One of our customers, Kelly from Michigan, has told us of the numerous prizes she uses when she hosts our games. Except where noted, the awards are voted on by the players themselves and tallied at the end of the game.
“We usually try to get all the ballots in by mid-game, but since few obey, we accept them until we have votes tallied. You guys are right, it is a great way to wrap of the evening. People enjoy getting them, and the cost is minimal.”
Kelly does vary the awards depending on the games, but these are the awards that she told us about.
Best Dressed (“We used do best male and best female – now we are gender neutral and do the top three.”)
Best Acting (“Again we use do best male and best female, but we are gender neutral and do the top three.”)
Random Award (The person who added something to make the night more fun.)
Most Outrageous Player
Too nice to be a killer
Slimiest Suspect
Biggest Ham (Chosen by the photographer who they thought was the most fun when taking pictures.)
Best Accent
Biggest Badass (Used in A Speakeasy Murder.)
Best Dancer (“During Lei’d to Rest we had a mid-game hula contest.”)
Staff Awards: The party hosts chose winners for these two. You can use the most number of nominations from the other players across the other awards, or player who got the most points (see Keeping Score), or any other method you want.
Best Newbie
Best in Show!
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I have recently started making the awards portion online
Before the party I pick a 3rd party site that does surveys. I will ask the question and then list all of the characters as a choice. Example: Who was the Best Dressed? Then I make the question in multiple choice format and list every character as a choice. I do this with every award I want to hand out and include the ending questions too such as who do you think the murder is? During a certain time at the end of the night I send everyone the link to the survey to fill out (usually during desert). I do this by posting the link on the Facebook event page I created for the group to RSVP. If someone doesn’t have access to the page someone always just sends the link in a text.
This way has been so much easier than trying to tally up votes at the end of the night! Once every one votes I just check the website for the winners (it will tell you who had the most votes).
That’s a great idea – thanks for sharing!