As Christmas is quickly approaching (only two weeks left) there are some people feeling the pressure to try to buy the right gift. Well you’re in luck as we at the Gaming Buddha have gather a couple of items we think you, that special someone or that lucky person whose name you drew for Secret Santa will like getting as a gift. From speakers and battery banks to books and card games, there’s something here that everyone will love, so let’s jump right on in. (UPDATE: As soon as this guide went live, another item was sent to us to check out. So in the spirit of this being a last minute gift guide, we are updating the list and adding in this last minute
The Ultimate RPG Character Backstory Guide
With Dungeons & Dragons seeing a huge resurgence this past year, there has been a ton of new players coming in wanting to join in on the adventure, but don’t know where to start. Sure there’s the player’s handbook and other character guides to help out new players, but they might be a bit overwhelming to them to see so much information. That’s where The Ultimate RPG Character Backstory Guide by James D’Amato comes in with a saving roll. The Ultimate RPG Character Backstory Guide helps out new players mold and shape their character with easy to follow exercise and story prompts. These range from picking their alignment and the reason why, lore about a rival that you seem to always run into and battle scars to backstory before you joined the party, personality of your trusty steed and much more. These prompts and exercises are written in a way that you don’t necessarily have to follow them word for word. They’re there to guide and help you create a character that you can have fun playing as. Even veteran adventures can use the guide to help them come up with need ideas for their establish character. The Ultimate RPG Character Backstory Guide is out now at all major bookstores, wherever books are sold and online. If you want to see more of what I thought about the book you can check out by review here. And here’s the link to buy it directly from Simon & Schuster website, which also has links to other sites the book is sold on. For only $14.99, this guide is a great addition to any adventurers’ library.
Coal Portal Charger (12000 mAh version)
During the early years of portable batteries, they sometimes looked like this:
While they may be good for a quick emergency charge, in today’s society now we are more device orientated than ever before. We carry multiple devices and expect portable chargers to, well charge everything. From micro-USB and USB-Type C to Apple’s Lighting Cable it has to do it all. We also expect them to look as sleek as our devices. COAL has you covered with the COAL Portable Charger.
The COAL Portable Charger that’s being shown is their 12000 mAh model. This battery is able to charge your phone in under two hours with plenty of power left over to charge it again two more times. If you want to use this to charge your iPad/Android tablet or smart watch, it has enough for one full charge for tablets and forty three charges for smart watches. Speaking of charging your devices, the COAL Portable Charger comes with a braided charging cable that has three charging tips: Lighting, mini-USB and USB-Type C. The Type-C and Lighting adapters fit right on to the mini-USB plug, so no need to carry a cable for each of your devices. It even has a small digital display to let you know how much juice you have left. With all that power and convince come at a price though, as this model of the charger is $55 on Amazon. But out of all the portable charges I’ve used, including the blue one shown above, this one has to be one of the best ones that I’ve used. I was able to fully charge my phone with it and have enough to charge my dad’s and sister’s phone completely and still have enough power to keep my brother’s phone alive for a couple more hours. It’s definitely worth its price. Here’s the Amazon link to check it out, along with two other alternatives if you’re looking for a wall outlet option or a smaller version of the 12000 mAh charger.
Games Adults Play
Growing up whenever the power would go out and my siblings and I couldn’t play do anything with electronics, we would play board and card games. Years later as adults we still love playing board games. At first would would think that playing board games is a bit childish. Well you’re wrong Goliath Games created a new line of adult party games called Games Adults Play that cater to adult humor. Back in August they sent over a couple of games for me and my friends to play with. They were Tossed Salad, Shit Happens and Friend or Faux. We had a blast playing each of the games and since board gaming is also making a come back along side D&D, I thought I’d add these to the holiday guide. Here’s a brief description of each game, a link to my review of them and a link to where to buy these games.
