Your gaming accouterments are important, too

The parts of a game are an important part of the tabletop experience — meeples, wooden materials, metal coins — they all make playing your game more entertaining and more engaging for your senses. 

So are the extras you keep around. 

My board gaming friends all have a collection of items to support their habits. They have small containers for components like resources and money, clipboards and pencils for all those roll and writes, dice trays to contain rolls, and sometimes even a bank. 

I quickly caught onto this habit and proceeded to kit out my gaming room. 

I wanted bowls for components, but I was not satisfied with plastic. No, for my table, I needed carved wood bowls. I bought small salt or seasoning bowls and small dessert or snack bowls for larger components. 

The condiment-size bowls I found were stained, but these might soon be in my Amazon cart. I think painting them to match my rather colorful game room would be fun. 

I bought clipboards—classic chipboard ones, nothing plastic for me—at the office supply store. To be sure I covered all sorts of games, I got letter and A4 sizes. (Heaven forbid you have too many or not enough clipboards…)

While I was there, I picked up pencils and pens, big rubber bands, and lots of small notepads for tallying up scores. 

I decided I needed a bank of nice coins rather than trying to upgrade every game. I found a cool old metal tackle box on eBay and bought a couple of sets of Sycthe coins that are nice in weight and jingle. 

I looked into play mats, and this is one area where I went a little lower maintenance. I use a low-pile runner carpet. 

That’s right — a carpet. 

It’s great. It was inexpensive, weighty, and nonskid enough to stay in place on the table. If it looks a little ratty, I can throw it in the washer or vacuum it. I like it a lot better than some expensive neoprene mat. 

I also got tired of standing up to look at the marketplace of cards in games that have them. I made myself a pretty lazy Susan with a slab of wood and hardware from Lowes. (In the future, I’d likely make it round instead of square, but it was my first attempt…)

I have wooden card stands, fancy Iron Clay poker chips, and even a few sand timers for those friends of yours who get analysis paralysis. 

What extras do you keep on hand to make board gaming more fun?