I have to say I found the idea completely absurd and very cynical when I first heard someone talk about it. That was several years ago and I had thought about the possibility myself, but discarded it as being just silly in the light of day.
I still think it's an absurd idea and I have great doubts that anyone has made any serious money doing this. Paying someone to play a game with you? That is called being hustled where I'm from. Like chess hustlers, and so on.
Having a paid DM changes the entire psychological dynamic of the game. What do you do about a troublesome player who makes the game suck for everyone including the DM? Can the PC:s die? How will the player react if their PC dies? How do you keep everyone happy? If you're making money from a game that is owned by someone, shouldn't you be required to have some sort of a license and/or kick money up to them? Will there be micro-transactions, like paying extra to find a Holy Avenger or something?
I would never pay anyone to be my DM. I pay to purchase the game content and if i'm so antisocial and bothersome that I can't find people to play with, I shouldn't be playing D&D in my opinion.
That being said - if anyone truly succeeds in doing this they I think they should be commended for being innovative and creating an entirely new profession.
I don't think that there's anything wrong with it. I can also say, I don't see myself paying to play, either.
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Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
The "Once it becomes a means of an income, it stops being any fun" position is kind of grim.
It seems to pre-suppose that it's impossible to ever enjoy your job.
However I guess I can see some people having the position of "I'm unwilling to put in the level of work and commitment that would be required to bring the quality and amount of the material I prepare up to the point where I can see people paying for it, because for me this is supposed to be fun and relaxing - and that level of effort would not be relaxing".
I think that's more a disconnect between people, their motivations for DM'ing, and the amount of work it would take to be "professional" - not a disconnect between D&D and the possibility of paid professionalism.
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The "quality and amount of material one prepares" has very little to do with how much fun the game is to play, in my experience. I've understood that being over-prepared is a great way to ruin the enjoyment for both yourself and the players. That's why I regard almost all the campaigns and adventures published by WoTC for 5e as borderline unplayable, at best. Its been like this for years and years. someone suggested selling what you've created for your "professional" campaign but then you would again run into copyright/licence issues I think, since its all derivatives of intellectual property that you don't own. Unless perhaps you're talking about figures, dioramas and the like.
It is one thing to "over prepare" by creating so much detail, and specificity in your plot that the DM is tempted to push the players down the planned events, or to have most everything tied to timed events that will happen regardless of what the players do.
It is another to have an in depth understanding of the game system you are playing, a grasp on the principles and reasoning behind game system design decisions, the complex background of your world, and maintaining your world as a dynamic and interactive place which has a personality independent of your players.
Or put another way, maintaining a "professional level" dynamic and interactive gaming world is a ridiculous amount of work, as is being able to smoothly and dynamically manage gaming tables of relative strangers - but putting a ridiculous amount of work into the wrong things does not guarantee you the same results.
Also - we're not talking about publishing original works based on WoTC Intellectual Property - we're talking about "DM'ing as a service".
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I have never played D&D as a character. I have DM'ed now for about 2 years. It is hard to find someone willing to put the time and money in to DM. I can understand the niche market for paying a DM. Personally, I enjoy the interaction with my players, and if I mess up on a ruling, no harm no foul. I work with them behind the scenes on tying their backstories in, we can sometimes devolve into a kindergarten silliness when we play, our humor oftentimes gets crude, I very often butcher accents and voices for NPC's but at the end of the day we all have fun. I am a pretty harsh judge on myself, always trying to improve, so the idea of me charging someone to DM is just not gonna happen, because I will always feel like I could have done better, or I could have always ruled differently. Maybe one day I will have the confidence to charge for it, but the pressure I put on myself to provide a worthy product will make it much less fun for me.
Well when you look at any LFG posts that have "DM looking for" getting filled before you can click the post, you can understand when a demand is higher then the supply, money is eventually going to appear.
I would not care if a DM charged me per session, as long as I get my money’s worth. Not sure what a good session would go for, but I would definately not enjoy myself if I was paying and received an inferior product. Good DMs are not a dime a dozen. Plus, one person’s A+ DM may be another’s C-. It’s all about the right fit for everyone.
