Gloomhaven is a fantastic game. It has everything in the game box that you need to play it and have an amazing time. If you love Gloomhaven and want to upgrade it, here are some of my favourite Gloomhaven accessories and upgrades.
1. Storage insert organizers
Let’s be honest, the worst thing about Gloomhaven is the setup and putting away time. It can put you off playing it at all. All those tokens, boards, cards… It’s not long before your Gloomhaven box is Muddled.
A storage insert may not be the most glamorous Gloomhaven accessory, but by heck, will it improve your experience. No more dreading the setup and pack up time! Hooray!
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I have the Gloomhaven storage insert by Meeple Realty and it works fine. But sometimes when I pop the lids off the trays, tokens can jump out.
If I was buying an insert today, I’d get the new Gloomhaven Broken Token organizer that’s available on Amazon. It comes with boxes for the cards with handy labels on them and it also has space for the Forgotten Circles Gloomhaven expansion.
If you don’t want to spend much on a storage insert, you could use something like fishing tackle or screw boxes for the Gloomhaven pieces. Plano boxes like the one above are on Amazon. This one has adjustable dividers so you can adjust the storage spaces to the sizes you want.
2. Card sleeve protectors
Gloomhaven sessions are long because after you’ve completed one scenario, you want to do another one! For us, that means snacks and food are usually involved at some point. And as much as I love my friends, sometimes they get sticky fingers on the cards….
One solution is to get card protectors for your cards. These Gloomhaven card sleeves are available on Amazon and they are awesome. There are more than enough to sleeve all the cards in Gloomhaven.
Another option is to serve non-greasy, non-mess snacks on game night, like the ideas I share in this article.
3. Player organizer / dashboard
I really enjoy the ritual of laying all my character cards out and establishing my little area of the gaming table. But what makes it even better is a Gloomhaven player organizer.
I have this compact player organizer from Etsy that works pretty well, it takes up less space on the table than laying out cards does.
If you’re into the laser cut boards, this Gloomhaven player organizer on Etsy is great. It will take up more room than the one I have but it does have spaces for your equipment cards, summon status effect tokens and even your secret scenario goal.
4. Health and experience tracker
The health and experience trackers in Gloomhaven are fine. But I do find myself sometimes knocking the markers.
If that’s driving you crazy too, you may want to take a look at these premium health and experience trackers on Etsy. They have a compact design and take up less than half the space of the original Gloomhaven trackers!
5. Monster standee stands
There are a couple of options for upgrading the stands which come with Gloomhaven.
I am a big fan of these monster standee health tracker stands from Etsy. They have dials for tracking monster health and space for status effect tokens.
The stands are available in different colours. White and yellow are the most obvious choices, but they can also offer stands in other colours for summons, bosses etc.
You can even contact them or custom combinations so you get exactly the number of each colour that you want.
6. Flying monster standee stands
If you’re happy with the stands that come with Gloomhaven, but want something to elevate them just a little, check out these stands for the flying monsters on Etsy. They work with the original Gloomhaven monster standee stands and are also compatible with this shop’s custom monster health trackers.
These stands raise the flying monsters higher than the other monsters as a nice reminder that they are flyers and it makes them look like they are actually flying! Because they slot into the original bases, you can easily tell which ones are elites.
7. Metal coins
It makes sense that Gloomhaven has cardboard coin tokens, they are much cheaper to make than metal coins. But they don’t make a satisfying clink when you hold them!
Metal coins are a must-have Gloomhaven upgrade for us. For our Gloomhaven metal coins, we use the official Stonemaeir Games metal coins for Scythe. We use them across all our games whenever coins are involved. The coins are in denominations of 1,3,5,10 and 20 and are really high quality.
I like that each coin is distinctive and it comes with a lot of 1s which you’ll need in heavy loot scenarios! They are small enough to fit into a hex without looking out of place.
The Scythe metal coins are hugely popular as the Amazon reviews show.
If you’d prefer to have coins which fit more closely with the Gloomhaven fantasy theme, these metal coins on Amazon are beautiful! They are modelled on Spanish doubloons but can be used for any game theme really. They are made of solid metal so they are very satisfying to hold.
