Christmas Gift Guide: Tabletop Games 2023

Even as technology pushes to grander heights than ever, tabletop gaming has continued to grow in popularity and keep pace with the adrenaline rush of video games. There’s something different about gathering your friends around the table to spend an evening playing board games or embarking on a roleplaying game adventure.

If you’re looking for gift ideas for a tabletop gaming aficionado in your life, look no further. CGMagazine has gathered a list of some of our favourite products from this year and a couple of evergreen suggestions as well. This is an incredibly diverse market with something for everyone, so even if nothing on this list is a perfect match for your shopping needs, it should at least help inspire some other ideas as well.

(And as always, don’t forget to check your friendly local game stores this holiday season for many of these products and more besides!)

Marvel United + Spider-Geddon

CoolMiniOrNot (CMON) Games has personally been on my radar for the last decade or so, thanks to their classic board game Zombicide. In more recent years, however, Marvel United has leapt to the top of my personal favourite tabletop board games. Players choose a team of heroes and a villain to oppose, and take turns placing cards on a “timeline” to achieve certain goals, like saving civilians, beating up henchmen or lieutenants, or attacking the evil mastermind. Coordination is key, as the previous player’s decisions directly empower the current player’s turn.

With a sheerly staggering roster of expansions and additional characters, now including the X-Men, Marvel United is highly replayable, even with the base game alone. Its “chibi” art style lends itself well to dynamic miniatures, even in their unpainted form.

For expansions, however, the Spider-Geddon add-on brings a slew of different Spider-heroes to your tabletop. Heroes like Scarlet Spider, Silk, and Spider-Man 2099 can take up the fight against Morlun and stop his master plans. Any Spider-Man fan is sure to find a favourite variant in this set.

D&D Phandelver And Below: The Shattered Obelisk

If you play Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition, the latest iteration of the premiere tabletop RPG, there’s a very good chance that you’ve participated in the Starter Set campaign The Lost Mine of Phandelver at some point. As the edition’s tenth anniversary approaches next year, Wizards of the Coast went back to this seminal adventure and revamped it in spectacular style with Phandelver And Below: The Shattered Obelisk, a full-fledged campaign.

The classic adventure that has introduced so many to the world of tabletop RPGs has been remastered and then expanded. Those who have played the original adventure will find the locales have been updated, while the story continues into even darker realms than before. If you know someone who’s been obsessed with Baldur’s Gate 3 lately, The Shattered Obelisk is a great way to get them into the actual tabletop D&D experience.

D&D Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse

For more seasoned tabletop adventurers, the Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse box set offers infinite realities to explore. Much like last year’s Spelljammer: Adventures in Space, this pack includes three tomes: Sigil and the Outlands, a sourcebook with character options and other details for playing in intraplanar campaign; Morte’s Planar Parade, a Monster Manual packed with the sort of adversaries you might encounter; and Turn of Fortune’s Wheel, an adventure for levels 3-10 that puts it all together.

This is a great idea for the Dungeon Master in your tabletop group—not only for the wealth of inspiration for an unusual, outlandish setting but for the awesome DM screen that rounds out the package, keeping relevant multiversal info handy. Even if it’s not used verbatim, it can be a great sort of inspiration for original, homebrewed adventures that transcend the mortal planes.

The independent retailer variant is an extra cut above as well, with its unique variant artwork by Tony DiTerlizzi.

Call To Adventure

Brotherwise Games’ Call to Adventure taps into the fundamental building blocks of epic storytelling to bring a creative and versatile experience to your tabletop game collection. Play progresses through three phases, resembling the three-act structure of classic fantasy—starting with playing cards resembling each player’s humble origins, moving through their trials and tribulations, and culminating in their heroic ascensions. Can you play the right cards and pass the tests to score the most points and fulfill your destiny?

The core game is intriguing on multiple playthroughs in itself, but Call to Adventure: Epic Origins presents an even more diverse range of experiences. Combine this expanded edition with the original for a massive pool of card options, or work through the Campaign mode. You can even convert the heroes you concoct through the game into Dungeons & Dragons characters with the included conversion guide. If you’re looking for a fun gift for a writer, Call to Adventure can even help them bust through writer’s block—take the character arc you end up with and write their story.

Candela Obscura

Critical Role is a worldwide sensation, and thanks to the company’s publishing arm, Darrington Press, the actual-play podcast has begun to transcend its D&D roots—branching into a tabletop RPG engine of the company’s own design, the Illuminated Worlds System. In Candela Obscura, the first game using CR’s new system, players take on the role of members from an esoteric order that investigates occult phenomena and mysteries in a world of horror.

Candela Obscura uses 6-sided dice and is designed to facilitate narrative, arc-driven play—which may be a welcome change for players who don’t like getting bogged down in the battle mechanics of other tabletop systems. The Candela Obscura handbook (also available in a limited edition) would make a great gift for fans of the podcast or even horror fans in your life who want to embark on their own spooky adventures in a novel new setting.

Critical Role dice sets

Speaking of tabletop goodies that have arisen from an actual-play net, we’re smitten with these themed dice sets from Critical Role, representing characters or teams from the show. From the subdued, cosmic blues of the Vox Machina Game Master set to the more bombastic palates of Imogen or Fresh Cut Grass of Bells Hells, these sets come in fine leatherette drawstring pouches and bring a unique splash of colour to any game that relies on polyhedral dice.