I mean, what would you pay per session to say be a guest on Critical Role w Matt Mercer (or your personal favorite)?
I would not care if a DM charged me per session, as long as I get my money’s worth. Not sure what a good session would go for, but I would definately not enjoy myself if I was paying and received an inferior product. Good DMs are not a dime a dozen. Plus, one person’s A+ DM may be another’s C-. It’s all about the right fit for everyone.
I mean, what would you pay per session to say be a guest on Critical Role w Matt Mercer (or your personal favorite)?
I wouldn't pay anything to be a guest on Critical Role or play with Matt Mercer. Or any DM at all for that matter, even if I admired that person. Its not part of my mindset to do a thing like that. Perhaps its because I'm nordic. Why would you do that, anyway? To get artistic exposure or something? I would probably get horrible stage fright knowing that so many people were watching and if I'm not mistaken, the stream goes out live too, adding to the pressure.
Tying that in with what Vexedent was talking about: someone talked earlier in this thread about selling the work they had done on their campaign, but the stuff Vexedent is talking about, perceived skill as a DM, only has intrinsic value; it cannot be packaged and sold to another DM. I suppose it would be possible to hold lectures or lessons for money but what would you learn from that, I wonder?
Matt Mercer wrote a campaign guide but it read like fan fiction or a vanity publication, even if he is a pretty good writer (I suppose he was partly pressured into doing this by his many fans). He had even taken deities etc. from other settings and just changed their names a little bit. The playable content generic enough to use in my campaign was sparse. The thing about this is that part of the fun of being DM is making up the fluff yourself. That's how I feel about it, at least.
I would not care if a DM charged me per session, as long as I get my money’s worth. Not sure what a good session would go for, but I would definately not enjoy myself if I was paying and received an inferior product. Good DMs are not a dime a dozen. Plus, one person’s A+ DM may be another’s C-. It’s all about the right fit for everyone.
I mean, what would you pay per session to say be a guest on Critical Role w Matt Mercer (or your personal favorite)?
I wouldn't pay anything to be a guest on Critical Role or play with Matt Mercer. Or any DM at all for that matter, even if I admired that person. Its not part of my mindset to do a thing like that. Perhaps its because I'm nordic. Why would you do that, anyway? To get artistic exposure or something? I would probably get horrible stage fright knowing that so many people were watching and if I'm not mistaken, the stream goes out live too, adding to the pressure.
Tying that in with what Vexedent was talking about: someone talked earlier in this thread about selling the work they had done on their campaign, but the stuff Vexedent is talking about, perceived skill as a DM, only has intrinsic value; it cannot be packaged and sold to another DM. I suppose it would be possible to hold lectures or lessons for money but what would you learn from that, I wonder?
Matt Mercer wrote a campaign guide but it read like fan fiction or a vanity publication, even if he is a pretty good writer (I suppose he was partly pressured into doing this by his many fans). He had even taken deities etc. from other settings and just changed their names a little bit. The playable content generic enough to use in my campaign was sparse. The thing about this is that part of the fun of being DM is making up the fluff yourself. That's how I feel about it, at least.
I can see your point about the stage fright, but I was more giving an example about a DM that I have seen that puts out a quality product that you would enjoy being immersed in. I agree that material created is only as good as the person presenting it in their own style. I’m sensing you’re not a big fan of Mercer’s style, or maybe that you don’t like that it’s produced in a way for the masses and you prefer the smaller, personalized, home game feel. I say, go with what works for you and if someone else disagrees with what you like, then that’s ok too. There are so many variables out there, enough for everyone to be different and still have a great time :)
Ok so I do have to ask, what does being Nordic have to do with not paying someone to entertain you as a DM? Not trying to be snarky, I just do not understand. Maybe because I’m not Nordic.
