Teachers in the Dungeon Gift Guide 2021

Looking for a good gift for your significant other who plays D&D?  Maybe you are a DM and looking
for a fun gift for your players.  Perhaps you want to treat your DM to a nice gift.  Here are some ideas from Tom Gross and Dan Reem of Teachers in the Dungeon.  (any companies and individuals are pure recomendations from Teachers in the Dungeon, none are paid sponsorships)

Tom's List:  

Dice, Dice, Dice and more Dice!  Feed your #DiceGoblin and buy lots of dice.  Buy lots of dice from your local game store!! 

Dice Box:  The special dice or Game Dice need a special place to hang so they treat you well at the table. A custom-made wooden dice box is a great gift.  It gives your favorite player some swagger at the table when the Dice Box comes out to take control of the game.  

D&D Apparel:  Speaking of swagger, a classic D&D ampersand t-shirt or ball cap gives your D&D gal or guy a way to show their love of the game.  Or, check out some third-party groups that make their own roleplaying shirts.   

Roleplaying Book:  If your player is new to the game, a core rule book or a supplemental book is always appreciated, but for something unique, check out the third-party books.  Kobold Press has a great choice of really cool supplemental books for the player and DM alike.  You might also check out Cawood Publishing for some cool new books.  Also, Raven Press Maps (ravenpressmaps, Instagram) has a really cool and colorful map book with mini scenarios for quick battle opportunities.  

Character Token Sets: These are really cool little tin boxes, unique to the character class, that have a combat tracker tile the player can use to keep track of combat stats, and character condition tokens.  We have used these in our games and they are really helpful and keep you from constantly erasing on your character sheets.   

Dan's List

Minifigures: Whether you get the stock mini's or a custom figure made from a custom service like HeroForge, miniatures make great gifts for the gaming table.  

Miniature Paints: Cephalopod Studios is a small business that produces quality paints that do not need to be thinned, and any friend, player or family member who paints minatures would appreciate these. 

Commissioned Art:  Get your favorite D&D player a custom portrait of their character by commisioning a local artist or one online to create a unique work of art.  These are really special gifts and these talented artists are really great to work with.  The Teachers in the Dungeon recommend Jeremy Cole, Tatterdemaelion on Instagram.  

A quick note...

Before we wrap up, we always recommend buying your supplies and D&D gear and materials from your local game store or local creators.  It seems that you get more for your dollar buying from mass stores and websites, but the real value for your dollar is buying from your local creators and stores.  They support you and your game community in many ways.  They host product releases, they support local libraries and school clubs, they support your economy, they host game nights, they are the experts in the products.  They deserve your support.  

For more details on our thoughts about these products, check out the "Christmas Gift Guide" episode on the Teachers in the Dungeon podcast.  You can find the show on Anchor, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts and more.  On Teachers in the Dungeon, we discuss Dungeons and Dragons 5e and homebrew content from both player and DM perspectives, with additional episodes devoted to other topics related to D&D.  

Friday Favorites: Top 5 Concerts

I was asked to speak to the History of Rock class at our school to discuss a concert experience I had experienced.  I don't think the teacher, a good friend, had any idea how happy this made me as I love to talk about live music.  It got me thinking of all the concerts I had been to in my life.  I started by creating a list of as many of the concerts I could remember, and it became quite apparent which concert I would talk about.  But in the list making process, I thought it would be fun to create a top 5 concerts.  So here it is, with the top concert being the experience I would share with the class.  

5. The Kinks, Holiday Star Theater, Merriville, Indiana  1988

    My best friend in high school and I took made the trip to Merriville, Indiana to see The Kinks on a
Sunday night in 1988.  We enjoyed a powerful set from the Kinks, but we left something in that theather forever...a part of our hearing.  It was the loudest concert I have ever attended.  We couldn't talk to each other the entire way home, because nothing could be heard.  The next day at school we both experienced ringing in our ears.  Was it worth it?  At the time, absolutely it was worth it, check out the playlist of current songs and classics.  It was an amazing concert, but in hindsight, maybe some ear plugs would have been appropriate.  

4. The Eagles - Riverport Ampitheater, Maryland Heights, Missouri 1994

   

Any time you see a mega band like The Eagles, you are going to be in for a treat, because all of these band members went on to have incredibly successful solo careers.  At this concert, we weren't only treated to some of the best songs of The Eagles, but we got solo performances from Joe Walsh, Don Henley, and Glen Frey.  I will never hear Rocky Mountain Way in the same way when I hear it on the radio.  It was such a powerful performance.  The Eagles didn't disappoint with only one encore, they pounded out three encoure performances finishing with Take it Easy.  

