Mary Dimercurio Prasad: Game Room Accessories and Snackage

What should a well-stocked game room include? You may be surprised by the number of items that can enhance your board gaming experience!

Snackage, or Eat, Drink and Be Mary, uh… Merry

If you are going to allow snacks and drinks in your game room (or around your games), you probably want to be sure they are “board game friendly,” i.e., they’re not covered with that dreaded orange powder (a la Cheetos or Doritos) and they won’t leave rings on your table (such as from condensation on soda cans). Some people may not allow others to handle food or drinks around their games – after seeing a couple drinks go all over other people’s games, I can understand why – but if you want to combine snacking and sipping with gaming because they go so well together, here are ideas for snacks that should minimize the chances for disaster.

My favorite snacks for the game room are small twisty pretzels and M&M’s – but here’s the trick: you eat them together! Put one pretzel and a couple M&M’s in your mouth and chew. Yum! I prefer dark chocolate M&M’s, but milk chocolate ones will do in a pinch. I also really like the peanut butter M&M’s, either with pretzels or alone. In addition to these flavors, M&M’s come in Peanut, Dark Chocolate Peanut, Almond, and two limited edition flavors: Widly Cherry and Mint Crisp. You can even order customized colors and messages!

Other coated candies, such as Reese’s Pieces or malted milk balls make perfect snacks around games. If your guests are more trustworthy and not likely to smear chocolatey fingers on your games, you can do what we do and put a bowl of mini-candy bars in the game room. Most of our guests eat them from the wrapper to minimize mess.

Small bags of snacks are nice to have in the game room, specifically individual sized bags or snack packs of non-orange powdered chips: Stacy’s Pita Chips, Stacy’s Bagel Chips, Original Sun Chips, Pringles, Fritos, and, of course, pretzels. Some potato chips are really greasy, so I don’t recommend them. Other great snacks: nuts (almonds, cashews, shelled/uncolored pistachios, peanuts), wasabi peas, Wheat Thins, dried fruit (apples, apricots, bananas, cranberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, peaches), gummies, veggie chips, rice snacks, and sesame sticks. On the slightly more messy side: cheese (string cheese, Babybel, cheddar), veggies and dip (cherry tomatoes, baby carrot sticks, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, peppers), fruit (seedless grapes, apples), and cookies. My favorite cookies are the break-apart-and-cook variety such as Toll House Refrigerated Cookie Dough Ultimates: Peanut Butter Cups, Chips and Chocolate Chunks, followed by Toll House Sugar Cookies.

For the More Adventurous Homeowner

We typically keep the bulk of foods in the kitchen but allow guests to bring plates of food to the game room. Some favorite foods for game days include spinach dip with pita chips, nacho cheese or guacamole with bite-size white corn chips – I don’t recommend salsa because it’s very messy, although it is okay if you blend it with cream cheese, which makes it thicker – hummus and pita, deviled eggs, pinwheels, stuffed mushrooms, olives, mini-sausages, meatballs, mini éclairs, and mini creampuffs. For holidays, I roll out the sugar cookie dough (mentioned above), cut with appropriate holiday cookie-cutters, cook, then frost with colored home-made butter/cream cheese frostings.

Accessories: What the Well-Dressed Room Wears

Bookcases: To begin with, if you can afford it, I highly recommend built-in bookcases with adjustable shelves in which to store your games. Be sure the span is not too large or the shelves will sag over time. The shelving material should be thick enough to stand up to the weight of games and also not sag over time. We painted our shelves using an oil-based paint (with a proper base coat applied before the paint) as latex paint tends to stick to plastics and even game boxes. If you are planning to move or want something a bit less expensive, buy free standing bookcases. We got a good deal on some oak bookcases with adjustable shelves many years ago; they have been through several moves and still look great and function well.

Tables & chairs: I recommend a small variety of tables (rectangle/oval, round, or square) due to some games being better played on round tables (Crokinole, Villa Paletti, Nacht der Magier), some on square (Tichu), and others on rectangle/oval (Age of Steam, Agricola, Time’s Up!, Indonesia). A small round table can usually function like a square and vice versa as far as some games go (e.g. partnership games). Tables with leaves are probably the most versatile – some can be square/round without the leaves then made into various rectangles/ovals with leaves – although they tend to cost more.

