Disclaimer: This Gift Guide utilizes referral links. I may have had promotional relationships with some of the business or products listed, but everything listed is done because I truly LOVE the product!
TTRPGs (Pricing Ascends from $0)
Cairn is one of my favorite TTRPG systems because it’s a great merging of two of my other favorite TTRPGs: Into the odd and Knave! It’s a classless, rules lite system that can be used to run old school and new adventures alike! It has a great community making content and is about to get a second edition! The PDF is free and the physical version can be bought for under $5
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Whitebox is a tweaked and modernized version of OD&D or the Original whitebox version of Dungeons & Dragons. The PDF is free and print versions can be found VERY cheaply. This is basically where it all began for D&D, if you have ever been curious what it was like to play back then, this is the perfect chance to give it a try! You can still find PDFs of the original pamphlets, but lets just say typesetting and layout have advanced LIGHTYEARS in terms of clarity since then!
Mausritter is is an extremely polished and very well thought out game system that builds off of Into the Odd’s in a very fun way mechanically. The theme is ON POINT and pretty much every adventure I have seen for this nails the assignment, tons of mouse puns, dramatic scale, and amazing art! This is “Pay What You Want” or PWYW and the suggested price is about $8 for the PDF. The physical version is a little harder to find since it’s print runs are bought up rather quickly.
Basic Fantasy RPG is “from scratch” attempt at recreating the old school gaming feel of the 80s, it plays like a modernized and heavily tweaked version of the B/X version of D&D. The PDF is 100% free and the physical books are extremely cheap! The system has a creative commons license if you want to make your own adaptation or official tweak and It has a big community that actively creates content and you can use pretty much any old D&D adventure easily.
Fate Core is a very adaptable and super flexible narrative roleplaying system. It can be used for pretty much any setting and any circumstance, while remaining pretty simple to pick up. The Core PDFs are currently PWYW and its never been a better time to give Fate a try!
Knave is a system for running old school fantasy RPGs without having any player classes. Instead of classes your equipment dictates your role in the party. If you have spell books, you are the mage. If you have lockpicks, you are the thief! It’s very compatible with other OSR games, modules, spells, and bestiaries. It is also VERY easy to learn and to run. It is about to release its 2nd edition (it had an incredible run on Kickstarter) so you might want to wait, but at about $3 for the PDF you can get started adventuring today!
Kids on Bikes is a quick, easy, and fun system for exploring 80s young adult, small town adventures and mysteries! Think Stranger Things: The TTRPG and you won’t be far off target. The system is rules-light and designed to be quickly picked up by player so time to reading the rules to playing is pretty short. Get your friends, get your bikes, and go solve a mystery!
Call of Cthulhu is the most fun you can have while losing your mind, being eaten by monsters, or investigating a grizzly murder! It has a huge community with a lot of great advice on how to play and run the system. Call of Cthulhu is one of the best systems around to tell dark, moody stories where the smart, not the brave, player survives!
Dread is a TTRPG about Horror, suspense, and… Jenga… Ok I know that last part seems weird, but it’s actually a really cool mechanic! Dread is a mutual storytelling game that uses pulling a block from a Jenga tower instead of rolling when you do something beyond their normal capabilities. It creates a building sense of… well… dread as you play and you really feel your decisions dwindling as the tower gets more and more wobbly. Its a ton of fun and if you already have Jenga, why not add a new dimension!
Alice is Missing is a silent TTRPG that is played through text or a chat program as the group tries to solve the disappearance of Alice Briarwood. This is a game specifically for one shots and usually takes 2-3 hours to play from start to finish. Its technically GM-less, but one player has to step up to explain and facilitate the rules, so kinda GM-Lite.
Fiasco is an award winning TTRPG about high ambition and low impulse control. It it GM-less so no worries about finding someone to run it and its the perfect way to inject some TTRPG fun in your regularly scheduled game nights! There are two versions: one that relies on dice (“Fiasco Classic”) and an updated version that is card based (just “Fiasco”) and that is what is linked below.
Into the Odd is probably my all time favorite TTRPG! Its elegant, weird, and absolutely beautiful. The base system is so versatile that there is a whole cottage industry of hacks, adaptations, optional rules, and tweaks. Several other TTRPGs on this list firmly fit in that category and owe their existence to this book in some way or form. If you can get the physical version I CANNOT recommend it enough. It is an AMAZING book, super well made and much higher quality than most are used to seeing for TTRPG books. I love this system so much I made a free intro adventure for it and you can find it here.
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Perils & Princesses had a great Kickstarter run earlier this year and this month (November) it has released all of it rewards and it is great! It’s rules light, full of delightful illustrations and its just dripping with theme. All the major princess archetypes are present and playable from those with enchanting voices to those that can control the elements. I think this would be a great gift for first time TTRPG players and experienced veterans alike! There is a free quickstart guide here if you want to give it a try before you buy.