Paid DMing sort of happens at conventions all the time. You pay to play at the gaming table and the convention compensates the DMs at whatever rate that they agree on. Normally the conventions I go to sell gaming table slots for about $3-5 per seat (usually max 6 seats) for a game run by a pretty good DM provided by the convention. I pay that pretty regularly without issue. Now, if there was a Guest of Honor DM like a Matt Mercer, Chris Perkins, Holly Conrad, Kate Welch, Jerry Holkins, or any other popular WotC employee or D&D Streaming personality, I would expect seat prices to double or triple and would still probably pay without a thought. I think about $25 per seat may be my limit for a "celebrity" DM, especially if it's only for a two to three hour session.
Ok so I do have to ask, what does being Nordic have to do with not paying someone to entertain you as a DM? Not trying to be snarky, I just do not understand. Maybe because I’m not Nordic.
Generally speaking, Nordic people are skeptical of cults of personality and less prone to fandom than Americans. Conservative Nordic people have a kind of humble workaday attitude, sometimes referred to as "the jante law" which can be explained simply by this statement: nobody should think they´re something special. It is an attitude that is both detrimental to the creative individual and (sometimes) beneficial to society as a whole. So the idea of someone being put on a pedestal, or becoming a celebrity as you would say perhaps, is slightly offensive to something deep in the old school Nordic psyche. Nordic people of this kind are often proud, skeptical, individualistic and humble all at the same time, which is very contradictory to outsiders. Artistic ambitions and cultural consumption are often frowned upon as a waste of time. I have a relative who doesn't watch movies, TV-series and does not read fiction exactly for this reason. Sports is the only kind of entertainment that interest him, probably because he was a soccer player in his youth.
I don't think that there's anything wrong with paying to play, but I wouldn't expect anyone in any of my campaigns to do it. After all it was me who got the ball rolling in the first place because I like being a DM most of the time. The difficult thing about being a DM, at least in the campaigns I've started the last 2-3 years is the logistics of the thing, when you assemble an entire group of players who don't know one another. The internet has made this possible. You have to "vet" several people to screen out any complete maniacs that will ruin the entire group experience, and then comes the sometimes awkward first session. It doesn't become fun for real until you've played 3-4 times. If there's anything i feel you should get paid for, its this. But, being something of a naive idealist, I will probably never consider asking anyone for money anyway. Its enough that people contribute themselves, their homes, different articles that makes play more fun, etc. Its interesting however to observe the plague of loneliness sweeping the western world, people fearing rejection and the realization that they're not that special; so much that they often don't dare to come out of their internet hiding places, into the actual world. They will even pay people to curl them when they play D&D. The people who dare to break out of this trend should be commended, even if they do crash and burn a few times.
Maybe have a free to play option but then have "in game purchases" like, "oh you want fireball? Yeah, that's gonna be $.99" and actually make them pay you for potions and other items. $100 for 1000 gp. Stuff like that.... LMAOOOOO!
But jokes aside, I think if you're good at it, you should be able to monetize it.
I charge for my sessions. I provide the players with anything that they may require to play the game, including (but not limited to) books, character sheets, writing implements, paper, and dice. If they have their own, that’s awesome, but I tell anybody that wants to play with me that all they need is a positive attitude and a little imagination. They don’t need to purchase expensive books or spend time studying how the mechanics work. It’s my job (there’s that word) as the DM to be able to teach a new player or provide whatever materials they may be lacking. Those are really just the basics though.
Our games are run in a very upscale comic book and gaming store with a dedicated space. We have nice wooden tables and comfortable seating, as opposed to the plastic furniture used by so many other shops. There is free WiFi, super friendly staff, and the store is very neat and tidy. It’s a welcoming, pleasant environment that is a far cry from the stinky, dimly lit shops of my youth. The neighborhood is beautiful and safe. That might sound silly, but living (and shopping) in bad parts of major urban areas have taught me to value feeling safe.
