I know we’re a bit late on this, but it felt like a good idea, so here’s a short one anyway. Perhaps we’ll have one in good time next year. (No, we won’t.)
Note that we are not getting any money for any of the links. They might not be the best sources, but they were the ones I found first (well, in some cases they are the only sources). Anyhow, do your own research if you want the best deal.
For the RPG-fan Who Doesn’t Mind PDFs
Bundle of Holding does charity drives. They give away PDFs in exchange of pretty low donations. They have weekly campaigns. Some of them are barely good, some of them are amazing. Like this week. For just $8.95 you’ll get:
- Breaking the Ice
- octaNe: premium uNleaded
- The Shadow of Yesterday
- Trollbabe
- Universalis
Yes. For just $8.95. And its partly for charity. If you go for the bonus content, the price will be around $20 (depending on what previous people have donated) and this time around includes
- Dogs in the Vineyard
- Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen
- InSpectres
- My Life with Master
- Polaris (and The Wish We Wish to Night)
- Puppetland
- Sorcerer (Annotated Edition)
That’s pretty good value for the price. Just remember that only part of the donation goes to charity, so if giving to charity is your goal, do it directly.
Dice Tray
When roleplaying, the table will often become congested with stuff. Papers, snacks, drinks, dice, pens, whatever. So, you often use some sort of tray to roll into. Well, here’s a product for that: Dice Tray. Lauri uses one. (Note that Lauri is obsessed with dice anyhow, so you don’t necessarily need similar toys.)
Its also something you can store your dice in. It might seem flimsy, but it holds together securely.
And if you want something to fill it with, but don’t care much for the quality, there’s always The Chessex Pound of Dice. I’m not sure they’ll all fit in there, but you can try. They are factory-second, and the assortment is pretty random (I’ve bought a couple and the amount of d4s was very low, while there’s enough d10s and d20s for a lifetime, others have reported very different mixes of dice).
Something to Carry Your Games Around In
If you think a Bag of Holding might be a good present, ThinkGeek has you covered. I haven’t seen one live, but I’ve heard there’s easily enough room for a standard sized board game. I ordered the backpack version for myself.
If you really want to give something special, there’s always the more expensive model (more expensive is more special, right?).
MtG Alters for Those Who Want to Pimp Out Their Decks
Many are pretty poorly executed, while others are pretty unimaginative. Still others are just horrible. Then there’s some amazing ones. You can find them on eBay, but there’s also a listing at MagicCardMarket (a European site for selling your cards).
Of course, you can always try it yourself. Here’s a method for those of us, who aren’t really that good at painting. I would suggest something more subtle… Subtler is often better.
For Movie Fans
There’s a website called 366 Weird Movies and they have now come up with two yearbooks, the latest one being 366 Weird Movies 2013 Yearbook. I haven’t read it, but I did order it for myself. The movies on the site itself don’t seem all that weird, but if they really managed to find that many from the year 2013, there must be plenty of interesting stuff I’ll want to see (and probably will never find).
Other Book Recommendations
This one was mentioned by Ken Hite and Robin D. Laws on their podcast as one of the best non-RPG books for roleplayers: The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlow. Read it. An excellent book on what the official investigation of the murder failed (probably on behest of some very powerful people) to mention in the report. A nice look at politics, intrigues, and religious schisms of Elizabethan England.
Then there’s the What If? book by Randall Munroe, the guy behind XKCD. Its weirdly wonderful. He just takes strange, speculative questions and finds a serious answer, often times scaling the answer to find other interesting stuff. His degree in physics definitely comes into play, but he’s also done plenty of research on the subjects.
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