Check out these metal coins on Amazon.
8. Monster miniatures
There are over 200 monster standees in Gloomhaven. Clearly, it would cost a lot to replace all of these with minis. And just imagine the painting time!
However, if you really want to get some minis to upgrade your game, then Bones miniatures by Reaper have a lot that would work really well for Gloomhaven monsters.
I really like this pair of cultists on Amazon that come complete with a summoning pit.
This set of three skeletons on Amazon would be great for the living bones too.
9. Scenery
The flat tokens that come with Gloomhaven are great for getting an idea of the layout of room, but wouldn’t it be better if they were 3D? If the doors actually stood up and the columns and treasure chest looked more like chests?
The 3D Gloomhaven scenery set pictured above is on Amazon and it can bring that level of realism you don’t get with the flat tokens. It is perfectly designed to hold the tokens that come with Gloomhaven. So you can have 3D realism, without losing the look and feel of Gloomhaven provided by the artwork on the tokens.
You could also get this incredible painted scenery set on Etsy. Yes, it’s painted! Just look at the difference it makes to the game! Instead of it all being flat, it just pops off the boards. It contains 120 pieces of everything you’ll ever need! So many pieces! You can use these scenery items in plenty of RPGs for years to come!
Go check out the ultimate in Gloomhaven scenery set from EvilToyMakerStudio on Etsy to see all the details for yourself!
If you’re happy to paint the scenery yourself, this awesome 108 piece set from the Broken Token on Etsy is also fantastic!
Another option if you play RPGs and want scenery that you can use for Gloomhaven and for your D&D sessions are Terrain Crates.
The Adventurer’s Crate is available on Amazon and it’s a cost-effective start. It comes with bookcases, columns, crypts, tables and other scenery items like armour racks and torches too.
10. Painted miniatures
You can take your Gloomhaven miniatures to the next level by painting them. Never painted miniatures before? Have no fear! There are several painting miniatures starter kits available.
This Army Painter painting set on Amazon is a great starter kit. It includes paints, a paintbrush and a guide to painting miniatures to get you started. Before you paint your Gloomhaven character minis, I’d suggest buying some cheap monster minis like the skeletons I mentioned earlier so you can practise first.
11. Removable sticker set
I know that Gloomhaven is a legacy game, and my group should be destroying cards as we go. But we just can’t bring ourselves to do it! What if we want to play again?! Or have 2 campaigns running simultaneously?
For the cards we just don’t tear them up, but what about the map? If you put a sticker on the map, then it’s not going to be easy to remove. That’s where the removable sticker pack comes in.
I wish I’d known that I could get the Gloomhaven removable sticker set on Amazon before I started playing Gloomhaven!
12. Map frame
The art in Gloomhaven is beautiful. The map is no exception. We decided to frame our map and mount it on the wall. This is the Gloomhaven map on our wall in our games room.
It’s a nice reminder to organize sessions and actually play! I think about Gloomhaven a lot between games.
My favourite thing about it being on the wall is that as we add the location stickers, it’s always evolving. Like living art.
It took a little while to find a frame that fit the map, so I recommend you measure twice and triple check your measurements before ordering a picture frame!
13. Solo scenarios
Each of the 17 classes in Gloomhaven has a solo scenario designed specifically for that class. The solo scenarios were given away for free by the Gloomhaven designer, Isaac Childres. You can save the pdfs for the Gloomhaven solo scenarios and the item cards on google drive or you can buy a printed copy of the solo scenarios directly from the Gloomhaven publisher, Cephalofair.
14. Forgotten Circles Expansion
The first expansion for Gloomhaven is the Forgotten Circles Expansion which is available on Amazon.
The Forgotten Circles expansion adds:
- 1 new character class, the Aesther Diviner
- 20 new scenarios that happen after the original campaign
- 7 new monster types including 3 new bosses
- 14 new items
You may want to pick up the removable stickers for the Forgotten Circles expansion on Amazon too.
15. Colour changing LED bulb
Another Gloomhaven accessory I use every game is my colour changing LED bulb. It is in the pull-down light above the gaming table.
