2017 Dungeons and Dragons Gift Guide

In case you haven’t noticed we play a lot of Dungeons and Dragons with The Heroes of Awesome and we think these are things that you need to have in your life.

Maybe you don’t need them in your life but maybe you need to give them to the role-playing gamer in your life. We’ve gone through a lot of adventures and have learned what works and what doesn’t so you can trust us.

Just so you, some of the products listed here have affiliate links to Amazon. If you pick anything up by clicking on those links then we might get a portion back to help us keep making videos, streams, and blogs so you’re helping support us.
Having said that, not all of the links are to Amazon.

We STRONGLY support our local game stores and highly encourage you to buy local when you can. Some of our links are to our store where we play, Outlaw Moon Games and Toys, and we don’t get anything from them. We just want to show them our support.

 

The 5th Edition Player’s Handbook

You can’t play Dungeons and Dragons if you don’t know the rules, and these are the rules. If you’ve ever wanted to try your hand at Dungeons and Dragons or really any role-playing game at all, this is the place to start. When we first started with The Heroes of Awesome we were playing 4th Edition, and it was fun. When we finally changed over to 5th Edition, that’s where our joy picked up. One of the best things about this rule set is that it emphasizes the rule of fun. Sure, there are play-tested rules that keep it fair. At the same time, so much of the enjoyment of playing is in making new and unique characters and setting them free in a world. These rules set your characters free. You can pick this one up from Outlaw Moon Games and Toys by clicking here.

Chessex RPG Battle Mat

I love to make my own custom maps. I have spent many an hour slaving over huge sprawling complexes, only to have the party wander off to chase a squirrel. Those are the times when I really love these Battle Mats. They roll up so they’re easy to store and if you use wet-erase markers then you can use these things forever. There are a lot of sizes but I personally like the relatively smaller size here because let’s face it, we’re always running short on space.

Nolzur’s Marvelous Unpainted Minis

There’s not a lot of point in being obsessed with maps if you’re not equally obsessed with minis. While I have my own cost-effective way to make paper minis for my adventures, there’s nothing quite like sculpted miniatures. These sets from WizKids really help because they’re relatively cost-effective and the quality is great. The sculpts are gorgeous to look at and they’re pre-primed, just waiting for you to sit down and paint a ton of kobolds. There are a ton of different sets but I’d suggest getting a few that will let you build mobs of kobolds or goblins that have 3 to a package.


All of the Dice. All of them.

I may have a slight obsession with dice. There’s just something about hearing a ton of damage dice spilling across the table that I just love. I may even have a special set of quartz dice that I only use for the Wizard Taruil. You can always use more dice. Even if you’re just loaning some for a friend. So when I found this bag of 140 dice with a guaranteed 20 complete sets of polyhedrals… well I was sold. Especially at this price point.

Dice Tower

We’ve all had that moment when you need to make a super important roll and when you toss the dice it just lands. Usually on a 1. I don’t mind 1’s as long as I know it’s random. And that’s where a dice tower comes in. I love dice towers in general. I have a good friend who has a really nice one and if you want to spend on a high quality wood dice tower then you really should. They’re great to have, even though they do take up space.

Now while I haven’t use these particular towers, I love how they look and how portable they are. You can customize the acrylic and choose between a few different designs. I would probably try to add in some felt in the tray itself but other than that they look like winners. So if you don’t want to drop quite as much money on a tower, give these a shot.

Smudge Sticks

For when your dice roll 1’s. A lot. #BreakThatCurse

Something to Carry Your Stuff In

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve shown up to play and either I or someone else didn’t have their character sheet, their mini, their pencils, or whatever. It causes stress, especially when we’re about to shoot a video or live stream for 4 hours and you don’t have your character sheet. So I picked up these folios for everyone and I think they’re great. They’re a good size for papers and The Player’s Handbook fits just perfectly. I even added a little foam to the side containers so that you can keep your mini in there safely. Sure if you have the 140 dice then they won’t fit in here. Then again you’d have that amazing dice bag so who cares.

In-Between Adventures

We can’t always have a sprawling adventure fighting huge dragons. Plus some of your friends might not play D&D but still want to hang out. That’s when you can break out this board game. It’s not actually Dungeons and Dragons, but it’s based in the D&D world and the city of Waterdeep in the Forgotten Realms. It’s a really great worker-placement game that I feel is one of the best introductions to that style of game out there. It’s simple enough to be accessible to new players while still offering a decent amount of strategy. It could also be a gate-way game to talk your friends into rolling up their own characters and playing an actual encounter in Dungeons and Dragons.

Heroes of Awesome T-shirt

Don’t forget the best of them all. Get them one of our Heroes of Awesome t-shirts so they can show the world just how awesome they are. You can pick them up from DFTBA Records, here.