Shit Happens– A card game where you compete to be the best in ranking “shitty” from least to worse. The situations are gross yet imaginative. If you’re a fan of South Park, Rick and Morty, basically any Adult Swim show that’s not anime, you will enjoy this game. Shit Happens is crude and very dirty and not for the faint of heart, or children for that matter. If your looking to add a little bit of “shit” to game night, then pick up Shit Happens. Price: $19.95
Tossed Salad– A charades/word guessing game that has players guess words using “other meanings” to that same word. A good example of this is the title of the game, tossed salad. If Heads Up, Taboo!, Pictionary or even the original charades is too “plain ranch” for you, then Tossed Salad will add a bacony, savory flavor to game night. So at your next game night with friends, surprise them with a healthy vocabulary treat in Tossed Salad. Price: $19.97
Friend or Faux– A card game that challenges players’ knowledge of each other. Things get personal, really personal. So gather your friends, fauxs and countrymen for a night of enlightenment with Friend or Faux and see who really are your friends and fauxs. Price: $19.29
Nintendo Switch
I’ll be honest, even though I was excited for the release of the Nintendo Switch last year, once it came out and I bought all the must have games for that year (Breath of the Wild, ARMS, Super Mario Odyssey, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Splatoon 2) I thought to myself, “That’s it?”. Sure there were games like Resident Evil Revelations 1 & 2, Doom, Skyrim, sports games from EA and 2K and of course indie games, but I already have had experienced those games on my PS4 and PC. I was looking for games that I could only experience on the Switch or versions of games that would make me prefer the Switch version instead of the other versions. Then in 2018, the Switch came in like a wrecking ball. Bayonetta 2 along with the first Bayonetta, Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, Kirby Star Allies, Monster Hunter Generation Ultimate, Mario ACES, Super Smash Bros Ultimate, Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu/Evee, the list goes on. These were the kind of games I wanted. There were even ports of third party games and even indie games that made me “switch” to the Switch versions. JRPG developers/publishers started to make the Switch the new home of JRPGS due to the Vita about to finally get put to rest by Sony. Nintendo Online service went live, though it still needs a lot of work. What I’m getting at is this: if you were on the fence about either getting a Switch for yourself or wanting to gift one, now is the time to jump on getting one. You can find them at almost major retail store and online. And if you do plan to buy one and want some accessory suggestion, you can check out our Nintendo Switch Holiday Gift Guide: Accessory Edition.
EDIFIER S88ODB Active Speaker
The last item for the guide also happens to be the very first tech item that was sent to us in the four to five years since the launch of The Gaming Buddha. These are the EDIFIER S880DB Active Speakers. I’ll be honest, home audio isn’t my forte so please excuse me if don’t go too in depth on the technical stuff.
The S880DBs are some really nice looking speakers, with white glossy front plates and wood paneling on the sides. Though I would have preferred them in black to match my set up, they fit nicely on my desk. I should mention that these are bookshelf speakers, so if you have a sound system that you use for music exclusively, they would be perfect for that use. The reason for that is that they have a built in amp and a couple of other in puts perfect for integrating into a sound system.
As you can see in the picture above there’s a couple of ports: a pair of audio ports, one is for aux cord, the other for PC, a USB port, coaxial port, and optical cable port. So depending on your set up, you have a couple of option on how you want to set these speakers up. As I also mentioned, there’s an amp built into one of the speakers, which is why there are three knobs. They control the volume, treble and bass levels. I like to feel a bit of “bump” in my speakers, so I adjusted the speakers to have a bit more bass, and they sounded excellent. As an added plus they are Bluetooth compatable, so you can sync your smartphone and stream music through them. These speakers are a big upgrade from the desktop speakers that I was originally using for my desktop set up. If you are looking to upgrade your desktop speakers with something a bit nicer, the S880DBs are a nice choice. They’re priced at $299.99 on Amazon.
Last minute entry: ECHOGEAR Dual Monitor Desk Mounts
Talk about last minute. Above you see the guts of the ECHOGEAR Dual Monitor Mount. This was sent in at the last minute to be included in the guide. Now you may be wondering why would anyone would want monitor mounts for Christmas. Well if you happen to be a streamer, chances are you have a couple of monitors on your desk or on near you on deskends displaying various of things. Desk real estate starts to get smaller and smaller depending on how many monitors you’re using and how big they are. Third-party/aftermarket mounts can be used to free up desk space, add in more viewing angles and just look cool after installing them. The ECHOGEAR Dual Monitor Mount delivers all of that in a minimalist profile.
The mount was really easy to install and only took about thirty minutes to put together and plug everything back together. Sometimes I like to stand up when I’m working and thanks to the mounts I’m able to adjust my monitors as I adjust my work position. Having them be able to move them in various position is convent when making additions to the desk, as seen in the picture below where I pair the S880DBs with the PC, turning it from desktop to battle-station:
The ECHOGEAR Dual Monitor Mount is on sale right now for $119.99 on the ECHOGEAR website and on Amazon.
And that does it for this last minute Holiday Gift Guide. I hope this helps out a bit as Christmas is fast approaching. Thanks for checking our guide out and hope everyone one of you has a Happy Holidays/Merry Christmas/Happy New Year.
