RPG Accessories Worth Equipping: A Buyer’s Guide to D&D’s 2024 Update

Whether you’re a veteran upgrading to the new book or a newcomer to this sort of tabletop game , we’ve rounded up the essentials you’ll need to play Dungeons & Dragons ‘ updated rules, and some RPG accessories to enhance your group’s experience.

Tabletop RPGs are a fun hobby , whether your call yourself a gamer or not, because they can stimulate so many different parts of the brain simultaneously. One moment you’re channeling your inner child like it’s recess in elementary school; the next, you’re a tactician considering moves around a battlefield; blink once more, and you’re giving an Oscar-worthy performance to convince your friends of your imaginary persona’s convictions.

And with aids like the following RPG accessories, you’ll have everything you need to not only dive into the newest iteration of the game that established this genre—to not only be well-prepared mentally, but to bring some flair to the table and the game.

The 2024 Player’s Handbook

It might go without saying, but just in case: if you’re looking to jump into Dungeons & Dragons now, you’ll need a copy of at least the core rulebook, the Player’s Handbook . This hefty tome has all the basics of playing the game, from the rules to components with which you’ll build your characters.

There is a rich marketplace of user-generated content for tabletop games, from physical RPG accessories to premade adventures.

(You could also share a copy or two amongst the other players at your table, or purchase the digital version of the rules though D&D Beyond or another digital tabletop service .)

And if you’re buying in now, you’re better off going with the latest edition, the 2024 Player’s Handbook . The game is currently in its Fifth Edition, which has been published for the last ten years; Wizards of the Coast has updated the core rules with this new book and will use them as the baseline moving forward, but older books are still compatible with the new core rules, so it’s easier just to get the new book. (Or, buy the original version to save some cash—both will work!)

Return of the Lazy DM

There is a rich marketplace of user-generated content out there for D&D and other tabletop games , from physical RPG accessories to adorn your table, to premade adventures and custom classes. Then there are things like Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master by Michael E. Shea , a practical, instructional book that will help DMs prepare for rich game sessions with a minimal amount of preparation ahead of time.

I’ve been a DM for the better part of a decade, since 4E,. I’ve always grappled with finding a balance between preparing enough content to keep my friends challenged and entertained, and overpreparing , which can lead to railroading. After discovering Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master , however, I’ve immediately noticed a difference in both the amount of time I need, and the response from my players.

With a eight-step guide for “lightweight game preparation” and a host of practical resources, aspiring and experienced DMs alike can brainstorm rewarding and accommodating sessions that tap into what players want from their TTRPG experience. Don’t let the self-deprecating title fool you—this is a guide to running games that feel less prescriptive while not committing yourself to days of homework ahead of time.

It’s a simple read that quickly changed the way I approach a lot of things about D&D , and the next RPG accessory a DM should reach for after reading the Dungeon Master’s Guide itself.

Ultra Pro’s D&D 50th Anniversary Accessories

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of D&D , Ultra Pro has created a series of premium red and gold RPG accessories to bring a touch of original artwork to your table. These are adorned with the anniversary logo, various other symbols, and a classic illustrating of a dragon breathing fire upon unlucky adventurers.

For the devout note-takers, there’s a Campaign Journal with blank lined pages and a handy pen loop; if you want to protect your most-used rulebook, slip it into the Book Cover; or, if you want one zipper binder to contain everything you need to transport, Ultra Pro offers a Book Folio that can hold a book, with wet/dry-erase and spell card sheets, graph paper, and a pocket to store notes. These all come in a classy leatherette finish.

And of course, what’s a TTRPG without the dice? Ultra Pro offers a set of 7 Heavy Metal dice in gold with red inlays, which are among some of the nicest metal dice I’ve tried—the satisfying solid roll of metal dice, but nicely balanced so that you don’t wake the neighborhood or break a table when they roll. Alternately, you can also pick up a Dice Scroll or Dice Tower to both store and roll them on.

