The holidays are almost on you and you haven't bought anything for that gamer in your life? Or, more likely, you're a gamer with a clueless friend, relative or significant other and you are pointing them to this column in hopes of avoiding yet another year of Bed, Bath & Beyond items?

Look no further. Here are 4 awesome cheap (or free) gifts for gamers!

Free RPG Adventures & Supplements

Got no money? Friends not scared away by the letters P, D & F? Have a spare USB storage device around?

First up is free stuff. The list of $0 items from eBook publishers like DTRPG includes this set of 2728 free gaming epublications, with everything from adventures to free paper minis.

So sort out a few for the gamer in your life, put them onto a flashdrive ($5 at most stores) or burn a CD (if they still exist) or just put them onto cloud storage and share them to their email account. .

Cloud storage plug. Sites like Dropbox let you store your items securely on the web. You can store stuff in the Dropbox cloud, then share just a folder with someone else (identified via email addres) and *poof*, free legit file transfer. If you don't have a free Dropbox 1GB account, use my referral link and set one up!

Paper Minis!

Who doesn't like miniatures? What is better than paper minis, that you can print and fold yourself? How can you make it a proper gift?

Much like the above free RPG stuff, you can get the printable free paper miniatures again from DTRPG. But this time, don't just make an electronic copy for your gamer gift target.

Print up a sheaf of paper minis! Run some white or colored paper through and make a little 32-sheet stack of these cute foldables. Pick a theme, such as medieval mini-figures or Old West town buildings. Put the sheets in a nice envelope or folder, then for decoration, print-and-fold one to have a genuine 3-D mini acting as a bow. Fun, and crafty!

You may find yourself lured by some of the non-free items from particular vendors, in which case, the appropriate purchase of a few dollars' worth of for-pay minis from that same designer is worth considering. Not only will you get a few more premium entries to spice up the gift, you'll be ensuring the creators can eat and live and thus create more. Not a sermon, just a thought (as the quote goes).

Ultimate Rule Mods

Your gamer target has every game published? Can't think of a game they want that they haven't already bought? They've run out of shelf space?

Time to do a little web research to hunt up the Ultimate Rules Mods for their favorite games. If they play Castle Panic a lot, visit that game's entry at Board Game Geek (BGG). You can find new ways to play it in the "Forums - Variants" section. Or head a little lower on the page to the "Files" area to see rule mods like 'Midnight Madness'

There's no limit to the games that include variants. From the Monopoly 'retirement' variant through to variants on the nearly sacred Settles of Catan, there's a mod for almost every game (except the My Little Pony Game, alas).

So how is this a present? Duh. You print up the rules, nicely, perhaps as a little booklet. Slap on a pretty scan of the game as a cover and *poof* you've just given them a brand new game they already love.

If you find this useful, I believe BGG is running a fund drive off their site this season, something worth considering if you want to have this free resource around for next year's holidays.

Webcomics sans Ads

Got a webcomic they would love? No book edition available yet? They don't want to catch up on 5 years of strips?

It's time they get caught up on that webcomic you've been raving about. Here's the task. Go to the comic and download all the strips. Save them as image files, in order. Put them on a USB drive or in the cloud, and that's their gift.

Simple as it sounds, it is infinitely better to be able to zoom through a webcomic using an image browser at reading speed-- like a book-- rather than at ad-laden internet speed. This is even better if they have a tablet.

By downloading the strips for them, you're giving them all the pleasure and none of the

tedious

delay

of

ad

loading.

Bear in mind web comics often survive on ad revenue. As structured, this is a fair trade-- you (who has already read the strip) are viewing all the ads as you save them for your offline friend. Karmically and economically, you're solid.

Scripting a fetch routine or using a tool like wget does bypass ads and automate the capture, but does have its own concerns. It is easier for the technically inclined but could have short-term consequences. It's not 'piracy' if you are obtaining free content via the web in a free manner, but there are issues to consider if you're directly scooping hundreds of files.

Courtesy (or guilt) suggests that you donate to the comic creators, especially if they provide a link for that. Ethics suggest you limit yourself to only providing your one friend with the copy and not sharing widely. Pragmatism agrees-- if you cut the creator's revenue out of the loop, they won't be able to continue creating the web comic you like enough to share!

That's four

The core premise of these gifts is that you are spending the most valuable currency in existence on them. Time is far more valuable than money, and these gifts are a sign that you are actually thinking about the gift recipient, not just 'consuming'.

If those four items don't satisfy the gamer on your holiday list, perhaps it's time to give their gifts to someone more deserving?

Happy holidays!
Sandy
sandy at rpg.net