For the time being, we went the less expensive route. Most of our tables are the Lifetime brand folding tables, which we bought at Costco. We have one 48-inch round, two 6-foot commercial folding, and two 4-foot commercial folding tables. Our chairs are cushioned folding chairs (also from Costco). Lastly, we have an old kitchen table (with leaves) and matching chairs in the room. We used to have blue tablecloths on all the tables but they kept slipping off. I was going to try tablecloth clips like these but have not bought any so far. We ditched most of the tablecloths for the time being.

Side tables/coasters: You may want to get small side tables for drinks and snacks to keep them off the game table. I have a pair of nesting tables that work well for this, although we do allow drinks on the main table – as long as they’re on coasters.

Coasters are a must for drinks. They can be as simple as unwanted CDs – all those AOL and Earthlink disks that are sent as junk mail make great coasters! – or as fancy as coaster board games. Check out Martian Coasters or Cosmic Coasters offered by Looney Labs. Some restaurants have interesting coasters as well. Eat out a lot and collect ‘em all!

Cozies: For canned and bottled drinks, we offer our guests cozies (or koozies). One of the best ones I’ve used had a liner, but I can’t seem to find where to buy them. (I used it at a friend’s house.) We settled on the neoprene ones, which have thinner foam with material on the outside. They work pretty well, keep the condensation off the table, and fit in most drink holders (like the ones in my car). We found ours at a grocery store in Columbus, Ohio, and they cost about $1.30. Unfortunately the designs are not the greatest – solid colors would have been much preferred.

Frontgate offers a fancy version – a cozy with cachet, as it were. Our local stores have only the heavier foam cozies, which are the worst ones in my opinion. Once the can warms up, you pretty much have to crush it to get it out of the cozy.

Small necessities: We keep a supply of paper napkins around the room. I also recommend having wet-wipes handy. Not only are they great for wiping up messy fingers, but they may be used for cleaning up wet-erase marker mistakes during games (see below). We keep a box of facial tissues in the room as well.

Instead of paper or (shudder) Styrofoam plates, we prefer to use colorful, washable, reusable plastic plates (ours have dividers) and bowls. We found some at Target for about $2 each. We tell our guests to remember their color and where they put the plate so it can be used all day. You may want to check out melamine or acrylic plates (although they may not be microwave safe). We have a variety of colors of acrylic drinking glasses for water, juice, etc.

We keep a supply of pens and mechanical pencils as well as pads of paper and scrap paper in the room. I purchased some cute half-size colorful pens and pencils at our local Staples (their own brand, under the name Smartz) for about fifty cents per pack of twelve. Costco usually has packs of pens and mechanical pencils for a great price. They are useful for games that require writing or drawing (e.g. some party games) or for scorekeeping.

Trash can: We bought a kitchen size, stainless steel step-on/flip top model. Perfect for all those candy wrappers, shrink wrap, cellophane, and punched out game sprues. (No, we don’t keep ours, and while we are able to recycle most of them, the plastic type get dumped.)

Wall clock: So you know if the pizza delivery is late.

Wet-erase markers: Although they are hard to find, I prefer Staedtler Non-Permanent Lumocolor superfine (or fine) wet-erase markers. Here is one place that has an eight-color pack but I have not yet ordered from them. I currently have an eight-color pack of Sanford EXPO Vis-à-Vis wet-erase markers, and most office supply stores carry them. We use them mostly for keeping score and for our “crayon rail” games. We laminate score sheets that come with games so they can be reused.

We buy laminated maps of crayon rail games directly from Mayfair Games. To find them, go to Mayfair’s online shop under “Train Games,” click the appropriate train game, and look for “Flat Laminated Map.” They run about $12 each. (Alternately, you may use Plexiglas over the game board – see below.) I don’t know how well the markers would work on the game boards themselves.