Game Master’s Book of … Series

Running a tabletop RPG demands many skills, and there can be a lot of pressure to perform. Sometimes you run out of time to prepare heaps of content, or get caught off-guard and need to improvise. Luckily, Topix Media Lab has a suite of resources that DMs should consider adding to their repertoire of RPG accessories: their series of Game Master’s Books .

The Game Master’s Book of Astronishing Random Tables , for instance, is packed with random tables specifically helpful for worldbuilding, or determining things like the contents of an NPC’s pockets or a random barrel, or the look of certain objects you might not have expected to elaborate upon. The Game Master’s Book of Non-Player Characters can help determine the personalities or backgrounds of characters in your world, to quickly help add some personality to quest-givers. The Game Master’s Book of Traps, Puzzles and Dungeons can, you guessed it, help randomly determine the form and substance of sprawling dungeon crawls… or that sewer your party insisted on exploring.

• Hardcover Book
• Ashworth, Jeff (Author)

• Hardcover Book
• Ashworth, Jeff (Author)

• Fishel, Jonah (Author)
• English (Publication Language)

Even better, this is the type of resource you could consult ahead of time or in the moment, depending on your needs. Each also contains several one-shot adventures which are easy to pick up and run, as an added bonus.

If you’re the sort of DM who wants the players to lead the course of a campaign, I’d also recommend The Game Master’s Handbook of Proactive Roleplaying . More of a theoretical text than a strictly practical resource like the company’s other RPG accessories, it’s nonetheless an enlightening way to envision a campaign’s arc, and fosters player engagement—pairing very nicely with the Lazy Dungeon Master approach.

Dry Erase Grids

Look, many people come to appreciate the aesthetic value of having some fancy RPG accessories at hand when playing D&D , but you also can’t neglect the fundamentals. And that’s why, whether I’m running a game in person or online, or playing as a PC, I have some kind of dry erase grid at hand.

Need to quickly sketch out a scene to help convey a “theatre of the mind” setup to your players? Get into an unexpected combat, and no one knows where they’re standing compared to the enemies? Maybe you have to make a random dungeon on the spot with one of the books from the last point? Or maybe you just don’t want to haul out a complicated array of props? A good ol’ blank grid has you covered. With just some pre-measured blank squares, you can get a lot of information across in a very quick glance.

GameStop Canada offers a 2′ x 3′ “battle mat” with a generic stone pattern that perfectly serves this purpose, and even comes with a suitable set of dry erase markers. Or, you can even buy your RPG accessories anywhere that office supplies are sold, and grab a dry erase board or some graph paper. Sometimes the simplest tools can be the most effective.

The Düngeonmeister Random Monster Generator

Our final stop on this tour of RPG accessories is another handy resource to have at the table, or for inspiration ahead of time—and one of the more uniquely inspired aids I’ve seen.

The Düngeonmeister Random Monster Generator can literally generate a one-of-a-kind monster to plop into your adventures. All you need to do is turn the pages, and the book will present you with the stat block of an original monster … in pieces. The main pages are split in thirds, each with the illustration and stats of that part of a monster.

By flipping to a random page—or rather, a random set of three parts—you have an idea for a new monster to throw into an encounter. For instance, I just flipped the book open to a Mer-ossus-max, with the head of a mermaid, body of a skeleton, and feet of a slime monster, and abilities that suit each component. (The true challenge can be making a monster to suit your chosen environment, or vice versa, challenging yourself to make an environment that suits your concoction.)

With the bizarre nature of this experiment, this lands among the class of RPG accessories that are better for DMs to use while pre-planning. You’ll probably want to massage the concepts into more sensical forms.

But, what I appreciated most about exploring this book was the way it illuminated the origins of a creature’s powers, showing the codification of species and abilities. Just by thumbing through, you can gain some appreciation for the signature traits of different creatures, and see what makes creature design intuitive.