Gift guides for Christmas are cool. But how many of us open presents every year, disappointed by the same ol’ thing every season. A nice shirt. A warm sweater. That box of sausage and snacks from Hillshire Farms (OK, I don’t mind finding this under the tree).
Or you find gift cards. Lots and lots of gift cards.
Two years ago, I did a geekly gift guide for old geeks. This year, I’m getting more personal and offering suggestions on how to spend the money you get from returns or gift cards. I’ve either read or played around or tinkered with everything on this list in 2018, and I found myself either buying them for myself … or putting into a post-holiday shopping cart, just waiting for a sale.
I hope you enjoy these ideas as much as I do. Happy holidays!
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Transformers collectible card game
Above: Metroplex is one big unit
One of the biggest surprises of the fall (for me, at least) was how much I enjoyed the Transformers card game. You can play it in two ways: a simplified version that just compares raw stats, and another that prizes how you build you deck, using actions and equipment like weapons to enhance your Cybertronian conscripts (hey, you’re putting together a deck and not giving these bots any choice, so they’re indeed conscripts, right?).
It’s accessible for kids and adults — my 6 year old can play it. He still has issues with Pokémon, so it’s nice to give him a card game with rules basic enough that he can grasp. It’s flexible enough that you can build decks around themes. Want to make a deck that’s all about the Insecticons? Go ahead! One starring Starscream, that most devious of Decepticons? Sure, why not! Have an all-trucks deck starring Optimus Prime? Roll out!
My favorite aspect is the art — it pulls images from the IDW comics line, which feature some of the best Transformers imagery ever created. It makes the cards shine, though I do hope we’ll be seeing original art in the future.
Dungeon of the Mad Mage
Above: One, two, Halaster’s coming for you. …
I’ve written about my love of megadungeons in my role-playing game column, and my one of my favorite of such delves is Undermountain. This is the deep complex beneath the city of Waterdeep, and it’s the creation of an insane wizard, Halaster Blackcloak, and this campaign book for Dungeons & Dragons explores these halls better than any production beforehand. It’s a fun read even if you don’t plan on running a party of adventurers through this deathtrap.
But this isn’t just about the lore and the fun. It works with an earlier campaign from this year, Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, and when you use both together, it combines for an epic campaign that takes your players from 1st level all the way to 20th level. And it’s all in (or under) one city. That’s an amazing feat.
And the artwork is pretty cool as well!
Art & Arcana: A Visual History
Above: Art & Arcana is 40 years of gorgeous D&D artwork.
One of my favorite things about Dungeons & Dragons over the years is the art — and just looking at it, but its evolution, from edition to edition, from design philosophy changes, and more important, from changes in artists and art directors. It’s a treasure trove of hundreds of images, including art never seen in the books, large canvasses, and drafts.
For someone like me, who’s been into D&D since the early 1980s, it not only chronicles a game but a life journey hand-in-hand with beloved adventure books, novels, and video games.
Hot Wheels Rocket League RC Rivals
Above: Rocket League — in real life! Kinda.
This feels like something you’d get for kids, not for yourself. But bear with me. Rocket League is one of the most enjoyable games out there, and playing it in your living room with RC cars is almost as fun.
It’s something that kids and adults alike can jump into and have fun with, and if you tire of playing car soccer, you can race the vehicles. It’s pricey, which is the one thing going against it, but once you make a few returns or use a couple of gift cards, it doesn’t feel so expensive.
Imperial Officer cap
Above: *Cue Imperial March here*
2018 is the year I stand up to my wife and get the one hat I’ve long wanted to wear on my head: a cap of an officer in the Imperial Navy from Star Wars. It’s stylish! It shows power. It’s just plain cool. And my wife has nixed it, year after year after year after year. Well, no longer!
(OK, maybe it’s not worth the wrath of my wife. But it’s still a cool hat!)
Nintendo doormat
It’s winter, so you’re going to be tracking in dirt and water for the next few months if you don’t have a classy doormat. Few items are as iconic in gaming at the Nintendo Entertainment System (or for you youngins, the Classic Edition), and it’ll give many people a smile before they come into your home this winter for a board game party, a round of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, or watching the big game.
Kings of the Wyld
Above: Kings of the Wyld is my favorite book I read in 2018.
This is my favorite book that I read in 2018. A friend of my bills it as “a book about your old D&D party,” and that’s a good plot synopsis. In Nicholas Eames’ debut novel, a band of old mercs gets back together to save one of their daughters, who went to help rescue a city and instead finds herself trapped by a siege of horrible monsters from the Heartwyld, a great wilderness where beats and disease, not humanity.
Each member of this band fills one of the standard roles in a RPG party — you’ve got the unstoppable fighter, a kooky wizard, a wily rogue, etc. But this story is anything but a trope: It shows a group of men dealing with aging, with the bonds of family, loyalty, and friendship, their loved ones, and having the courage to stand up to an unwinnable situation.
Hive Mind
Above: Hive Mind is a fantastic party game.
No, this one isn’t about mind flayers. It’s the best party game I played this year. Hive Mind is like reverse-Scattergories. Instead of trying to get the most answers no one else has, you try to get the most answers that everyone else has (the “hive mind” aspect). The person who gets the fewest correct each round drops one level out of the hive (the board looks like a beehive).
Hive Mind is at its best when you’re with a group of friends who decide to get silly with their answers and not just go with the first thing that comes to their heads. It’s even better when you’re with some of your closest buddies and believe you know how they think … and then find out their answers don’t fit that pattern.