Use wet-wipes to clean up small mistakes during the game (such as “Oops, I didn’t mean to draw across the mountains"). Some people use dry-erase markers but for certain games, I think they are too easy to accidentally erase.

White board & dry-erase markers: Some games already use them, e.g. Wits & Wagers, but I bought an eight-color pack of EXPO low odor fine tip markers at Costco. They may be used on white boards, laminated items, or Plexiglas. I keep a wall-mounted white board in the room, and sometimes write messages on it for game days (such as, “Eat candy from their wrappers to minimize mess!") or use it (or a small hand-held white board) for scorekeeping. Some white boards are magnetized, in which case small magnets might be handy.

Plexiglas: It’s great to have a good sized piece on hand that’s big enough to cover and hold down your average-sized or slightly larger board game, e.g. Roads and Boats, but I don’t recommend trying to cover something the size of Railroad Tycoon. The Plexiglas helps hold game boards down (which is especially useful on the roll-up type). You can draw on the Plexiglas with wet or dry markers – just don’t get a piece that’s too thick or the offset between the board and drawing will become annoying. Make sure the edges and corners aren’t sharp, or they may cut you or the table during handling. I usually use a fine grain sandpaper (with mask) to carefully sand any sharp edges and corners before using for the sheet for board gaming. You can find Plexiglas at Home Depot or Lowes.

Laminator/sticker maker: I highly recommend buying a Xyron 9” Creative Station machine and cartridges. You can get them at a local craft store such as AC Moore or Michaels. (Look for 40 and 50% off coupons that are offered regularly online or in local papers.) The cartridges are super easy to change. I find the following cartridges useful: acid-free permanent adhesive (makes stickers out of anything flat, including paper, foil and material), acid-free repositionable adhesive, two-sided lamination (cold laminate, which can be trimmed closer than hot laminate), one-sided lamination/adhesive (repositionable and permanent) and one-sided laminate/magnet. The Xyron 9” comes with a removable trimmer but I prefer to use a separate rotary trimmer.

I also have a hot laminate machine; the lamination is nicer (thicker, glossier) than the cold but it cannot be trimmed as close or the seal will break. The sticker cartridges are great for paste-ups.

Label maker:We have a small Brother P-Touch label maker. We use it to label generic boxes, e.g. deck boxes, cardboard boxes, and compartmental boxes.

Boxes: These can be plastic compartmental boxes for holding game pieces (purchased at craft stores in the bead or jewelry department or in the fishing department of stores like Wal-Mart), deck boxes for card games (not just CCGs), and cardboard boxes for holding cards or deck boxes. ("Shoebox" and “pizza box” sized ones made for storing cards can be bought at hobby shops.)

Ziploc baggies: Game pieces must have baggies! Buy them in bulk, use them! They keep your game pieces neat so they don’t roll around the box (or possibly escape). Some recommended sizes: 2"x3", 3"x4", 4"x6".

Card sleeves & pocket page protectors: For games that see a lot of use, card sleeves will protect your cards from becoming dirty and dinged up. Be careful when shuffling; shuffle using the bottom and sides since the tops are open. Page protectors are mainly useful for CCGs but you can perhaps find other uses in the game room. Richard Garfield used them as an integral part of his game Filthy Rich. I prefer UltraPro brand for both of these.

Dice Tower/Boot and adventure dice bags: Most online board gaming stores carry the clear polycarbonate Dice Boot ($18). If you want something fancier, check out the dice towers from VixenTor Games. They can even make you your own custom dice tower.

Another great product is VixenTor’s Adventure Dice Bag; it functions both as a dice bag and – when completely opened, with its flat surface and raised sides – a nice place to roll dice.

Dice bags and cloth bags: Dice bags are good to hold dice or glass counters. The larger sizes of cloth bags are handy to hold tiles/chits/cubes for blind draw (e.g., with Ra, Merchant of Venus, Age of Steam) or to hold large (usually wood) game pieces (Die Mauer, Bausack). Some games come with bags already but many don’t.

