This is venturing a bit into self-promotion territory, but I promise you that isn't my intention....
We're a month away from the good times that is North Texas RPG, the "Unofficial Start to the summer convention season" (that's just a thing I'm making up here and now...), which means I'm deep into convention prep. I've got a Whiskey Tasting to get ready for (mostly making up the new tasting kits as the needs for the event have changed, and I knew if I gave away the old kits I'd have to make new ones instead of trying to get by.) and while I'm not running any games this year I am signed up for five.
I've mentioned, probably too often, that I have a decent amount of convention experience, playing, running tables, and even events (multiple tables at once/entire company's convention games). With very few exceptions, running a convention game is a bit of a PITA and definitely a fair amount of work. Conventions generally (I hope current trends prove me wrong!) don't do much at all for a table GM unless they run an obscene amount of games at the convention, like 8 hours a day every day. Don't even get me started on the headaches I had with GenCon......
The point is that running a convention game generally is a thankless task and that kind of rubs me the wrong way, and I'm fortunate enough to become cognizant of this and motivated to do something about it. The last few years I've made GM Thank You Gifts for NTRPG. Last year I kind of phoned it in and just gave some cools dice sets, but that was more about supporting my friends who commissioned the dice in the first place. The year before I made some (I think) nice dice trays, which I'd like to do again, but I don't have the necessary resources to do so. To be honest I also made those dice trays to try out a couple of new building techniques.
This year time was more of an issue than I'd like due to work & especially work trips. Shop tools don't travel well, for one, and I'm not paying extra to transport lumber....it's expensive enough as-is. So this year I'm going with some simple wooden coasters. This let me experiment with a particular wood-aging technique, as well as seeing if inking the "aged" wood works, and then what types of protecting works (
I went with mineral oil followed by some wax polish/conditioner.)
I'm happy with the results and I have enough for my scheduled games and even a pick-up. One thing I also like to do is provide a card, and I've made up a GM Thank You Card and a DM Thank You Card. These two cards are PWYW over at DriveThruRPG, but if you're going to use them at a convention, please pick them up for free.....
Since there is a greater than 0% one or more of my NTRPG GMs will read this I'll not provide the maths for a set of coasters and a card. It'd be cheaper to pick up some Starbuck gift cards and simply say "thanks", and while that would be great and appreciated if I was GMing, that isn't my style.
I'm hoping that if you're going to a summer con that you'll think of doing something to express your appreciation to your table GM. How you do that is (obviously) up to you.....