I use zero published adventures, so aside from the player characters backstories, all the material in my campaigns are my original creations. Crafting a “choose your own adventure” storyline where between four and six individuals are all making decisions along the way isn’t always easy. Being able to improvise, act, use accents, be dynamic, engaging, and whatever else I can do otherwise to effectively help propel people into an immersive land of make-believe is work. Fun work, absolutely, but still work. I make maps, draw character sketches, provide supplemental writings, and offer a bunch of support for my players outside of our sessions. My players are all encouraged to utilise my shared content here on dndbeyond and I have a dedicated Discord with channels for in character activities and out of character conversation.
I feel that I am offering a unique experience that has a lot of bells and whistles. Being compensated for it means that I can continue putting that level of effort and resources into the games I run.
I don't see an issue with asking for pay to DM especially when it comes to a group of randoms. From my personal experience when I didn't charge for a campaign I end up getting the murder hobos or the lone wolfs who don't get into the game and it makes the games feel flat and one dimensional and ruin the campaign for the rest of the party. Once I started charging for my campaigns the types of players I got completely shifted, everyone started to invest into the campaign and their characters. It made it more enjoyable especially for me. I spend weeks developing the style of campaign that I want to run. Then each session I spend about 5-10 hours of prep time. I never charged much but when people put a even a small investment they want to make sure they get some time of return investment.
If anything paid DMing saved my love for DMing. It also helps with the cost for new D&D expansion books, models, paints, and other random supplies that can help make the game more immersive for my groups. I just view it as a return of investment for all the work you do as a DM and I know there are some of just do it for profit but as for me it allows me to continue to put money back into something I love.
I would happily pay for a very good DM / Campaign. But, what might be a great DM for me might be an awful one for somebody else.
I've been a DM for about 14 years on and off. Played in person and online campaigns (currently running two online campaigns). I believe I'm a pretty good DM, and have tried to play in other games as a player only to leave after one or two sessions because the DM was awful. The game continued because others enjoyed the playstyle and may not have experienced any other DM.
How do you ever know when / if you're good enough to charge people for it? It's completely subjective. The way I set up a campaign does not involve the players. I encourage backstories and I work them into the game eventually, maybe even straight away, but I would never discuss with the players 'What do you want to happen in the game?'. That takes away the whole fun of D&D, for me anyway. I believe there would have to be some aspect of this in a paid campaign, which takes away the magic and the mysteriousness of the world and what's going to happen.
So many questions and you'd really have to have it all laid out. I love Critical Role but it's unrealistic in real life for most DM's. What if the characters just decide.. 'Hey, I don't actually feel like going down into that mine. Let's go further North instead'. All that money and time spent on making battle maps is wasted. I would never force my players to do anything, they decide. If you were paying for an experience, I believe there would have to be some aspect of railroading players to show them that they are getting that experience with all the great battle maps you've made etc. D&D to me is all about doing whatever you want, whenever you want, then suffering the consequences.
I would love to be paid for my hobby, but I would have to know I was one of the best DM's out there to justify charging somebody to play my game.
My worries don't necessarily hold true for everyone, naturally. Part of my concern, for instance, comes from being a female DM. A lot of guys can get...weird about that, which is why I tend to run either in the comic shop, which is a strictly family-friendly environment, or with close friends. One of the really uncomfortable things for me would be if my players wanted to seduce, or worse, **** one of my NPCs--that's not a situation I'm really comfortable playing through, I need to always feel like I have the power to tell players no in that situation. I think that having them pay for a service makes that harder to do.
God that sounds creepy. I like to vet my players beforehand so that I don't end up having to sharing significant amounts of my life with complete gutter trash.
I'd like to hire a professional DM. I'm a professional and don't have either the time or gifts to be a DM. I've experienced some amazing DMing so I know it takes substantial intelligence and talent at storytelling to truly immerse your players into a game world and it's NPCs. I don't know anyone who plays anymore so I'm interested in a professional because I'd like to recruit some of my friends into DnD and I'd want them to have a great time with a great DM and I know that it takes a LOT of time in preparation.
As someone who has D&D as a second game (my group primarily plays GURPS), I can't imagine finding anyone who would be able to keep up with my group, if they weren't fully invested, as I am. I'm our group's primary GM (Hand of Bobb is our secondary).