Dice and the deck of dice: I love dice. I have loads of them, with my favorites being purple, blue, speckled, and swirled dice in many sizes and shapes, from D4 to D20. Dice, not returning the love, hate me. For this reason, I also have a deck of dice.

Counters/markers: We have many colors of glass beads to use as counters and markers. Mostly we use them for CCGs, but we also use them to mark dead spaces on a game board (Zatre) and lock cards (as with the Public-Locking variant for crayon rail games). Abacus counters or life counters with dials are useful in CCGs and sometimes for keeping score in other games instead of using pen or pencil.

Poker chips: We bought a variety of colors to use in place of paper money in games such as Power Grid, St. Petersburg, Merchant of Venus, all crayon rail games, and Monopoly. (NOT! Just seeing if you were paying attention!) Click here for information about poker chips. I believe we have the heavy weighted composite 11.5 or 13.5 gram dice chips.

Warning: The box is very heavy. Try not to drop it on your foot – or worse, on one of your games.

Game timer: A good game timer is worth its weight in gold, especially if you have an over-thinker in your game group. We wouldn’t play all those crayon-rail games without it! You can pick one up at most online board gaming stores.

First player spinner or Start Player deck: We put a spinner on each table. I found the Spin-4-It version at Boulder Games for fifty cents. If you want a more inventive way to determine a start player, try the Start Player deck by Bézier Games.

Books & board game magazines: If you play word games like Scrabble, Boggle, or Letter Head, you should have a dictionary in your game room. For Catan players, check out the specialized book of games, “Die Siedler von Catan: Das Buch zum Spielen.” When gamers are standing around the room waiting for a game to end, having reading material around might be handy (and it keeps them from getting involved in everyone else’s games). Pick up a copy of “Hobby Games: The 100 Best” and display it proudly in the game room. We also have a pile of board gaming magazines, e.g. Counter (also available at Funagain), and Knucklebones (which has halted subscriptions, although back issues are available on its website).

Showpiece games: Front Porch Classics makes some beautiful showpiece games, especially in its “Coffee Table Games” line. Check out Dread Pirate, for example; although the game is just okay, the pieces are incredible. Also take a look under the “Desktop Games” line for Liar’s Dice. I have seen some nice editions of more traditional board games such as Chess or Scrabble from various companies. Some people might like to display Ystari’s Premium Limited Edition line of games with art by Mike Doyle.

Puzzle mover: I love doing puzzles and usually have one set up in the game room (shocking!). If you like puzzles but may need to move it around, check out the Ravensburger Puzzle Stow & Go (Barnes & Noble, Amazon) which allows you to roll up a puzzle in progress.

For your convenience, you can download a printable checklist summarizing all of the suggestions listed above.

More Expensive & Elaborate Ventures

Mood music in the background can add some fun to a game, such as the CD that comes with Space Dealer, dungeon crawl music for Descent, scary music for Arkham Horror, etc. An excellent source of background music is Midnight Syndicate. You could play the music on a portable CD player, but a full stereo system or iPod with good speakers is so much better! We’ve put our old stereo system in the game room, along with our old (non-HD) TV. We have a Playstation 2 in there as well (perhaps some day to be upgraded to a PS3 or XBox360… sigh!), along with a full Rock Band setup and DDR pads from Cobalt Flux. The DDR pads are probably my best investment in video game equipment ever; DDR is a great work out! We’ve had them a couple years and still use them all the time. No need for a gym membership!

For PC/Mac/console/handheld gamers, you might be interested in performance game chairs from Pyramat. I personally don’t like the chairs that are low to the ground (bad knees, getting old!), but the company does have a more standard chair with rolling base and pneumatic height adjustment.

We have a wireless network in the house. I would love to have a dedicated computer in the game room, along with a direct line to my favorite board gaming websites: Boardgame News and BoardGameGeek! Since the beautiful one-piece iMacs have come down so much in price, it is tempting to get one. Right now we use my husband’s laptop. My husband (a.k.a. Snoozefest) has several spreadsheets for aiding in board games such as Civilization and 1830 and has even created a GeekList of laptop and PDA player aids. Another GeekList about spreadsheets is also available.

