Role-Playing Games - DM Tips & Tricks

Tip #04—Logo Items

One of our basic needs is a sense of belonging. One way to fill that need is to reinforce the bonds of the gaming group. A good way to do that is with logo items. A logo item can be any design, slogan, logo, image or other identifying device printed on anything from t-shirts, mouse pads, fridge magnets, mouse pads, or coffee mugs. For my gamers, I either create or have made items with custom logos for various "events", campaigns, and other things going on with our group. I then give these away as prizes either at random or due to winning some contest, game of chance, or other determining factor.

There is a large variety of items you can make with very little effort. Your local department or office supply stores will be filled with things you can dump out of your printer. For example, t-shirt iron-on transfers, stickers, and business cards. Below are some suggestions I've used.

• T-Shirts — A t-shirt is a great thing to put your logo on; players can wear it, other players see it, people comment about the shirt, etc. In other words, it builds morale. There are two ways to do your t-shirts. You can use heat transfers (aka iron-ons) that you print yourself, or if you use non-copyrighted logos, send your logo to CafePress. I've used this company several times, and they can do shirts of all types, hats, underwear, coffee mugs, etc. Their prices are very good, they run sales constantly.

• Fridge Magnets — Magnets are great. They stick to your fridge, your file cabinet at work, your tool box, whatever. They make great reminders of events from the past, and you may find people trying to collect them up, making them even better as "giveaway" morale boosters. The best way I've found to do magnets is to design your logo, print it out, laminate it (see Tip #2), and stick it to some magnet sheeting. You can buy single page sheets of magnet material at office supply stores. I've found smaller (photograph size) sheets in the craft supplies at Wal-Mart. The best deal I've found is buying the sheeting in a roll from Hobby Lobby. I got at 12 x 24 inch sheet in a tube for $9.99. The laminated image is durable and easily cleaned, making for a lasting momento of your gaming experiences.

Below is an example of a logo for our Halloween Hootenanny I event.