A trusty board game is truly a thing of beauty. We all have our favorites that we’ve played dozens of times, showed off to friends and family and bought all the expansions to add on more excitement.
Luckily, we live in a world where the popularity of board games inspired several companies to make exciting third party accessories that can trick out a beloved board game even more. Here are some of our favorites along with ways to make the game feel even shinier than before.
Firefly: The Game
Why You Should Be Playing It: If you don’t want to be the captain of a small vessel struggling in the ‘Verse, it’s probably a time for a refresher marathon of the series. Each player has to find a crew, find a job, and keep flyin’ to win one of the scenarios chosen at the beginning of the game..
Official Expansions: The bigger expansions expand the game board, while the smaller ones offer more ships and a chance to do some bounty hunting and things of a piratical nature.
Shiny 3rd-Party Expansions: The Broken Token offers woodcut organizers for a variety of board games to replace the plastic ones companies often seem to include as an afterthought. If you have all the expansions and still have your Browncoat, the Big Damn Crate not only replaces the box and holds all the expansions for the game, but is set up so that you don’t have to unpack everything to play!
Android: Netrunner
Why You Should Be Playing It: Fantasy Flight Games has a whole series of games set in their dystopian future setting, but Netrunner lets players play two games in one. You can build a deck to be a slick hacker stealing secrets from The Man or you can build a corporation deck where you’re trying to advance your sinister agendas in the name of profit. The Living Card Game setup also offers the fun of upgrading and adjusting a CCG deck with far less dead cardboard cluttering up the closet.
Shiny 3rd-Party Expansions: LITKO Accessories offers plastic tokens for several of Fantasy Flight’s offerings. Their Netrunner offerings stand out because the neon coloring evokes the virtual reality dueling between runner and corporation deck perfectly. Mirrorshades sold separately.
Lords of Waterdeep
Why You Should Be Playing It: There’s a reason this game was selected to be featured on Tabletop. It’s a lovely mix of worker placement and secret agendas where the players get to be the shadowy folks handing out quests in taverns instead of the poor suckers that have to go clear them out. Even players that don’t know their Harper from their Zhentarim love this game.
Shiny 3rd-Party Expansions: Meeples have quietly become the symbol of the current board game resolution. Meeple Source has a painted, color coordinated set for this classic. They also offer custom painted meeples as gifts and collectibles.
Do you have your own ways to upgrade your favorite game? Share them with us below!
Image credit: The Broken Token, LITKO Accessories, Meeple Source