Dungeons & Dragons recommendations

[DidntHaveTheLatin]

What DnD-adjacent pressies would you, or the DnD-obsessed in your life, recommend for a 11-yr old who loves being dungeon master with his friends? He has the starter set plus a dice set and rolling mat, and the DM's handbook. What else is worth it? I've seen some t-shirts on Amazon but they seem to be adult sizes, not kids. The dice towers look cool but I'm think something readable or wearable will be more useful. Any suggestions welcome!

Oh god I don't even know where to start. DH is asleep at the moment, but I will ask in the morning, he'll have really specific suggestions. My house is slowly being taken over by the stuff (and the massive amount of painting equipment and magnified daylight lamp needed to paint them of course). Does he have any miniatures? Non playable characters? (DS loves a gelatinous cube) A rolling tray? A natty folder to keep his character sheet and any specific cards in? Also no such thing as too many dice. There are also d&d story books if he's a reader. DS is 6 and already playing no thank you evil, which is essentially a simplified younger kids version.

I just repeat the mantra, he doesn't really drink, doesn't smoke, doesn't like football or golf, he's really hands on with DS, pulls his weight around the house, works hard, forgive the dungeons and dragons, forgive the dungeons and dragons.....

What about DnD-inspired fantasy books? Or figurines? Posters?

More books, Monster Manual is a good first shout if he doesn't have it then Volo's Guide to Monsters or a specific adventure maybe. Minis (miniature figures) can be fun too. Or maybe a homemade voucher promising to buy the party pizza one session (dungeon crawling is hungry work) if it's for someone you live with.

Figures and paints! You can get some nice kits to start off.

A dungeon master screen?

Dice tower, roll out maps, figures, spell ruler, any of the monster books

Sounds like a very wholesome dad ☺️ Wish I could say the same about my ex…

My DS has gotten into it relatively recently but not enough of his friends are into it for anything substantial. Seems like a pretty good social outlet for kids that aren’t big into sports especially

It is and I keep telling myself that, but there's so much stuff! (He has another collectible hobby too which doesn't help) DH actually started playing about 10/15 years ago and has a really good group of friends he met through playing

Monster Manual is a classic for a reason!

The D&D movie is great fun. A snazzy set of dice is always cool - I got a tiny set that came in an old fashioned pocket watch for DS from Etsy last year.

The video game Baldur’s Gate is set in the D&D universe, so any merch related to that will be D&D themed.

Lego released some D&D sets earlier this year, so worth looking out for them.

Gosh I can imagine yeah, same with the warhammer stuff (I assume they have a big crossover of players?) the company sure knows how to make their money. So much to buy for it

Huge crossover!

There's definitely kid's size t shirts on Etsy as I was looking for some last week.

I got my son a dice storage box from a seller called fandomonium. Wasn't horrifically expensive but looks impressive!

Have googled pocket watch dnd dice. Set ordered! Fab suggestion. Thx

Lego released DnD minifigures earlier this year, they are still in stock at my local Sainsburys.

I know nothing about DnD but now have an adorable purple octopus being with a pet brain (?) on my bedside table.

I’m glad!
It was his favourite gift, despite not being very expensive. I hope it makes your D&D player just as happy.

Ahh thanks so much everyone, lots of great suggestions! He has most of the Lego minifigures (Lego is even more of an obsession than DnD) but doesn't have any paintable figures, will look into those. The Monster Manual looks good! He's a big reader but likes quite YA science-fiction and fantasy, quite "realistic" stuff - he appreciates the story, IYSWIM, so would need to be good yarns rather than just waffle with DnD characters.

A folder for his character sheets might be nice actually.

@JingleB I didn't know that about Baldur's Gate - I'm also getting them a Switch for Christmas so will see if they make it for that.

@MyOtherCarisAVauxhallZafira I've certainly heard a lot of blather about gelatinous cubes, will look into that too 😁

Don’t get him the Baldurs gate game! That’s way too mature.

what about buying a white board mat so he can draw maps on it for campaigns?

Are you also married to my husband?!

Baldur’s Gate is too old for an 11 year old, @DidntHaveTheLatin ! Don’t buy him that!

He’s too young, and certainly not ready to have half the NPCs propositioning him for sex
(I hadn’t played since I was a kid and there definitely wasn’t expecting shagging to be part of the play. I am very naïve)

I meant Baldur’s Gate merch like figures or T shirts etc

Oh God, thanks for the steer re Baldur's Gate - I'm clueless 🤣 this will be their first console/gaming thing (other than playing Minecraft on the iPad) and I feel about 95 trying to make sense of it all!

Something for napping out new campaigns is a good shout, thanks - he loves creating his own very detailed campaigns.

Yeah, Baldur's Gate is an ENORMOUS game, I doubt it would come on the Switch. It took them forever to cram it onto a PS5.
And it's rated 18. (And the aforementioned shagging... including in bear form with the druid, apparently - some gamers are bloody weird)

Players And Portals is a good starter book, says DS.

And I reiterate, the D&D movie is great and age appropriate. Funny, charming, full of adventure.

We have a couple of good d&d related card / board games, Dungeon Mayhem and Dungeons and Dragons - Adventure Begins.

Thanks to the poster who suggested the locket with mini dice!

If you know what sort of character he plays the spell card packs are quite affordable https://thedicedungeon.co.uk/collections/spell-cards

Does he have the players handbook? I can’t remember if that’s in the starter pack or not. We never get through a game without consulting it.

The new versions of the Players Handbook and Dungeon Masters handbook were published this year, and the new edition of the monster manual is due out in Feb. I’d hold off on that for now.

Cooler dice might be an option. Ds has some with floating dragon eyes that are his prized possession.

Hex paper for map making - you can buy files on Etsy to download and print it yourself.

Etsy is worth a browse - they have some nice DM campaign planning notebooks - again it’s a download. I’m considering for ds.

You’re welcome! They are neat, aren’t they. I hope your D&D players is as chuffed as mine was.