Magical Kitties Save the Day

Sharing your hobbies with your kids can be fun and fulfilling for the whole family, but getting into a dense tabletop RPG is a tall ask for younger players. Atlas Games’ Magical Kitties Save the Day makes the whole process easier with a rules-light system and a charming concept: the players are cats with secret magical powers, which they must use to help solve their humans’ problems.

Character generation is quick and easy, helping players build their own kitty avatar with Powers, Talents, and a Flaw. When players need to face a challenge, they roll more dice if they use those abilities, and thus have more chances to score a resounding victory; but if they happen to fail a test, Magical Kitties isn’t too discouraging, and players still earn experience. It encourages players to roleplay by rewarding them with “Kitty Treats”—tokens that allow them to change the story—if they play to their Flaws.

Once you’ve learned the ropes, Magical Kitties has an array of expansions to keep your family tabletop fun going, with settings based on fairy tales and even more options for character building. It makes a great gift for parents on your shopping list who are into other RPGs (or even just adults who love their itty bitty wittle kitties).

Dragonbane

Free League Publishing has been taking the tabletop scene by storm in recent years with hits like MORK BORG, Vaesen, and Tales From The Loop. This year, they released something of a passion project in Dragonbane, an adaptation of a 40-year-old game that was virtually unknown outside of their home in Sweden.

Dragonbane’s setting will be readily familiar for fans of fantasy media, but what sets it apart is its sillier tone—hence its tagline of “mirth and mayhem.” The system is d20-based, so tabletop veterans can jump in with little adjustment (but remember, unlike D&D, you want to roll low on your checks, and embrace its unique take on the genre. The core set can be a great gift for someone who wants to get away from the D&D way of doing things.

City of Mist

Son of Oak’s City of Mist is also a great diversion from typical tabletop RPGs, leaning hard into its unique setting. In this cinematic noir game, player characters are Rifts, regular people who have awoken legendary potential within themselves, a combination of regular joes and mythical heroes. You might play a hard-boiled socialite who unlocked the powers of King Arthur’s legendary Excalibur, or an antiques dealer with the powers of the Greek god Orpheus, or a man of the cloth with the pain tolerance of a Biblical figure. The potential to build compelling characters with complimentary or conflicting halves is almost limitless.

The setting itself is a flexible urban environment where a supernatural influence clouds the regular inhabitants’ perceptions. Only the player characters and other Rifts, be they friends or foes, are aware of the mysterious things that go down. A focus on narrative-driven gameplay over traditional d20-based systems also gives City of Mist a unique position on the tabletop scene, relying on “core moves” and descriptive tags instead of rigid classes. Once a group starts leaning into the noir setting and exploring both parts of their characters, the RPG aficionado on your list could find they have a new perspective on the genre.

Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game

Who among us can’t name a superhero whose powers they would want for themselves? With the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game, it’s easy to step into the suit of your favourite Marvel hero or create your own.

This system also uses a unique approach called the “d616.” Its core mechanic has players rolling three 6-sided dice, of which one is designated the “Marvel” die; these rolls are tallied and compared against an appropriate difficulty rating as usual, but the Marvel die’s result can bear particular importance. It’s an allusion to the numbered designation of the main Marvel Comics timeline, Earth-616, but it also puts a different spin on a tried-and-tested staple of tabletop game design.

Playing a favourite hero is as simple as picking up their premade character sheet and diving into the action with your friends. If you’d rather make your own mark on the multiverse, you can build a custom character, even incorporating established powers like Captain America’s “Shield-Bearer,” or the Human Torch’s flight and “Elemental Control.” Character archetypes (like polymath, bruiser, or blaster) help steer PC design in the appropriate direction. Even attributes have been giving a clever spin—Melee, Agility, Resilience, Vigilance, Ego, and Logic, which spells “Marvel” combined.

In addition to the Core Rulebook, the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game is already rolling out a welcome mat of supplements, like the campaign The Cataclysm of Kang (which takes players from street-level to cosmic heroes) or the X-Men expansion that dives even deeper into the students of Professor Xavier’s school and their opponents. This isn’t Marvel’s first excursion into tabletop RPGs, but it is one of its most promising.

Lord of the Rings Adventure Book Game

If the long-form campaign structure of Gloomhaven intrigues you but also seems a little too daunting, perhaps Ravensburger’s The Lord of the Rings Adventure Book Game might be a good warmup. This immersive board game campaign is a great introduction, steeped as it is in Tolkien’s legendarium and the familiar plot of the books and movies.

The game’s mission follows the source material while leaving room for player choice and the luck of the draw. If players rely on the One Ring’s power too often, for instance, it can lead to failing the entire overall campaign, while individual missions have their own fail states. Its cooperative approach puts players in control of the Fellowship as they try to obtain and play the right cards for the mission at hand.

Its approachable source makes The Lord of the Rings Adventure Book Game a great choice not just for established tabletop players, but for Tolkien fans in general.

Reap

In this two to four-player game, after selecting a Reaper Meeple and a Spooky Screen, you will bid Skull Tokens on new Reaper cards. Players need to strategically use their tokents to Sweep, Keep or Reap and the first to 9 souls wins! With nice touches like a cloth payment, three die-cut stickers, a pin and even a new expansion, now is a great time to pick up Reap for the holidays!

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