My DM is moving to Texas to be with his love. I’ve played a fair amount of TTRPGs over the years, and I have to say this guy is the best: curated music, lighting, props, sound effects, voices, and of course very complicated open worlds for us to play in. He has put in a ton of work for us lazy degenerates to have fun. So we want to get him a gift. I’m wondering if you all would have any ideas for a vaguely fantasy themed thing we could give him. Nothing too cheesy, but something cool. Thanks in advance for your suggestions.
What’s the budget?
A set of heroforge minis based on your most memorable campaign/characters.
A piece of commissioned artwork featuring same.
A year-long premium subscription to your VTT of choice so that he can keep running games for y’all. 
I dunno. A couple hundred, maybe more. We aren’t rich, but there’s a lot of us.
Like the heroforge minis idea!
We, by which I mean I, don’t like online Frpgs
This was going to be my suggestion as well. Personalized artwork can be a pretty amazing gift - but is going to cost $600-1000 for something really good.
I’ll bring it up with my people and see what they say. It is pretty cool.
The gifts I treasured the most from a group or team were handmade personalized goofy things, small. I still have a couple of big get-well cards from when I took medical leave that everybody signed and wrote little notes. Other folks sometimes got hardware components from our patented solar mounting system, engraved by our machinist with their name.
I don’t know if all your group is in one physical location but even if they’re not maybe there’s a way to add all their voices. For me, hearing your praise would be the most rewarding of all: “this guy is the best: curated music, lighting, props, sound effects, voices, and of course very complicated open worlds for us to play in. He has put in a ton of work for us lazy degenerates to have fun.”
This is a nice point and maybe something could be a sourcebook (3rd party if he has all the official stuff) with everyone signing the interior with a “Thanks for the…”, in-jokes or memories from the game, etc. Something to take with him and use in future games with a new group while remembering the old group.
(Obviously if you potentially have hundreds to spend, this could go along with something else previously mentioned)
A friend of mine, who is an awesome GM/DM, received a birthday present from his wife a few years ago: she had a bunch of his players write up little notes to him, thanking him and praising him for what he does; she then put all of the notes together onto one page, and had it framed. He was really touched by it.
Yeah, we’re all in the same place. The final session is going to be a massive crossover with both parties joining forces to defeat the big bad, a giant skull floating in space. It’s gonna be a fast and loose narrative driven event, with minimal dice rolling and will turn into a party before the actual game ends. There will be much praising.
I like the handcrafted idea, but most of us suck at arts and crafts, and we’re on a deadline.
I’ll second the Heroforge suggestion. You should be able to get a full set of custom minis in your budget (as long as you don’t go for the color option) and I’d try to make a special mini that represents him in RL to go along with them. (There are modern day clothing options.)
Depending on the deadline, Heroforge can take a while. Might be quicker to buy the STL file and find someone local who can 3D print the actual mini.
Unless you’re doing colored (or metal), then you’re probably stuck with Heroforge’s printing.
If it comes to it, we can ship the gift to San Antonio.
What about a nice set of dice? I get my gift sets from Wyrmwood-so far I have gifted the opalite, prismatic glass and the tiger’s eye sets. Dice Collection - Wyrmwood
I think I’m going to pick up the vaporware set for myself-Vaporwave Sharp Edged Resin Dice - Wyrmwood
Thanks all. We are meeting tonight to finalize this. I think we will wind up getting miniatures. That’s what the email thread implies.