As a player, I love getting little souvenirs from the GM. These can be actual gifts, not tied specifically to the game, or in-game props that don’t have to be returned.
For example, at the start of a Stargate SG-4 campaign in 2004-5, our GM, Don, gave everyone an actual SG-4 patch. It was awesome.
But as a GM, it’s something I’m notoriously bad about — I never remember to give my players gifts and things to commemorate the game.
It’s an easy thing to do, though, and it makes a great “Thank you” to your players for showing up every week and making the game possible. Don’t be like me.
Good point.
When I started my campaign, I gave the players some dice. Just a little token to express my thanks to them for playing.
I am planning something else, but I can’t say anything yet. I think it will blow them away.
Ooooh — tell us about it once the cat’s out of the bag, will you? 🙂
I have given quite a few gifts as a GM. They’ve ranged from dice (nothing random, but a particular set I felt matched the character or player), art prints (particularly ones that I know the player will like – Todd Lockwood is a favorite of mine) or sketches of their characters.
I’ve also taken the players out to lunch, on me – without my players, my game is nothing. 😀
I ordered a set of dice for each of my players for my shadowrun campaign I’ve just started running. I bought 180 dice and I’m hand-painting three sides of each (the botch side gets a red starburst, the sucess side gets a green starburst and the sucess+reroll side gets a green starburst with a yellow cross in the middle.) It’s taking considerably more time to finish them than I originally thought it would (largely because I have no large chunks of time just lots of small ones) but I hope everyone goes “OOOOOO!” when I hand them out. I’m not terribly hopeful though. My last prop/gift got largely ignored (Through bad circumstances. I don’t think they’re being actively rude.) and I was working on the dice last week when a player showed up early and I got the comment “There’s something to be said for simplicity, don’t you think?” in a snide tone. When I test to make sure they’re rolling relatively true (and add extra layers of sealant to the light sides if they’re not) he’s getting the dice that roll low.
So, in preperation for my impending frustration, anyone out there give their players a gift that was not well received?