Christmas can be tough financially. This year many stores are hosting empty shelves and board games are sitting in shipping containers. Perhaps you would like to treat your board gamer to a game but they are to expensive or not available. These five ideas will help you give them a meaningful or helpful game gift for little to no cost.
Check out the rest of our 2021 board game gift guide here.
Custom RPG Accessories
Role playing games are immersive and fun. Break out your creativity and add to the fun by creating something original. You could create a custom character sheet with art of the player's character. For the hardworking GM a custom hand drawn map would be well received. Need some help getting started in map drawing? This video can help you get started.
Make a Book
Have you had an incredible game experience this year? Maybe you had a dungeon crawl that had a shocking turn of events, a train heist that did not go according to plan, or a flight through space that ended in hysterics. Relive the magical moment by writing a short story, poem, or book. Creating a picture book allows you to bring the tale to life with images that put your gift recipient right back into the story. You can bring out the details and have the chance to enjoy the experience again.
Small Game Expansions
Many board games have very small game expansions available. We recently picked up the cats and dogs expansion for Fort and a dice expansion for Railroad Ink. King of Tokyo has great small expansions with many to choose from. Some game expansions are simply in a blister pack like for Star Realms. Not only will they be cost effective, they will also not take up more space on the already crowded game shelf.
Card Sleeves
Protect the games they already have with some card sleeves. Frequently played games with cards can wear out before you tire of them. Card sleeves keep the cards safe and clean. Our personal favorite are the ultra pro pro matte sleeves. We get colored ones for some games that could really use the color coding. Mostly we like the clear ones. They are matte on one side and gloss on the other. They are very durable and shuffle really well.
Game Bits Cups
Keep the game pieces from scattering across the table with some tiny cups. They keep the game organized as you play and save some table space too. Any tiny cups will do so find ones your gift recipient will enjoy. Ours are little metal sauce cups and they work great. 6-8 cups will be perfect for most games.
You can find all of our budget gaming posts here.