Holiday Shopping Suggestions for Parents!

(Also see my post about gaming during the COVID-19 quarantine.)

The COVID quarantine does not mean an end to gaming, as it’s easy to play online and also to introduce board games and tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs) to your family! (I’m happy to individually help any parent/child/family in this regard, too.)

Below are some ideas of things to get as gifts (or just to get!) for kids who are so inclined.:

Gaming online

(Tabletop Simulator is currently on sale for 50% off until December 1.) Tabletop Simulator is a physics engine that lets you play board games with friends online who also have Tabletop Simulator. It is $20 (only $10 under the current sale), and it lets you play literally THOUSANDS of board games, the vast majority of which are free, online. You can also play “hot seat” within the same household, so that you practically can get many board games in digital form through it.

I have recently switched all my campaigns to Foundry VTT, because it has only a one-time $50 purchase fee with no subscription, and players can join the game by just using their web browser. It also greater ease of use and more bells and whistles than the others. (Also, if you have D&D books purchased in D&D Beyond, I can show you how to import purchased content into Foundry.) The disadvantage is that there is a learning curve for the game master to run it, and the GM needs to look for and install numerous Modules to make it work the way they want it to. (I would compare it to running Linux versus Windows.) I’m happy to guide someone through learning it to ease the transition that I went through! 🙂

Dungeons & Dragons

The fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons is the most successful version of D&D in its entire history. It is streamlined enough to welcome people new to tabletop RPGs, offers moderate options to make fun and unique characters, and it has all the classic D&D traditions of fighters, clerics, wizards, rogues, dragons, goblins, and demons.

If your child wants to jump straight to full the game, then these are the things to get:

The D&D Player’s Handbook has the core rules for the game, plus rules for 12 character classes and how to advance them to 20th level. This is the essential first book!

The Monster Manual is great for exciting kids about the game, as it shows the diverse and fantastical creatures that their characters can fight! It is also the essential purchase for game masters who want to run their own adventure campaigns: either ones they make themselves (“homebrew” campaigns) or adventures that you purchase, such as Curse of Strahd, Tomb of Annihilation, and many others.

The NEW BOOK that players who already have D&D are talking about is Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything! It introduces a 13th character class, the Artificer, and new options for ALL the classes in the Player’s Handbook!

Pathfinder RPG

The 2nd Edition of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game brings the character customization from PFRPG’s 1st Edition, while making it more approachable and balanced. It is great for players who enjoy making unique characters and having new abilities at every new level. Combat is challenging and tactical, and the monster design makes monsters memorable.

The Pathfinder Core Rulebook is the essential book for the game, with twelve character classes going up to 20th level, hundreds of magic items and spells. (It runs at 640 pages, but most of those are options and you don’t have to read to play; the actual rules that players need to know run about 40-60 pages.)

 

The Pathfinder RPG Beginner Box is the best way to teach yourself the game, AND it comes with everything you need to run it! It has a “Choose Your Own Adventure” solo adventure and comes with dice, game pieces for heroes and monsters, pre-made characters, blank character sheets, a rulebook, and a “game master’s” book and introductory adventure that walk you through running the game, reference cards and a full-color double-sided erasable flipmat of the intro dungeon! 

The Pathfinder Advanced Player’s Guide has a HUGE amount of more options, including hundreds of more feats for the Core Rulebook classes, four brand new classes, and FORTY archetypes that can be grafted onto any character!

Starfinder RPG

 

The makers of Pathfinder RPG also produce the science-fantasy Starfinder Roleplaying Game. It has fantasy races together androids, bug-like shirrens, mouse-like ysoki, starship battles, and sci-fi technology that merges with magic. If this excites your child, they should check out Starfinder RPG!