Here we really like board games, because they allow us to get together with people, and they have been a great mental help during the pandemic years thanks to the fact that we could play free board games online or in Tabletop Simulator. Now that the effects of the pandemic have been reduced to almost a minimum, people can try in person those board games that they have discovered or have made more people aware of it. But many don't know how technology can improve them.
Now, how can many of the electronic devices enhance our table gaming experience? Many who have been in the world for years already surely know these tips that we are going to give you, but we will focus this text on for people who want to improve their games or help them discover the world.
Table of Contents
Printer and laminator, ideal for making your own aids
Let's start with a peripheral that many of us would like to have at home in a more stable way, which is the printer. But because they tend to cause problems, many people tend to go through the copy shops. A printer, or copy service, can be very useful to print what you want, as the imagination works its magic.
For example, you can print and then laminate a card sleeve guide, making sure it meets the measurements by comparing it to a ruler or tape measure, and laminating. You may have to print guides from multiple brands, as each interprets sizes a little differently. You can also print guides on how to assemble the game, ideal if you know the rules inside out but forget how to assemble it. This is ideal for games that have set-up or conditions based on the number of players, or the starting positions of the Backgammon tiles.
You can also print game sheets that use consumables in Roll and Write genre games like Optimus, Smoothies, or Cartographers. You can print several sheets and laminate them, which you can then mark with whiteboard markers to erase them and not consume paper in each game. It is especially useful both in games that you play often, like if you want to teach a game and you are not sure that the other players will like it until the end and you don't want a sheet to be wasted. In the end it is to make a reusable sheet, and that helps to save. If you can't find a copy online, you should try scanning a sheet and saving it with multiple backups, and even upload it to the Board Game Geek page to share with the world.
Then there's the huge community of users who make free games that you can print yourself. The print and play are a community of gamers who design their games. You can also print versions of games that have lost the rights, or that are difficult to import, such as the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure version of one of the best hidden role-playing games in the form of Secret DIO or the game “Win, Lose, or Banana,” which only has three cards and you can print out many versions.
Specialized printing services have even sprung up, capable of printing you cards made by UnMatched fans in good quality. Now, having at hand any board game that consists of a board, cards, and other easy-to-get items like generic tokens, money tokens, or more, is within everyone's reach.
Play background music with bluetooth speakers or Google Chromecast
In long games and highly themed games, a soundtrack helps a lot. there is the web Melodice.org, in which users create playlists with music of all kinds customized for games. This helps set the mood, although always careful not to saturate the users.
For a long, dense game like Brass: Birmingham, Cascadia, or Root, a soundtrack helps. In this case, a bluetooth speaker helps a lot, and it will be much better than the speakers of a mobile or a tablet. If you do not have, if your smartTV has a casting option through Google Gome or any other application, or you use ChromeCast, you can cast your mobile or tablet using Google Home, and using the mobile browser. This way you will have the option for people to enjoy a soundtrack in almost any game. You can also make your own YouTube or Spotify playlist.
But before preparing a long thematic list, you must agree to the people with the game you are going to play and knows if they agree to have music. There are people who just don't like having music when they play, or who do, but need to have breaks in between so they don't get saturated. For example, in a long game like Arkham Horror or Twilight Struggle, if your playmate is very upset about having themed music, do like supermarkets do with genre background music. muzak, and intersperses fifteen minutes of music and another fifteen or more of silence. It is not the plan to harass your fellow players, and it is necessary that all of them are comfortable playing.
Learn to play any board game through Youtube videos
If you are bad at teaching, or you have prepared a game night where there is a "main course» Like Lacrimosa, which can take a while to explain, sometimes it's better to have someone explain the game to you. If you're bad at reading manuals or just want to see how to play before buying, there's a huge selection of YouTube channels dedicated to teaching you how to play. For example, you have Watch It Played with Rodney Smith in English, and Me Cuento 20 with Rafa Prescott in Spanish, both capable of teaching you how to play Brass: Birmingham or Root without any problems in a short time.
These videos are ideal when you don't know the game well enough to be able to teach it, or review the rules before explaining them. It should be said that not all games will have an explanatory video, and if it's an old game or one that hasn't had the largest circulation and hasn't sent copies out to people for review, it can be hard to find a video explaining the rules. These videos are not only used to learn how to play, but also to help you buy, in case you see a game that looks interesting due to its theme, cover, or any other detail, but you don't know exactly how to play it.
