"Rewards: thanking folks in demos, tournaments, and leagues" Topic

Down at the store, I was suggesting awards at the end of leagues, and got the usual 'they only want money/product' reply.

Now, I agree that's big, but wondered if a trophy might just add a kick.

I've even other ideas, but I want to hear from y'all first!

Doug

I usually bring a couple custom-made relevant terrain pieces as a 'prize' for playing con games.

Dear Beast

Awards by whom and to whom? Who do you see as the conferring party in the awards and they go to whom. What is a "leagues". Further who were you suggesting this to, the store or fellow gamers.

A common tactic in this area is to collect X amount of cash from each player. That money is then divided 4 ways into store gift cards. Somewhere along the lines of 30%,25%,25%, and 20%. The store tends to spring for the "Official" tourney or campaign pack. The top 3 players get 30,25,and 20% cards. Then we have a random drawing among the rest for the last card so everyone at least gets a chance of a prize. Sometimes the head of the league even paints up a nice model for a winners trophy. The last depends upon his skill level of course.

Meh. I play for fun, I'd rather the prizes were distributed to all participants, or not at all.

I've done "custom fundraiser" free for all events in games with build point systems.

Scenario: Everyone starts on a map edge with their unit. REALLY skilled people start out in the middle of the map. Every player has to pick a turn where they expect to get overwhelmed by being ganged up on.

Budget for build points is equal to what you raised for the charity in a pledge drive.

There were three prizes (I paid for them, and the store in question--The Last Square--surprised me by doubling the value of the coupons).

Alpha Prize: The person who got the most "Oh god, that's siiiiiick." responses from fellow players.
Beta Prize: The person who came closest to predicting the turn of their demise.
Gamma Prize: The last unit on the map.

I have usually handed out promo cards to demo participants, and I've been known to hand out painted minis from my demo kits to really enthused demo participants.

I decided to formalize the "hand something nicer than a piece of paper" out with challenge coins, after seeing Howard Taylor and Larry Correia use them as fund raisers for fans.

For demos, I dunno what, but something (heck, maybe a copy of the quickstart rules or something).

For tournaments, I like to include one specific award. It's called the Broken Dice award, and it's awarded by the players to the guy who had the worst luck during the tournament. Perfectly setup situations, and the dice just fail him.

Before I found the Maow Miniatures dice monsters ( link ), I always used a cube of d6s as the prize. Now I think I can add a painted Monstrode as the trophy, and the replacement dice as the prize.

Oh, you meant give the _players_ a treat?
I find that a nice juicy bri…thoghtful memento for the referee helps the game move along nicely.

Awards by whom and to whom? Who do you see as the conferring party in the awards and they go to whom. What is a "leagues". Further who were you suggesting this to, the store or fellow gamers.

Left mostly vague, to tell the truth, though 'to whom' seems mostly as players.

With as many owners as our store has, individually, we're more customer-gamers, so sometimes official store events, sometimes whatever interest us, and I hoped answers to the question would be as varied.

I've been involved in some game development, and so include game designers demo'ing games.

Think of a league as tournament carried out over a long period. I believe some people use 'campaign', though I think of that being more restrictive.

Doug

Sorry for missing the edit period, but I would like to expand the point of view of a 'store.'

Think of group or gathering place instead. Game stores with active gaming space often become the center of local gaming; could be, just as easily, a club, or a school organization, or…

Also, a link to a discussion that generated this topic. The original was actually about something given to demo players to encourage them to run demos for others, but the discussion wandered off topic.

TMP link

Doug

Here's an idea:

Long ago and far away, well, Denver was a LONG drive for me, I played in some group AH B-17 games. Everyone had their own ship, of course, but yours actually had position in the formation, and it effected attacks against you.

Anyway, while the effect were purely random, I had a high damage on my own bomb run, and the game organizers gave me a little ribboned medal, though it was simply a plastic bomb hung from a ribbon.

Did stick with me, though, and I thought it might be fun to something similar.

Use a particular pattermed ribbon for a particular tourney or league. Make up medals for 1st, 2nd, etc., and/or for best painted, congenialty, etc.

Then EVERYONE who played gets a campaign ribbon.

Doug