Blades in the dark is one of my favorite TTRPGs that I’ve played this year! It’s a truly a cooperative storytelling TTRPG that might have the BEST system for heists and complex plots. The setting of Doskovol is creepy and dark in all the best ways and reminds me a lot of dishonored if it pumped the edgy darkness to an 11. Definitely worth the $25! The free SRD can be found here.
Mörk Borg is 50% art book, 50% TTRPG, but it’s 100% a black metal blast of a TTRPG. The rules are very simple and it takes about five minutes to explain them to a new player. There is a great community around the game and a ton of high quality content on the developers website. The physical book is a coffee table quality art book although only a very specific subset of people would use it that way! There is a free version that is just the text minus the art for free on their website. Its called the “Barebones Version“. There are also a lot of other “Borg” systems that have sprouted from the base version that are worth checking out! Pirate Borg, Cy_Borg, and Farewell to Arms REDUX to just to name a few.
Orbital Blues is so good. Like scary good. If you ever wanted to play a TTRPG where you can play a sad space cowboy, slowly being crushed under the weight of capitalism, THIS is your game. Think Cowboy Bebop or Firefly. The system is very light, extremely elegant, and its mechanics push players to roleplay to advance. The artwork is also great, it has this dystopian 60s space race feel and it meshes so well with the written themes of the book. There is a quickstart guide here if you want to try before buying!
The One Ring is possibly the only TTRPG I’ve ever seen fully capture the feeling of Lord of the Rings books. The art is spot on and the game is built around long, difficult journeys, quick bouts of actions, and roleplaying about the highs and lows of adventuring for so long, so far from home. Its a wonderful game. The boxset come with everything you need to start playing and is really high quality. It’s the perfect gift for the LotR or TTRPG nerd in your life!
The Dragonbane Starter set is AMAZING. Free League is known for their high quality starter sets and this one does not disappoint! It comes with everything you need to start playing the Dragonbane TTRPG plus some fun extras like solo rules and some cardboard monster pawns. The system is a ton of fun to play and its perfect if you want to try something structurally different from D&D, but want to use familiar settings and ideas. If you want to try, before you buy, there is a free quick-start here.
Cyberpunk Red is the current version that inspired the game cyberpunk 2077 and the hit series Edgerunners! With all the press those projects have received there has been a ton of fresh eyes and new players looking for the TTRPG at the source. Cyberpunk Red is a blast and the developer R. Talsorian Games has been steadily creating content for it. I think this could be one of the hot TTRPGs of 2024. The starter kit is a little cheaper right now for only $10! find it here.
Lancer is toted at a “Mud and Lasers” TTRPG set in the far future of humanity where humans traverse the stars and fight in giant mechs! It’s gained significant traction in the TTRPG community since it was released, so much so, that it’s been very difficult to find physical releases, until now! The physical copies linked below are preorders for June release, but if you ever wanted a chance to grab this book this is the time! There is a free version of the PDF that removes the GM portions available here.
TTRPG Accessories (Ascending from Cheapest)
HEIMDALLR Metallic Dice are great metal dice at a super affordable price point! They have a huge variety of styles and colors that fit whatever vibe you have in mind. They have good weight in the hand and they are a little larger than your standard d20. I have done a few promotions with them, BUT I reached out to them, because the dice were so GOOD! I own about 4 sets and every time they go on sale I have to stop myself from getting more!
The Ultimate RPG Campfire Card Deck is a great addition to any TTRPG toolkit. It effectively is 150 roleplay prompts or questions to spur on players to discuss their backgrounds, inspire new aspects of their characters or create some collaborative moments between players and their characters. As a long time GM, one of the toughest parts for new players to wrangle is how to roleplay effectively and communicate their characters goals, feelings, or fears in a context that feels natural. This deck will help that! It also includes some safety tools which is something every GM should have in their toolkit!
The HEIMDALLR Liquid Core Dice Set with LED Case is a brand new addition to HEIMDALLR’s lineup. This is a perfect gift for the dice goblin in your life, they are stunning dice AND they come with a display case that is going to make them flip out the first time they open the case! Their are only 5 colors available right now, but they are stunning and at a price point that brings liquid core dice firmly into the stocking stuffer price realm.
MONSTERS, ALIENS, AND HOLES IN THE GROUND is a pretty comprehensive look at the overall history of TTRPGs, not just the worlds most popular ones. It doesn’t cover every single TTRPG ever made, but it does cover quite a bit and you are guaranteed to learn something new. Like a TTRPG itself there is a standard (about $50) and deluxe special edition cover (about $125), but if you ever have been curious about how TTRPGs went from small hobby to a worldwide obsession this is a great place to start.