3. Dave Matthews Band - Farm Aid, New World Music Theater, Tinley Park, Illinois 1997

    I have seen the Dave Matthews Band three times (once at FarmAid) and every time (not including Farm Aid) the audio mixing was disappointing.  I mean, disappointing to the point of almost leaving during one of the concerts.  The main guitar was so high on some songs that the bass and drums were almost not heard from where we were sitting.  But, Dave Matthews and band knocked it out of the park at their brief performance at Farm Aid.  I have no idea why this performance, mixing-wise, was so much better than the others, but I am thankful it was, because it makes it my third favorite concert experience. 

2. John Mellencamp - Rosemont Theater, Rosemont, Illinois 1997

     John Cougar Mellencamp puts on incredible shows with hard rocking music.  It is clear that he was a rocker growing up and living out his dream in this show.  It was a raucous concert with loud rock and roll with Scarecrow, Pink Houses, Cherry Bomb and he kicked off the encoure with R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A!  There was only one respite in the entire concert when he played Jackie Brown and concluded with

Check It Out which we all needed to come back to Earth after this non-stop musical experience.  

1. The Grateful Dead - Alpine Valley, East Troy, Wisconsin  1989

    I have my brother to thank for taking a risk on bringing me along for the ride of a Grateful Dead concert experience.  I am still amazed that I was able to see the Grateful Dead live in 1989 in Wisconsin.  When I think about the music of this concert, I will never forget the opening cords of the first song, Hell in Bucket, but the rest of the concert resonates in my head as just a Grateful Dead sound.  I don't have any particular memories of any other song except for Mexicali Blues in the first set.  Besides the musical experience, the Deadheads left quite an impression on me as I remember in the "market" area one man selling jars of absolutely nothing for ten dollars.  How could I forget the man skipping through the crowd tossing out Fruit Stripes gum to all of us.  This entire experience along with the iconic band and Jerry Garcia make it my number one concert experience.  

How about you?  What are your top concert experiences?  I could easily finish out a top 10, so let me know if you would like to see that, but I definitely would like to see your top shows and maybe even your favorite places to see a live show.  Leave a comment here or on Twitter and tag me @draftline

Storeroom Treasures part two: Old Equipment

Sometimes when I head into that storeroom in our house, I find some things that are so far removed from my memory.  Things that are obsolete in today's world, but for one reason or another seemed important to keep.  I came across a box that hasn't been opened in a long time because it found its way to the bottom of a pile of boxes.  I uncovered this box and popped off the lid to expose some old electronic equipment.  

The contents of the box included a VCR, a random remote control, a variety of different cords, and a digital television antenna/receiver.  This box is in the storeroom for several reasons even though the overarching question still is, why?  

Does anyone else keep a VCR around because of old family videos?  I think that is the only reason that VCR made it into the box. I know that there are also videotapes of some stage shows I did when I was in high school, and my wife has some videotapes of some dance shows.  What is funny is that none of these video tapes are in this box with the VCR.  That means that either we have discarded those tapes or there is another box somewhere filled with those tapes.  Upon inspection of this VCR, I discovered that there are a couple televisions in our house that do not have the RCA cable connectors for this old tape player, so it is almost completely obsolete.  

I kept the digital receiver from a time when we cut the cord and just watched the local digital, broadcast  channels.  That experiment lasted about a year.  It saved a ton of money that year, but in the times before streaming services, the Netflix DVD's just didn't come fast enough in the mail, and we went back to cable services.  I think I kept the digital receiver because I have dreams of cutting the cord again.  What I have discovered is that our local cable provider really offers reliable Internet service with a minimum cable channel list that it makes sense to carry this service.  So there sits the digital receiver in a forgotten box in the storeroom. 

This box also has a number of random cables including more coaxial cable than I think any room needs, an Hdmi extension cord, and some speaker wire.  Oh, there is a remote control from another VCR that apparently didn't make the cut, but the remote snuck in to this box to live another day.  

The best part of this box are the memories that are in here.  A silly box of random, old electronics has memories?  Of course, I remember all the rooms that I set this or other VCR's up in, from college apartments to houses long gone.  I remember the rooms and even some of the movies I watched on machines like this.  Boxes with old equipment like this are always filled with memories.  I realize that these boxes can't stick around forever, but while they are here in our attics, closets, or storerooms, they are worth a few minutes of time to reminisce.  Maybe even a little reflection is deserved to decide if boxes like these should go to the curbside to make room for new boxes that years from now will bring up a new collection of forgotten memories.