It’s International Tabletop Day, and you probably find yourself playing a variety of games at a friends house or with some members of the family. If you are with a more dedicated group, you undoubtedly want to make the experience the best it can possibly be. Here are a few suggestions to spruce up or bolster an already great tabletop session.
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That can come in a variety of ways of course and just depends on how much money and time you want to interject into your tabletop experience. Some are relatively simple in nature, like heading to the store to grab some new dice. Why not go the extra mile though and customize your dice? If that’s not enough, you can always design your own and have them made through a third party, but…yeah, it’s a pretty slippery slope, but few will say it isn’t worth it.
For roleplaying games, any device or avenue to increase your suspension of disbelief or investment into the characters and the world is welcome. Some are fine with the standard characters, but others love to give their miniatures custom paint jobs. Others like to spruce up their terrain with painted elements, but there’s always another rung on the ladder you can climb to. Some on this list are just meant to make the roleplaying experience more inviting or less cluttered, which is a valued addition to any gaming session. Many a player has thrown the dice into someone’s Dr. Pepper or reached for their miniature only to knock the beer over onto their iPad. Seriously, any improvement is appreciated.
Others on this list are for specific games, purely optional fare that can make an already great game better. Many longstanding games have things like this, so make sure to give a look online to see what you can find. If you already play something a great deal, why not get the full experience?
Tabletop gaming is a truly social and delightful way to spend a Saturday, so here are five accessories that will make your next gaming session even better!
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Syrinscape
Any roleplaying game is filled with banter between players, with DM’s describing the setting to the band of adventurers. Any campaign could use a musical touch though, and that’s where Syrinscape comes in. The app allows you to set fantasy themed scores and sound effects to your adventure. Whether you’re in a dark temple, an underground cavern, or a vibrant city, there’s a soundtrack that can set the tone.
Synrinscape recently introduced a set just for Pathfinder, so if you’re heading to Sandpoint soon, maybe give this a try.
The official description can be found below, and you can find out more about it here.
Syrinscape is a revolutionary sound design app that adds evocative ambient background sound and a movie-like soundtrack to your tabletop gaming experience. Syrinscape conjures every aural landscape imaginable, from ethereal forests and stony shorelines to dank vermin-filled dungeons and the spooky depths of the underdark.
Syrinscape uses a powerful audio engine and complex algorithms to produce ever-changing soundscapes and rich encounter specific music. SoundSets are made up of numerous independently controllable ‘elements’, each representing a component of the audio environment. Each ‘element’ distributes randomly chosen samples into the 3D environment surrounding the listener. All this works together to create immersive sound with no annoying repetitions or patterns.
Arcknight Spell Effects
When mages and wizards come into play on the board, every group has their way of marking how and where a spell takes place. Some just use a marker to spot the cone or circle of activity, while others place dice or any other sort of marker to show the effects. Now you don’t have to work so hard to get the point across.
Arcknight offers a variety of spell effect sheets, from ice and holy to fire and lightning. They sell whole sheets of it if that is what you need, but they also sell various shapes and sizes that can cater to your characters. It features a transparent effect in the middle, with the borders showing the influence of the spell. It makes for easy marking, and there are enough varieties to accommodate most spell slingers. They’re pretty affordable as well.
You can check out their inventory here.
Dwarven Forge Scenery
Hand drawn or printed out maps will work just fine for most campaigns, but if you’ve always wanted to take your landscapes to the next level there’s only once place to go. That would be the Dwarven Forge.
Dwarven Forge makes some of the most intricately designed and hand painted gaming terrains on the market, further investing the players around the table into their adventure. Not only that, but the DM can then pull apart the current terrain and organize the pieces into a new setup, so numerous creations are available to you when you have some pieces already purchased. They are pricey, but as you can see well worth the expense.
You can view an excerpt on the creation below, and you can find out more on their official website.
Dwarven Forge was founded in 1996 by artist Stefan Pokorny, a medieval fantasy devotee — and an avid Dungeons and Dragons enthusiast. As a classically trained, professional painter and sculptor, Stefan decided to create “real” dungeon terrain that would equal his incredible 25mm tall hero figures. After many months of painstaking design, sculpting and painting, he introduced the world’s finest pre-painted miniature terrain in 1996.
Since then, Dwarven Forge has released many new sets – each fully compatible with the others, and each a new step forward in terrain design, yet maintaining a dedication to fine craft and excellent durability. These sets are built to last, and many collectors are now sharing them with their children and grandchildren.
Mice And Mystics Voiceover
Mice and Mystics is one of the most delightful tabletop experiences, with adorable characters and an imaginative world for you and a few players to explore. Part of that delight comes from the charming dialogue in the games booklet, which sets the stage for each mission. There is something that will make that even better.
The Plaid Hat Games store used to offer the Mice and Mystics Story Moments MP3 set, which held 53 mp3 recordings of the dialog and story narrated by Rich Sommer. At the moment the collection is not available through the storefront, as they have been given to the Jack Vasel Memorial Fund. They are working on a way to re-release the set, so keep your eyes peeled for another chance to grab the set.
You can find out more about the Jack Vasel Memorial Fund here.
Dice Towers
Tabletop players love their Dice, with a bag or two typically accompanying them to the table. While throwing them on the table is perfectly fine, sometimes space is at a premium when you get more than two players together. Not only that, but once you start populating the table with drinks, bags of potato chips, and miniatures, things get crowded awfully fast.
Why not then grab a decorative Dice Tower, which allows the dice to travel down and randomize while also keeping them contained once they hit the tray. Whether you like the classic wooden look with designs etched in or more robust Castle and fantasy-themed designs, there’s something that will appeal to your taste.
