We are entering that time of year where everyone and their dog (or cat if you are a cat person) will be producing their Christmas gift ideas for that special loved one into board games or role playing.

Not to be one to miss a moving wagon. Here is my general advice if you want to avoid that Amazon gift certificate or store credit route at your friendly local game store (FLGS).

For that Magic the Gathering player in your life your options are really easy. Forget the myriad of Planeswalker decks, gift boxes, bundles, deck builder kits, and whatever other product your FLGS is needing to clear off the shelf. Work out your budget and buy booster packs for that special person. Usually your FLGS will have a promotion on which will be something like buy three packs for twelve pounds. Which gives you a little saving. Depending on budget and number of packs buying you could buy a variety of packs from different sets. Once you hit the £90 mark, you might like to consider getting a draft booster box instead. That’s thirty six booster packs. The current set is Throne of Eldraine, which has a fairly Tales meets Arthurian legend theme.

And although I’ve specified Magic the Gathering above I’d use this advice for any of the trading card games like Pokemon etc.

Next up that role player in your life. Slightly harder to buy for because you need to know some stuff before hand. Do you know what role playing game they play? Is it Dungeon and Dragons, Pathfinder or some other one? Do they run the game or just play the game? With that information you can be a bit more specific in the present you buy.

If that special person runs the role playing game, a generic games master screen is a good idea. There are some basic ones, and there are some really lavish expensive ones available. Battle maps that can be used with dry or wet erase pens, dungeon tiles, plastic or cardboard standees of characters and monsters are also good presents to get. Once again let your budget decide for you.

If you know the role playing game they play I’d look at third parties producing accessories for that system, such as Galeforce 9 with their reference card packs for spells and monsters for Dungeon and Dragons. There are some official card packs for Pathfinder. Even FFG produce official ones for Genesys.

For both types of player fancy ornate notebooks with fantasy or sci-fi art on are always an option.

A good general gift idea if you can’t get answers for the above are dice sets. You can never have enough dice as a player. You will be amazed at the variety of dice available. However when you buy a set make sure it has a d4,d6,d8,d10,d12 and d20 as a minimum. If you are confused by what those numbers mean, they refer to the number of sides on the die. The d just stands for die. So d4 is a four sided die. Just as there is an almost unlimited variety of dice available, there is also a wide range of prices as well. With the metal dice usually being the more expensive. But you can find sets that fit most budgets.

Another general idea and this would also be an option for the next category of gamer we will look at are dice towers and dice trays. Like dice there is an incredible variety to chose from. And there will be dice trays and towers to fit most people’s budgets also.

Finally let’s look at that board gamer who somehow has managed to take over half the spare room with their cardboard boxes. I’d generally avoid buying this person a game or expansion, unless you really know that they want the game/expansion you are thinking of buying.

You could go with the dice tower and dice tray suggestion above. I’d continue that theme and go with accessories that enhance or make the gaming experience more enjoyable. Such as a neoprene playmat for the table. It protects the table and the game being played. Or little trays/bowls to put tokens in while playing. You’d be surprised how useful these are.

If you know their favourite game (and they own it), many popular games have upgraded components available from third parties. Or if you know that they really like a particular artist you could look into getting a piece of art from that artist. Or maybe a print of the game box art made.

I’m not sorry I didn’t link to specific items, and not handing things to you on a plate, so you don’t have to think. This was meant to stimulate ideas, or promote specific items. Which by the time you went to buy them may well have sold out anyway. The above seemed the most sensible option. I hope you found the ideas useful.