Vault Unlock: Gifts for D&D Players

The 320-page rulebook that every D&D player needs and the one most newcomers either borrow or buy first. The Player's Handbook covers the rules for playing the six standard classes (Cleric, Fighter, Rogue, Wizard, Druid, Paladin), the eleven core races, the spell lists up through 9th level, and the equipment tables that every character sheet pulls from. The 2024 revised printing includes the updated subclass options that the community has been requesting since the 2014 original, the art direction is the kind that makes players want to keep the book on the shelf rather than in a closet, and the spiral-friendly binding means the book stays open to the page the player actually needs during a session. The gift for the friend who has been asking to join the table for a year and needs the rulebook to start.

The 320-page hardcover that every Dungeon Master needs but that most tables buy last because the price is the steepest of the three core rulebooks. The DMG covers the rules for running the game (encounter balance, magic item creation, NPC stat blocks), the cosmology of the Forgotten Realms and other published settings, the random dungeon generation tables that save a DM from the blank-page paralysis of building a session zero, and the dozens of magic items that reward the players for the loot grind that runs every campaign. The 2024 revised printing adds the Bastions rules (the player-base building system that has changed how DMs structure downtime), updated encounter math, and the revised magic item tables. The gift for the friend who has been the DM for years and is still borrowing someone else's DMG because they don't want to spend the money on themselves.

The 350-page hardcover that is the third of the three core rulebooks and that gives the DM the stat blocks, tactics, and lore for hundreds of monsters — from the CR 0 commoner to the CR 30 Tiamat, the goddess of chromatic dragons. The Monster Manual is the book the DM opens mid-session when the players decide to explore the door that was not on the prepped map and the DM needs to know what is behind it, the book that decides whether the party survives the boss fight at the climax of the campaign, and the book whose art direction has set the visual tone for the entire edition. The 2024 revised printing adds the iconic monsters from the 2014 book plus the new creatures from the 2024 adventure modules. The gift for the DM who has been running every encounter from the SRD monsters and is finally ready to admit that the full Monster Manual is worth the price tag.

The boxed set that has introduced more new players to D&D than any other product in the game's history — and that is the gift for the friend who has never played but has been saying 'I should really try D&D' for two years. The Starter Set includes a 32-page rulebook that teaches the game in plain English (no 300-page commitment), a 64-page adventure (Lost Mine of Phandelver, the introductory campaign that has become the default onboarding for the hobby), a set of polyhedral dice (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20, percentile), pre-generated character sheets, and a DM screen that hides the DM's notes from the players. The 2024 Starter Set updates the adventure to the 2024 rules and adds the character options that the 2014 version was missing. The gift for the friend, partner, or sibling who has never sat at the table but is finally ready to try.

A seven-die Chessex Gemini set covering d4, d6, d8, d10, percentile, d12 and d20. The pictured Black-Shell/white set comes in a clear storage box. Check the colour choice when ordering.

The 350-card deck that has every spell in the Player's Handbook plus the spells from the major expansions, sorted by class and level, designed to be flipped through at the table instead of searching the rulebook. The cards include the spell name, the casting time, the range, the components, the duration, and the spell description on the front, with the higher-level spell options and reverse-side class features on the back. The gift for the Wizard, Cleric, Druid, Bard, Sorcerer, or Warlock player who has been bookmarking the spell list in the rulebook for two years and is finally ready to upgrade to the deck that lets them cast spells without breaking the action economy of the session. The cards are durable enough to survive a weekly game night for years and the box is the kind that sits on the shelf rather than in a closet.

The booster pack of pre-painted plastic miniatures that lets the player or DM add the visual element of a tabletop RPG to the table without the painting commitment of the unpainted WizKids or Reaper lines. The Icons of the Realms line is officially licensed by Wizards of the Coast, the booster includes 4 miniatures on average plus 1 large or huge creature, the painting detail is the kind that holds up at table distance, and the line covers every official D&D adventure module so the players can run the encounter with the exact monster the adventure describes. The gift for the DM who has been describing monsters as 'a vaguely humanoid figure' and the player who has been using a coffee mug as their character token. A booster at the start of every campaign is the kind of tradition that turns a casual table into a real campaign.

The wooden, felt-lined, folding dice tray that solves the recurring problem that every D&D player has had: rolling dice on a wood or glass table is loud enough to wake the household, rolling dice on a soft surface gets the dice stuck in the carpet, and rolling dice on the rulebook dents the binding. The folding design means the tray stores flat in a player folder or a DM bag, the felt lining dampens the roll noise to a level that the household can sleep through, the wooden walls are tall enough to catch dice that roll with serious momentum, and the tray is the kind of table presence that signals to everyone in the household that the table is a D&D table for the next four hours. The gift for the player who has been rolling onto the kitchen floor and scaring the dog for a year.

The 240-page hardcover comic compendium from Dark Horse that adapts the first Vox Machina campaign from Critical Role into comic-book form — the campaign that introduced millions of viewers to D&D through the Geek & Sundry and Amazon Prime series and that has become the on-ramp for a generation of new players. The compendium collects the first six issues of the comic series into a single volume with a new cover by the Critical Role art team, the writing by Jody Houser preserves the dialogue that made the original cast famous, and the art direction is the high-fantasy visual style that the players wanted for their own characters when they were building their own Vox Machina-inspired parties. The gift for the player who learned D&D from Critical Role and wants to revisit the campaign that started the obsession.

A 304-page English hardcover campaign guide to Wildemount, the setting of Critical Role’s second campaign. It offers regional lore, character options and introductory adventures for a group ready to build its own campaign there.