Games of course come with everything you need in them in order to play the game, it'd be a bit daft for them not to, however some games that are already very good, can become quite extraordinary with a few additions. Alright perhaps extraordinary is too much but you get the idea of what i'm saying. The shinnies make things better! So what to get the gamer who buy all their own games (like we tend to).
Meeples (Lords of Waterdeep)
When i think about additions that improve the game experience this is one of the first thing that come to mind. 'Lords of Waterdeep' is a worker placement that deserves the heading of cube pusher as well. When one is placing their 'workers' they are in fact pushing small wooden cubes around the board. replacing the cubes with little people shaped wooden pieces instead would add to the feel of actually managing rogues, wizards, clerics and warriors in order to complete quests rather than manipulating random resources.
Buy it:
Play Mat for Sentinels of the Multiverse
This is a co-operative superhero card game that requires nothing but the cards and a surface to play it on. however in my poking around the site dedicated to the game i found something that would improve the feel of the game considerably. It's a play mat. designated areas for each players cards the environment and enemies cards as well. It's bright, it's gaudy, it fits the aesthetic of the game perfectly!
Buy it:
Play mat
Dice Tower
Dice towers are pure bling. A dice can be rolled anywhere one doesn't even really need a flat surface. However, some people have issues controlling the roll of their dice, they see to think that in the middle of all the carefully placed meeples, cubes, and other precariously constructed structures, is the perfect place to rill their dice to see if they hit the bad guy. The answer is invariably no, but now it's time to pick up the mess that was made. Annoying. Avoidable.
A dice tower, for the most part, contains the roll of the dice and preserves that carefully lined up display pieces that you made while someone else was having a turn. When i say for the most part, sometimes they do fly astray, but then whats life without little bit of randomness?
Now the 'Buy it' list here could go on for ever ad ever, it really could, this is a popular item that can be found in pretty much any given flavour of geekery you choose. I have a friend with a Cthlulhu one for his 'Arkham Horror' game, and I had one made with the Lanister House crest on it for my husband due to his obsession with watching people screw each other in every way imaginable in 'A Game of Thrones'. (don't get me wrong i watch it too but i'm not oblivious to what it is). There are steampunk versions, I've even found a tardis one, and at one stage we even has a Dice Tower one here in this house until it got broken. So a few suggestions for finding these are:
Etsy
Fun Again Games
Litko Game Accessories
Ebay
Want to make one fr yourself? There's a bunch of ideas here: Pinterest
Virii Pandemic
Pandemic, a great game, a favourite in this house. But the virii are cubes, not terribly representative really. With that in mind these are a great way to fix that. Apart from anything they show off the rather funky looking shapes that virii have, i mean, really there's even virii plushies because they looks so oddly cool.
Buy it:
Virii
Card Sleeves -
There are those among us who are somewhat aware of the sheer amount of money that is involved in a hobby such as gaming. And as such when we buy something it is important to us to make sure that our things are protected as much as possible from damage. One of my favorite games is Dixit, and one day i had a card stick to table, when i removed said card it was damaged and from then on i had to make sure that that card was removed from the game. This made me say as it's one of my favorites I have since had the card replaced and all is well in my world of Dixit again. But my cards are no sleeved as well. As are my Sentinels of the Multiverse cards, it's a popular game in this house, used often, and not cheap.
Now LCG and CCG players already seem to understand the import of these small but in some way invaluable accessories because competitions seem to have the requirement that cards are sleeved before one is allowed to play.
However it's important to know what size of card you're buying, there is not a universal card size not even amongst those that seem like they're the same size, trust me, they aren't and that one millimeter matters. Sleeving cards also leads to storage issues sometimes cards take up twice the space when they are sleeved, so those decks might not fit in their deck boxes once sleeved, but storage is the topic of an upcoming blog entry so i'll go right to the suggestions on where to get sleeves. I'll list a few but pretty much most stores that sell games also will sell card sleeves online or brick and mortar.
Buy it:
Dixit:
Ebay
General/mixed:
Ebay
Fantasy Flight
Now a lot of these were game specific, and that's really a side effect of having favourite games, you tend to know what would make them and even better experience. Most games will have something you can add that'll make them more unique to you, and improve on the experience in some way. I have a friend who has little tiny clay hearts and brain tokens to replace the cardboard ones in Arkham horror, as well as a an alternate first player token, and Arkham Horror specific dice when the standard D6 that come with the game work just fine. I know someone who has bought little wooden hearts for their version of 'love letter' instead of using the little square cubes that come with it. it's all surface stuff, and some epople won't buy them because a game is perfectly functional without all the bling. But it's nice to have and a lovely gift to give someone if you know they have a game they love to play.
For more ideas and suggestions check this out
board game geek forum thread.
And jut because i HAVE to mention it (because I'd both love to have one and somewhere to put it if i had it) there are some more extravagant accessories that would make a game geek grin gaily.
Geek Chic Table
because really why wouldn't you?
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