Running a game is far, far more than just running people through encounters and set-pieces. In order for the game to be good, it has to be personal. I have to know what gets under my players' skin, as well as their characters'. I have to twist it and tease it and give them the experiences that they need. I'm happy to tease future events and discuss plot points with my players out of the game, as they're invested in the story, and we all work together to tell an entertaining story. A couple of sessions ago, my Infinite Weirdos game "lost" an hour of game time as Thane (the Werewolf) solicited help from the party to determine the best way to ask the dragons to let him take a selfie with them. There was the "do dragons even poop" tangent that came up, and it was hilarious. I let it go on, because the players were enjoying themselves.
Having invited some external people to run their games (many of which they've spent years on), most of their barely lasted one session, with the bravest lasting three. They just weren't ready for us. If it wasn't Lothar deciding he wanted his character to be a complete moron and the rest of the party kept his character around as a figurehead, it was them not understanding that we weren't invested in their world, and we didn't know the background so it wasn't interesting to us.
However, if you could come up with a way around all of that, then, by all means, please get paid for GMing.
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I have to say I found the idea completely absurd and very cynical when I first heard someone talk about it. That was several years ago and I had thought about the possibility myself, but discarded it as being just silly in the light of day.
I still think it's an absurd idea and I have great doubts that anyone has made any serious money doing this. Paying someone to play a game with you? That is called being hustled where I'm from. Like chess hustlers, and so on.
Having a paid DM changes the entire psychological dynamic of the game. What do you do about a troublesome player who makes the game suck for everyone including the DM? Can the PC:s die? How will the player react if their PC dies? How do you keep everyone happy? If you're making money from a game that is owned by someone, shouldn't you be required to have some sort of a license and/or kick money up to them? Will there be micro-transactions, like paying extra to find a Holy Avenger or something?
I would never pay anyone to be my DM. I pay to purchase the game content and if i'm so antisocial and bothersome that I can't find people to play with, I shouldn't be playing D&D in my opinion.
That being said - if anyone truly succeeds in doing this they I think they should be commended for being innovative and creating an entirely new profession.
I don't think that there's anything wrong with it. I can also say, I don't see myself paying to play, either.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
every hobby can be turned into a job/career if there are sufficient people willing to pay for it.
The "Once it becomes a means of an income, it stops being any fun" position is kind of grim.
It seems to pre-suppose that it's impossible to ever enjoy your job.
However I guess I can see some people having the position of "I'm unwilling to put in the level of work and commitment that would be required to bring the quality and amount of the material I prepare up to the point where I can see people paying for it, because for me this is supposed to be fun and relaxing - and that level of effort would not be relaxing".
I think that's more a disconnect between people, their motivations for DM'ing, and the amount of work it would take to be "professional" - not a disconnect between D&D and the possibility of paid professionalism.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
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The "quality and amount of material one prepares" has very little to do with how much fun the game is to play, in my experience. I've understood that being over-prepared is a great way to ruin the enjoyment for both yourself and the players. That's why I regard almost all the campaigns and adventures published by WoTC for 5e as borderline unplayable, at best. Its been like this for years and years. someone suggested selling what you've created for your "professional" campaign but then you would again run into copyright/licence issues I think, since its all derivatives of intellectual property that you don't own. Unless perhaps you're talking about figures, dioramas and the like.
It is one thing to "over prepare" by creating so much detail, and specificity in your plot that the DM is tempted to push the players down the planned events, or to have most everything tied to timed events that will happen regardless of what the players do.
It is another to have an in depth understanding of the game system you are playing, a grasp on the principles and reasoning behind game system design decisions, the complex background of your world, and maintaining your world as a dynamic and interactive place which has a personality independent of your players.
Or put another way, maintaining a "professional level" dynamic and interactive gaming world is a ridiculous amount of work, as is being able to smoothly and dynamically manage gaming tables of relative strangers - but putting a ridiculous amount of work into the wrong things does not guarantee you the same results.