Before we start a game, I change the light to a different colour that matches the theme. If we’re entering a cultist environment, for example, I might change it to purple. If it’s in a sewer, then I might change it to green.
Colour-changing LED bulbs are pretty inexpensive and usually come with a remote control to change the colour easily. This colour-changing LED bulb on Amazon looks very similar to the one I have.
Bonus Upgrades!
Since I wrote this article, more awesome Gloomhaven upgrades and accessories have been released! Wahoo!
Here are some of the amazing new ones I’ve found!
Monster deck holders
It’s really common during a game, for several players to lean over the table to try and read the monster cards that are lying down flat. With the monster deck holders you can stand them up! There’s space for the monster stats card and the card deck so that everyone can see them.
Just make sure you’ve got some other way of tracking damage (like upgraded damage tracker stands for the monsters) because you can’t put tokens on the monster card anymore.
Go see these Gloomhaven monster deck holders for yourself on Etsy.
Element tracker
The element tracker that comes with Gloomhaven is ok, but the elements are easily knocked from one row and column to another.
With this gorgeous birch plywood element tracker on Etsy, element tokens have their own tracks so they aren’t going to go sliding around all over the place.
There’s also a round tracker which is a really handy tool for keeping track of how many rounds have passed and hurrying people along!
Poster
What better way to show of your Gloomhaven fandom in your home than with a poster?
I love the design of this Gloomhaven poster by Meeple Design. They have a whole range of minimalist board game posters for various games so you can get a set for your favourite games!
If this Gloomhaven poster design isn’t perfect for you, Meeple Design have several different art styles, including posters of individual classes like the Brute and Mindthief.
Go check out the Gloomhaven posters at Meeple Design.
Shirt
I absolutely love this Gloomhaven elements tshirt by Meeple Design.
The colours of the elements look great together! It doesn’t matter if the person looking at your shirt knows that it’s from Gloomhaven or not. You’ll still look cool!
And of course, if your shirt is spotted by another Gloomhaven player, they’ll immediately recognise that you’re a fan!
There are other Gloomhaven tshirt designs at Meeple Design too, so you’re sure to find one you like!
Conclusion – Gloomhaven accessories and upgrades
When you love Gloomhaven as much as I do, you can’t help but look at how you can upgrade it. It’s a game that gets to the table more frequently than any other and we spend all day playing it!
When you’re spending so much time playing one game, it’s definitely worth getting Gloomhaven accessories and upgrades! You could even get some as gift for the Gloomhaven fans in your life!
I’ve also created build guides for all the Gloomhaven starting characters. Check them out – ranged build guide for the Cragheart, tank build Brute guide, Tinkerer crowd control build guide, Mindthief damage and stun guide, Spellweaver AoE guide and a Scoundrel single target poison build guide.
As well as build guides for the starting classes, I’ve created guides for all the locked classes! Sun, Triforce, Two Minis, Music Note, Lightning Bolt, Three Spears, Circles, Angry Face, Cthulhu, Saw and Eclipse / Moon.
More Gloomhaven articles
- Gloomhaven Classes – Starting Characters Overview and Rank
- Gloomhaven Unlockable Classes Revealed (No campaign spoilers)
- Brute Guide – Tank Build
- Cragheart Guide – Ranged Build
- Mindthief Guide – Damage and Stun Build
- Scoundrel Guide – Single Target Poison Build
- Spellweaver Guide – Area of Effect Build
- Tinkerer Guide – Crowd Control Build
- Locked Class – Angry Face Guide
- Locked Class – Circles Guide
- Locked Class – Cthulhu Guide
- Locked Class – Eclipse / Moon Guide
- Locked Class – Lightning Bolt Guide
- Locked Class – Music Note Guide
- Locked Class – Saw Guide
- Locked Class – Sun Guide
- Locked Class – Three Spears Guide
- Locked Class – Triforce Guide
- Locked Class – Two Minis Guide
Emily
Hi, I’m Emily, the tabletop gamer behind My Kind of Meeple. If this article helped you, I’d be honoured if you’d say, “Thanks!” with a £3 coffee on Ko-fi.