A color printer is a great tool for printing player aids (don’t forget to laminate!) and tuckboxes (by printing on cardstock). Color printers have really come down in price, making them quite affordable. My husband makes custom tuckboxes for our games by scanning the game image and using a tuckbox template to determine the right size.

I’m sure I missed some items, so feel free to leave them in comments! I purposely didn’t mention items for painting and handling miniatures since I rarely do that sort of stuff. (Painting my robots for Robo Rally was my main experience.)

Note: There is one item in the accessories image (the one with poker chips and white background) that I did not mention – what is it, and why did I include it? (Click on the image to make it larger.) I’ll let you know if you figure it out. Now go build that game room so that you can start a game group!

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Comments:

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What is the big box game just above Roads & Boats ? Posted by Klaus Knechtskern on May 6, 2008 at 01:43 AM | #

It looks like Turfmaster to me. Posted by Eric Brosius on May 6, 2008 at 06:14 AM | #

IKEA have some great (and very cheap) folding side tables. We bought 4 for $60 which at the time was less than a copy of Puerto Rico - we figured it was a great form of insurance. Posted by Melissa Rogerson on May 6, 2008 at 08:26 AM | #

Wow great article.  And when can we come over? Posted by Lee Fisher on May 6, 2008 at 08:45 AM | #

Hi! Yes that’s Turf Master - if you click on the image, it will bring up a larger version of the image. We don’t have IKEA in these parts (NC) but that sounds like a great deal! Lee - Thanks! And if you live near here, let us know and we’ll have you over on one of our game days! Posted by Mary Prasad on May 6, 2008 at 09:07 AM | #

We don’t have IKEA or Costco in Bryan/College Station (though we do have Sam’s, so the cheap furniture is not a complete loss). I am lucky enough to have a closet in my game room, which allows a lot of extra game storage. Back in the days of video tapes and VCRs, I bought an “over the door” wire storage unit for video tapes. After phasing out the video tapes, I found that it serves as pretty decent storage for card games and smallish non-card games (Pickomino, for example). It looks like you have an excellent setup, Mary. A gaming snack tip: M&Ms, Reese’s Pieces, Goldfish, nuts and other small snacks work very well from small cups. The gamer can get the desired amount in their mouth without getting their fingers messy. I have even seen this work with one of the most reviled snacks: the Cheeto! (My wife, the crafts artist taught me this one - apparently needleworkers have been using little cups to get their chocolate fixes without messing up their projects for decades!). Posted by David Reed on May 6, 2008 at 10:10 AM | #

What kind of DDR pads are those? (This is the question that I had to know so badly that I finally registered with the site just to ask) Posted by Mike Adams on May 6, 2008 at 11:40 AM | #

David - Thanks for the tips! We do like our game room; we put a lot of effort into it! Mike - I’m glad you finally registered! Next to the image of the DDR pads, you will see a link to the Cobalt Flux doubles pack, just click it. I highly recommend them! You probably should not put them on thick pile carpeting; I read somewhere they may crack over time due to not having a flat or stable floor on which to rest (maybe something could be put under them to help? like a piece of wood). The DDR pads work on our berber carpet though and should be no problem on wood or laminate floors (I think they have feet to protect the surface - it’s been a while since I’ve seen the bottoms of the pads). Posted by Mary Prasad on May 6, 2008 at 12:07 PM | #

I’m in NC right now--got a gaming group nearby? Posted by Jeff Allers on May 6, 2008 at 02:13 PM | #

Hi Jeff, possibly - depends on where in NC! Email me on boardgamegeek; my ID is diceychic. Posted by Mary Prasad on May 6, 2008 at 02:54 PM | #

Wow.  Great showcase of a game room, Mary.  Now, I definitely have to come down for a visit… Posted by Larry Chong on May 7, 2008 at 08:44 AM | #

Great article Mary!  Very helpful, especially to someone trying to organize a game room. TR Posted by Travis Reynolds on May 7, 2008 at 10:06 AM | #