Also - we're not talking about publishing original works based on WoTC Intellectual Property - we're talking about "DM'ing as a service".
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
I have never played D&D as a character. I have DM'ed now for about 2 years. It is hard to find someone willing to put the time and money in to DM. I can understand the niche market for paying a DM. Personally, I enjoy the interaction with my players, and if I mess up on a ruling, no harm no foul. I work with them behind the scenes on tying their backstories in, we can sometimes devolve into a kindergarten silliness when we play, our humor oftentimes gets crude, I very often butcher accents and voices for NPC's but at the end of the day we all have fun. I am a pretty harsh judge on myself, always trying to improve, so the idea of me charging someone to DM is just not gonna happen, because I will always feel like I could have done better, or I could have always ruled differently. Maybe one day I will have the confidence to charge for it, but the pressure I put on myself to provide a worthy product will make it much less fun for me.
Well when you look at any LFG posts that have "DM looking for" getting filled before you can click the post, you can understand when a demand is higher then the supply, money is eventually going to appear.
I would not care if a DM charged me per session, as long as I get my money’s worth. Not sure what a good session would go for, but I would definately not enjoy myself if I was paying and received an inferior product. Good DMs are not a dime a dozen. Plus, one person’s A+ DM may be another’s C-. It’s all about the right fit for everyone.
I mean, what would you pay per session to say be a guest on Critical Role w Matt Mercer (or your personal favorite)?
I wouldn't pay anything to be a guest on Critical Role or play with Matt Mercer. Or any DM at all for that matter, even if I admired that person. Its not part of my mindset to do a thing like that. Perhaps its because I'm nordic. Why would you do that, anyway? To get artistic exposure or something? I would probably get horrible stage fright knowing that so many people were watching and if I'm not mistaken, the stream goes out live too, adding to the pressure.
Tying that in with what Vexedent was talking about: someone talked earlier in this thread about selling the work they had done on their campaign, but the stuff Vexedent is talking about, perceived skill as a DM, only has intrinsic value; it cannot be packaged and sold to another DM. I suppose it would be possible to hold lectures or lessons for money but what would you learn from that, I wonder?
Matt Mercer wrote a campaign guide but it read like fan fiction or a vanity publication, even if he is a pretty good writer (I suppose he was partly pressured into doing this by his many fans). He had even taken deities etc. from other settings and just changed their names a little bit. The playable content generic enough to use in my campaign was sparse. The thing about this is that part of the fun of being DM is making up the fluff yourself. That's how I feel about it, at least.
I can see your point about the stage fright, but I was more giving an example about a DM that I have seen that puts out a quality product that you would enjoy being immersed in. I agree that material created is only as good as the person presenting it in their own style. I’m sensing you’re not a big fan of Mercer’s style, or maybe that you don’t like that it’s produced in a way for the masses and you prefer the smaller, personalized, home game feel. I say, go with what works for you and if someone else disagrees with what you like, then that’s ok too. There are so many variables out there, enough for everyone to be different and still have a great time :)
Ok so I do have to ask, what does being Nordic have to do with not paying someone to entertain you as a DM? Not trying to be snarky, I just do not understand. Maybe because I’m not Nordic.
Paid DMing sort of happens at conventions all the time. You pay to play at the gaming table and the convention compensates the DMs at whatever rate that they agree on. Normally the conventions I go to sell gaming table slots for about $3-5 per seat (usually max 6 seats) for a game run by a pretty good DM provided by the convention. I pay that pretty regularly without issue. Now, if there was a Guest of Honor DM like a Matt Mercer, Chris Perkins, Holly Conrad, Kate Welch, Jerry Holkins, or any other popular WotC employee or D&D Streaming personality, I would expect seat prices to double or triple and would still probably pay without a thought. I think about $25 per seat may be my limit for a "celebrity" DM, especially if it's only for a two to three hour session.
