Polygon’s favorite Dungeons & Dragons accessories

I don’t think Elgato had D&D in mind when it designed the Stream Deck, but it’s a powerful tool for DMs looking to ease the burden of multitasking. The small version of the console we own has eight LCD keys, four dials, and a touch strip that you can pre-program with whatever actions — or action chains — you want. This has made the experience of DMing so much smoother for my husband, who swears by it for running sessions. Now, when our party runs into trouble, “I can press a single button and have the lights in the room turn a dim red, ominous music slowly fade in, and a stat block for my creepy monster pop up on my laptop,” he explained.

From my perspective as a player, the Stream Deck has noticeably kept up narrative momentum and brought so much color to our sessions. When our party walks into a shop, we feel the vibe shift as the Wii Shop music kicks in. When we win an encounter, the Final Fantasy 7 victory music amps us up. And when I decided the best way to pull off a train heist was by doing a Magic Mike routine, he already had Ginuwine’s “Pony” locked and loaded for when the body rolls began. I know I can only glimpse a fraction of the ways he’s using it to DM, but I love all the atmosphere the Stream Deck has brought to the table. —SG

The deeper I got into my campaign, the more I realized I needed something to keep all my stuff in one place. After looking around online, I found a seller on Etsy who made dice and storage boxes that would be able to hold multiple sets of dice, my mini, pens, and still have room for any miscellaneous things I might acquire as time goes on. Plus, the lid doubles as my personal dice tray, meaning no more reaching across the table while having to dodge everyone’s water/beer/Red Bull.

The exact design of my box is no longer available and prices vary depending on the commission, but I chose a mahogany box with a standard engraving, which came out to $75 plus shipping. After collaborating with the seller on the design, the final result exceeded all expectations and I was absolutely stunned by the level of detail captured in the engraving of a cat framed by florals and the moon. I will note that the lid is only held on by magnets, so it’s not the most secure option on the market. However, I have traveled with my dice box in a tote without issue, and it’s easy enough to simply toss my dice in a bag if I ever don’t need my full supplies. —SG

One of my wishes in life is that I had both enough IRL friends and enough time to play a D&D campaign. Alas, I do not have either, but Baldur’s Gate 3 exists, which is probably the best consolation I could ever ask for in my situation. Larian Studios took on the storied series from BioWare, and delivered a massive, memorable, and highly personalized RPG worthy of the Baldur’s Gate name.

While the number of possibilities in Baldur’s Gate 3 pales in comparison to the limitless customization of a homegrown D&D game, it should manage to surprise and delight players with its cast of characters, as well as the many story twists you’ll encounter (or be directly responsible for creating). The randomness of dice rolls, plus the game’s alternate storylines for, say, an evil Dark Urge campaign, should keep players entertained for many playthroughs to come. —Cameron Faulkner

I’ll admit, I went into my first viewing of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves with fairly high hopes. Sure, most game adaptations in my lifetime either err too self-serious or too mocking of the source material, but I had a lot of faith in directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein to strike the right mix of reverence and entertainment, given their work as screenwriters for Spider-Man: Homecoming. Then there was Chris Pine, arguably the best Chris, with a proven track record of someone who can take nerdy material and make it shine in both serious and comedic ways. And you know what? The movie is fun as hell.

If you’re already a D&D aficionado, then Honor Among Thieves delivers loving homages while staying (mostly) true to the lore and rules. And if you have no prior D&D experience, that’s OK: The movie deftly explains what it needs to without getting bogged down in the rules. This is the closest we may get to fantasy Fast and Furious, and I’m not just saying that because it also co-stars Michelle Rodriguez. There’s a big sense of found family — which, hey, is the de facto position for so many D&D parties. —Ross Miller

While I toyed around with Dungeons & Dragons at several points in my life, it wasn’t until the McElroys started their podcast The Adventure Zone that I truly “got” how to enjoy D&D and what the experience of my own tabletop adventure could be. There was one moment in particular that has always stuck with me, which is when DM Griffin McElroy, exasperated, seems to decide on the fly to rename a side character “Barry Bluejeans” (originally it was Sildar Hallwinter, as they were playing starting from the 5th edition tutorial mainstay Lost Mine of Phandelver). It is a very silly, very dumb name… and yet over the course of hundreds of hours of their first saga, Barry and in fact all the characters go through a truly epic and at times emotional campaign — one that is so, so, so removed from the Phandelver story they started with.

The Adventure Zone taught me how to effectively DM, and also that I don’t need to build adventures around esoteric terms and highfalutin names when you can still make compelling narratives. The podcast is absolutely worth a listen, but more often these days I find myself skimming through the Adventure Zone graphic novels, which in many ways feel like a remix that take what made the improvised saga so great and adapt it to the pages, featuring amazing artwork form Carey Pietsch. [Disclosure: Justin McElroy and Griffin McElroy are co-founders of Polygon.] —RM

The Monster Manual was my first taste of Dungeons & Dragons. Long before I even rolled a d20, I was intimately familiar with the creatures spread throughout the classic tome. While there are plenty of memorable baddies to be found in D&D, one of my personal favorites is the mimic. Often taking the form of chests or coffers, a mimic is an imitative and cunning predator that’s able to take the form of virtually any inanimate object.

People often see the mimic as a deceptive monster to be slain for loot, but I just think they’re misunderstood. Thankfully, the people at WizKids seem to think so too, and made an adorable, 11-inch plush mimic that I quickly adopted to become a part of my own personal menagerie. This l’il guy has teeth that glow in the dark and a gaping maw that’s hungry for treasure, but even hungrier for love. Just like me. —Alice Jovanée