it also includes a spot for dice, counters, etc.

I can’t mention card game accessories without pointing you to GameGenic. They have teamed up with Asmodee to create some of the best card game protection products on the market and are also the main supplier of branded accessories made for specific Asmodee Games like Star Wars Unlimited.

An unbranded option for gamers who have a lot of small box board games and card games is a photo case, which is great for transporting a bunch of games at once.

Another thing to consider is keeping everything together and in place when it’s being transported. For that I recommend checking out box bands. I’ve also had a number of people over the years recommend Hugo’s Amazing Tape.

For the miniature gamers out there you are going to want to look for things that will both protect their minis and also allow them to transport a lot of them all at once. Some great options include Hard Shell Figure Cases, Pluck Foam (which can be combined with other transport methods), and full on Miniature Gaming Cases from places like Battle Foam. A new trend are large miniature storage cases with trays that slide out to both hold and display your miniatures.

Dice – Every gamer I’ve ever met has agreed on one one thing and that is the fact that none of us will ever have too many dice.

Cool and unique dice used to be hard to find, but that’s not the case anymore. Fancy dice are everywhere. You can easily find Metal Dice, Hollow Dice, Dice with Real Flowers and Mushrooms in them, unusual RPG Dice with odd numbers used in specific games (like Dungeon Crawl Classics), mystery dice sets, and so much more.

Personally we really dig the Gun Metal Dice Sets at Easy Roller Dice. If you do get something like this consider also getting a dice tray as the heavy metal dice can damage your table. We also really like the unique patterns on Q-Workshop’s dice, though do watch that the patterns aren’t too busy to make out the numbers (we’ve found some to be lovely, but indecipherable).

You should also look out for dice for specific games. Every Loremaster can use another set of The One Ring Dice, and the new Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game is going to be way better if you’re playing with their custom Marvel Multiverse 616 Heroic Dice Set.

Etsy is filled with custom dice of every style, shape and material. If you are really looking for something special consider a set of gemstone dice. 

Merch and Other Gaming Swag – My last recommendation may be a bit self serving but I do think that a great gift for a gamer can be merch for their favourite podcast, publisher, game, streamer, YouTube channel, or other gaming related swag.

Personally we’re big fans of coffee mugs, but there’s a huge variety of swag out there. Shirts, hoodies, glassware, jewelry and so much more.

Of course I need to recommend that you check out The Tabletop Bellhop Merch Store. We’re running a limited time offer right now where you can get free US/CAN shipping on any order of over $40 for the rest of 2024.

I will also say that we’ve bought from Geeky Goodies in the past and been very happy with their stuff, and we’ve picked up a number of Offworld Designs shirts in the past, usually at cons.

Perhaps you want to pick up something really unique, like a Dungeon Map Shower Curtain from our friend Dyson Logos. Or you can go all out and order some custom artwork. For that, let me suggest Bryan Weiss from RPG & Co who is the one who designed our now iconic Bellhop Bell logo and other branding.

There you have some of our strongest non-game gift suggestions for the gamer(s) in your life. I know I personally would love to receive pretty much anything on this list. I always love getting things that improve the games I own over just getting more games to sit on the pile of shame.

Do you have any non-game gift ideas that you would add to this list? Tell us all about it in the comments!