Generally speaking, Nordic people are skeptical of cults of personality and less prone to fandom than Americans. Conservative Nordic people have a kind of humble workaday attitude, sometimes referred to as "the jante law" which can be explained simply by this statement: nobody should think they´re something special. It is an attitude that is both detrimental to the creative individual and (sometimes) beneficial to society as a whole. So the idea of someone being put on a pedestal, or becoming a celebrity as you would say perhaps, is slightly offensive to something deep in the old school Nordic psyche. Nordic people of this kind are often proud, skeptical, individualistic and humble all at the same time, which is very contradictory to outsiders. Artistic ambitions and cultural consumption are often frowned upon as a waste of time. I have a relative who doesn't watch movies, TV-series and does not read fiction exactly for this reason. Sports is the only kind of entertainment that interest him, probably because he was a soccer player in his youth.
I don't think that there's anything wrong with paying to play, but I wouldn't expect anyone in any of my campaigns to do it. After all it was me who got the ball rolling in the first place because I like being a DM most of the time. The difficult thing about being a DM, at least in the campaigns I've started the last 2-3 years is the logistics of the thing, when you assemble an entire group of players who don't know one another. The internet has made this possible. You have to "vet" several people to screen out any complete maniacs that will ruin the entire group experience, and then comes the sometimes awkward first session. It doesn't become fun for real until you've played 3-4 times. If there's anything i feel you should get paid for, its this. But, being something of a naive idealist, I will probably never consider asking anyone for money anyway. Its enough that people contribute themselves, their homes, different articles that makes play more fun, etc. Its interesting however to observe the plague of loneliness sweeping the western world, people fearing rejection and the realization that they're not that special; so much that they often don't dare to come out of their internet hiding places, into the actual world. They will even pay people to curl them when they play D&D. The people who dare to break out of this trend should be commended, even if they do crash and burn a few times.
Maybe have a free to play option but then have "in game purchases" like, "oh you want fireball? Yeah, that's gonna be $.99" and actually make them pay you for potions and other items. $100 for 1000 gp. Stuff like that.... LMAOOOOO!
But jokes aside, I think if you're good at it, you should be able to monetize it.
I charge for my sessions. I provide the players with anything that they may require to play the game, including (but not limited to) books, character sheets, writing implements, paper, and dice. If they have their own, that’s awesome, but I tell anybody that wants to play with me that all they need is a positive attitude and a little imagination. They don’t need to purchase expensive books or spend time studying how the mechanics work. It’s my job (there’s that word) as the DM to be able to teach a new player or provide whatever materials they may be lacking. Those are really just the basics though.
Our games are run in a very upscale comic book and gaming store with a dedicated space. We have nice wooden tables and comfortable seating, as opposed to the plastic furniture used by so many other shops. There is free WiFi, super friendly staff, and the store is very neat and tidy. It’s a welcoming, pleasant environment that is a far cry from the stinky, dimly lit shops of my youth. The neighborhood is beautiful and safe. That might sound silly, but living (and shopping) in bad parts of major urban areas have taught me to value feeling safe.
I use zero published adventures, so aside from the player characters backstories, all the material in my campaigns are my original creations. Crafting a “choose your own adventure” storyline where between four and six individuals are all making decisions along the way isn’t always easy. Being able to improvise, act, use accents, be dynamic, engaging, and whatever else I can do otherwise to effectively help propel people into an immersive land of make-believe is work. Fun work, absolutely, but still work. I make maps, draw character sketches, provide supplemental writings, and offer a bunch of support for my players outside of our sessions. My players are all encouraged to utilise my shared content here on dndbeyond and I have a dedicated Discord with channels for in character activities and out of character conversation.
I feel that I am offering a unique experience that has a lot of bells and whistles. Being compensated for it means that I can continue putting that level of effort and resources into the games I run.
I don't see an issue with asking for pay to DM especially when it comes to a group of randoms. From my personal experience when I didn't charge for a campaign I end up getting the murder hobos or the lone wolfs who don't get into the game and it makes the games feel flat and one dimensional and ruin the campaign for the rest of the party. Once I started charging for my campaigns the types of players I got completely shifted, everyone started to invest into the campaign and their characters. It made it more enjoyable especially for me. I spend weeks developing the style of campaign that I want to run. Then each session I spend about 5-10 hours of prep time. I never charged much but when people put a even a small investment they want to make sure they get some time of return investment.