Thanks guys! So, when should I expect you Larry? So far, no one has mentioned my little challenge (see the note at the bottom of the article). Anyone? Bueller? In case you didn’t see it, Dale recently posted an article about his beautiful new game room (I’m not sure what it means that we were both thinking of writing about the same thing at about the same time… you might even say I’m a little afraid to think about it). :-D http://www.boardgamenews.com/index.php/boardgamenews/comments/dale_yu_the_new_and_improved_game_room/ Posted by Mary Prasad on May 7, 2008 at 12:17 PM | #

Mary, my guess for the mystery object is the Duelist/MagicTG abacus-like scorekeeper. And it’s… for… keeping… score? In two player games at least. Posted by Bay-Wei Chang on May 8, 2008 at 10:40 AM | #

This was another great article, Mary.  Very detailed with many useful links scattered throughout. I think the previous poster probably got it right, but even though you did mention dice bags, my guess for the mystery object is the crown royal bag which could serve as dice/tile bag. Posted by David Phipps on May 8, 2008 at 11:08 AM | #

Good guesses! But I mentioned the abacus in the Counters/Markers section (nicely identified as the Duelist/Magic version though!). The Crown Royal bag is also not it - as you correctly noted, we use it as a dice/tile bag. The mystery object is not mentioned at all in the article - not even hinted at… Posted by Mary Prasad on May 8, 2008 at 11:28 AM | #

Ah, true, you did mention it the abacus counter. I didn’t understand what that was in the text. Well, the only things I can’t identify are the card next to the abacus counter, and the yellow tag with a “3” on it behind the dice bag. No idea what either of those things are. Please upload a higher res photo! :-) Posted by Bay-Wei Chang on May 8, 2008 at 11:46 AM | #

It’s not the “card” next to the abacus counter (sorry it’s a little hard to see) - that’s a dual dial counter. The other item is the mystery item though. Since it is hard to see, I will tell you that it is a measuring tape. So why did I include it? (Hint: it’s a series of games.) Posted by Mary Prasad on May 8, 2008 at 12:12 PM | #

I am but an amateur. Posted by Mike Siggins on May 8, 2008 at 01:47 PM | #

Um, I’m not buying that, Mike. OK, couple more hints: it’s not a miniatures game per se, but close; it doesn’t use a board; and a (currently) big game company produced it. Posted by Mary Prasad on May 8, 2008 at 02:28 PM | #

Ugh, I’ve been trying to register for 2 days. I noticed the Play-Doh immediately and wondered why it was there. When you didn’t speak about it in the article I had to register to ask you about it. So now, tell me, it’s making me crazy. I’m guessing it is for people who fidget like me. Posted by Teresa Russell on May 8, 2008 at 03:39 PM | #

Hi Teresa! Glad you were moved to register! Originally the Play-Doh was for our last Halloween party. We had a contest for people to make the scariest sculpture. We left it in the game room because there is a game, Clay-O-Rama, that we are going to try one of these days… http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/9300 Posted by Mary Prasad on May 8, 2008 at 03:55 PM | #

Is it “Das Buch zum Spielen”...?  That’s the one that’s part of the Settlers of Catan series and it’s called “The Book” (in english), right?  It’s sitting behind the Hobby Games 100 book.  Back to back, book to book, huh?  Cute.  But, I’m not totally sure why it was included.  Of all the Settlers games, it’s one rare one that I’ve not yet played b/c it has all sorts of variants and components, I think. Posted by Larry Chong on May 8, 2008 at 07:03 PM | #

Well Das Buch was mentioned: “Books & board game magazines: If you play word games like Scrabble, Boggle, or Letter Head, you should have a dictionary in your game room. For Catan players, check out the specialized book of games, “Die Siedler von Catan: Das Buch zum Spielen.” “ Posted by Lee Fisher on May 8, 2008 at 08:10 PM | #

I’m not sure where we bought our copy of “Das Buch” but I have seen them around. I saw a new one in the marketplace at board game geek for 50 Euro - a bit expensive. There’s one on eBay, closing in about 6 days, currently at $24.99, unpunched. Posted by Mary Prasad on May 9, 2008 at 10:51 AM | #

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