But if your contacts are not very gamers and you have invited them to a session, Ideally, you know how to play and you are the one who teaches. But if everyone agrees to watch a video the morning before or during the ride on how to play, that's time you save and then focus on playing. Of course, keep the rules at hand to avoid discussions.
mobile apps for board games
From the most basic, a serial mobile has applications to set a timer in case there are games that require it, from classics like Scattergories or Pictionary, to modern titles like Pakal or Ubongo. Some like Pakal or Penguin Airlines have in the largest app stores their own applications to exclusively play them. Many mystery or narrative games use proprietary applications to be able to carry the entire game, already imperatively, acting as a narrator and as artificial intelligence to play against.
An example of this is UnLock, the series of games in the style of "Escape Room» that require having the application installed. There may be a privacy issue here, as it is necessary to make available to people a personal device such as a mobile phone to which they send us personal messages via WhatsApp and Telegram, so we recommend using a tablet, since they are not given to having so much personal data. You can also use airplane mode so notifications don't pop up from relatives or acquaintances. It will also be necessary that the mobile and the tablet have a minimum of power, with which it is even possible that an old mobile is not enough to be able to move a board game.
A proprietary board game app is Devir's, which includes counting points for some more or less complicated games, such as Bitoku or LUNA Capital. This makes it easier to count points, especially after a long hour of placing items on spaces to score points.
Other more generic ones do a simple task like choose a player among all those who put a finger on the screen, like Choozi. Although they are applications whose original use was not that, but it is a use that can be given. There are also apps for counting player points, for games where there is no scoreboard like Sushi Go, or where the scoreboard isn't as good as you'd expect from it, like Sushi Go Party. It can also be used as a life counter for different characters in other games. For example, the Simple Score Tracker game was created to keep track of life in the Star Realms game due to how tedious the original form is, and ironically ended up being widely used in official tournaments.
There are also dice rolling apps, like Fancy Dice. It is extremely useful when you have to roll a number at random, or want to roll several dice at once. There are applications with more elaborate models, but it is possible that lower-end mobiles and tablets are not capable of moving them.
3D Printer
One of the most widespread uses that 3D printers have been given in the world of tabletop and role-playing games is the option of making minis for games that use figures. They are also used to make inserts for games, and in a certain part, a deluxation. Let's go through them one by one.
Minis are what small figures for Warhammer-type games are called, but the use of 3D printers for minis is more for SourceForge minis, or community-created ones, for games like unMatched. serve for have a figure instead of a small disc that represents the character, besides that this helps to have rare and expensive characters to get like Bruce Lee or Deadpool. Although its use is more to have one or two figures when ordering them from the store. It only pays to have a 3D printer when printing armies. It also serves to get homemade copies of games easy to replicate, like Hive, which is out of print but still one of the most beloved abstract two-player games in the gaming community.
Inserts can be a great help for games that don't have a way to neatly store components out of the box. It's not uncommon for a game to only have its own box to hold everything in, so a game insert for The Lost Ruins of Arnak is most welcome. A printer can accurately print the insert to have the ordered components that will have been made by another user. In addition, it is not only a way to store them and that they all fit, it is that some inserts They can be a great help when setting up the game, since they act as dedicated token holders for the different components, separated by type, in addition to gathering the components that belong to each player at the beginning.
If you don't have a 3D printer, there are even services that offer to print these minis and inserts. While they're a great addition to a club-worthy board game collection, they'll be in high usage for the first few days, but there will come a time when their usage will stop, because all the more detailed inserts, minis, and tokens have been removed. done already.
Outside of dedicated game accessories, accessories can be created:
- dice tower: It is used to roll the dice and ensure that the result is as random as possible by not allowing manipulation.
- dice tray; the base is printed and then felt is cut out and glued to the bottom to have a place to throw the dice and they won't fall out. It also serves to throw more fragile dice and that do not deteriorate thanks to the felt.
- letter holder: they offer comfort to the users and are useful in games where it is desirable or imperative not to move the cards in the hand such as Hanabi, Scout or Bohnanza.
digital boards
In another article we talk about free board games that you can play from your computer, and the ways to role play free or in Tabletop simulator. We keep recommending these tools to play free games. It is ideal to try them before making the payment, to know if you and your friends like it, or to play with people from around the world.