If anything paid DMing saved my love for DMing. It also helps with the cost for new D&D expansion books, models, paints, and other random supplies that can help make the game more immersive for my groups. I just view it as a return of investment for all the work you do as a DM and I know there are some of just do it for profit but as for me it allows me to continue to put money back into something I love.
Self Righteous Paladin: "That much power corrupts a man."
Random Bard: "Power is just a tool. How you use it doesn't change that fact. It just shows the purest form of your desires."
I would happily pay for a very good DM / Campaign. But, what might be a great DM for me might be an awful one for somebody else.
I've been a DM for about 14 years on and off. Played in person and online campaigns (currently running two online campaigns). I believe I'm a pretty good DM, and have tried to play in other games as a player only to leave after one or two sessions because the DM was awful. The game continued because others enjoyed the playstyle and may not have experienced any other DM.
How do you ever know when / if you're good enough to charge people for it? It's completely subjective. The way I set up a campaign does not involve the players. I encourage backstories and I work them into the game eventually, maybe even straight away, but I would never discuss with the players 'What do you want to happen in the game?'. That takes away the whole fun of D&D, for me anyway. I believe there would have to be some aspect of this in a paid campaign, which takes away the magic and the mysteriousness of the world and what's going to happen.
So many questions and you'd really have to have it all laid out. I love Critical Role but it's unrealistic in real life for most DM's. What if the characters just decide.. 'Hey, I don't actually feel like going down into that mine. Let's go further North instead'. All that money and time spent on making battle maps is wasted. I would never force my players to do anything, they decide. If you were paying for an experience, I believe there would have to be some aspect of railroading players to show them that they are getting that experience with all the great battle maps you've made etc. D&D to me is all about doing whatever you want, whenever you want, then suffering the consequences.
I would love to be paid for my hobby, but I would have to know I was one of the best DM's out there to justify charging somebody to play my game.
God that sounds creepy. I like to vet my players beforehand so that I don't end up having to sharing significant amounts of my life with complete gutter trash.
Journeyman DM
Journeyman Adventurer
I'd like to hire a professional DM. I'm a professional and don't have either the time or gifts to be a DM. I've experienced some amazing DMing so I know it takes substantial intelligence and talent at storytelling to truly immerse your players into a game world and it's NPCs. I don't know anyone who plays anymore so I'm interested in a professional because I'd like to recruit some of my friends into DnD and I'd want them to have a great time with a great DM and I know that it takes a LOT of time in preparation.
How/where do I find a paid DM?
Thanks,
HbN
As someone who has D&D as a second game (my group primarily plays GURPS), I can't imagine finding anyone who would be able to keep up with my group, if they weren't fully invested, as I am. I'm our group's primary GM (Hand of Bobb is our secondary).
Running a game is far, far more than just running people through encounters and set-pieces. In order for the game to be good, it has to be personal. I have to know what gets under my players' skin, as well as their characters'. I have to twist it and tease it and give them the experiences that they need. I'm happy to tease future events and discuss plot points with my players out of the game, as they're invested in the story, and we all work together to tell an entertaining story. A couple of sessions ago, my Infinite Weirdos game "lost" an hour of game time as Thane (the Werewolf) solicited help from the party to determine the best way to ask the dragons to let him take a selfie with them. There was the "do dragons even poop" tangent that came up, and it was hilarious. I let it go on, because the players were enjoying themselves.
Having invited some external people to run their games (many of which they've spent years on), most of their barely lasted one session, with the bravest lasting three. They just weren't ready for us. If it wasn't Lothar deciding he wanted his character to be a complete moron and the rest of the party kept his character around as a figurehead, it was them not understanding that we weren't invested in their world, and we didn't know the background so it wasn't interesting to us.
However, if you could come up with a way around all of that, then, by all means, please get paid for GMing.