So, not a rant, more like a general question/complaint. Hooked up with a paid DM through the subforum for a VTT game. Okay zero session (concerning that the DM was self-admittedly rather drunk), although most of the discussion was left to the players to coordinate with occasional input from the DM. Paid after the session for a month, with the plan being weekly sessions. I got all read up on source material and the PHB, since I'm new to 5e, but the week up to the session had zero communication. Odd, but sure, people have jobs. Day of session 1, nothing on Discord, so I try to log into the server as directed by the DM, nope, doesn't work. Queried the DM on Discord, still nothing.
Is this common, getting ghosted? I mean, the money is one thing, but I'm just disappointed here, it took forever to connect with a group, and this happens. I had such high hopes about getting back into DnD with a good group, like I had a long time ago.
Should I just expect an uneven ride trying to get into a solid group? Or is this a one-shot?
Anyone paying a DM to run a game has it's risks. In your case you found a bad DM. Sounds like the DM cares more about the money over having a fun little adventure. Something worth it. Be careful with paid DMs.
I've thought about getting into paid DM. My first rule would be that session zero would be free. So that players get to know each other and I'd get to know them. Back stories and what the players would like to encounter. It's a learning process.
What you are going through sucks. But it's not uncommon for paid DMs to do such a thing. Find a better DM.
Any kind of feedback about the DM possible via that forum? And can you check basic info about the DM's account? If somebody you pay is just a handle on a forum whose history you can't really verify and who you have no recourse against if you get stiffed, I'd expect this will get abused from time to time. If you can check posting history to see how 'solid' the account is and if you can report people taking advantage and ghosting you though, it becomes a lot easier to vet prospective DMs and you should find mostly DMs who hold up their end of the bargain.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
So, not a rant, more like a general question/complaint. Hooked up with a paid DM through the subforum for a VTT game. Okay zero session (concerning that the DM was self-admittedly rather drunk), although most of the discussion was left to the players to coordinate with occasional input from the DM. Paid after the session for a month, with the plan being weekly sessions. I got all read up on source material and the PHB, since I'm new to 5e, but the week up to the session had zero communication. Odd, but sure, people have jobs. Day of session 1, nothing on Discord, so I try to log into the server as directed by the DM, nope, doesn't work. Queried the DM on Discord, still nothing.
Is this common, getting ghosted? I mean, the money is one thing, but I'm just disappointed here, it took forever to connect with a group, and this happens. I had such high hopes about getting back into DnD with a good group, like I had a long time ago.
Should I just expect an uneven ride trying to get into a solid group? Or is this a one-shot?
The DM showed up admittedly drunk to explain work they wanted to do for pay and you still retained them?
Ghosting/scamming seems to happen in these paid for DM spaces, I couldn't tell you the frequency other than acknowledge that it does happen. Most productive thing for you to do would be convey this story on the VTT's forums or customer service channel. "DMs" conducting themselves like this shouldn't be happening, but they will continue to do so unless the venues they utilize effectively police them.
I'd say be more patient when vetting your next DM. Especially as a new player you don't want someone as hands off as this one (thought it doesn't seem they were engaged at all, that's a red flag). There are some DMs out there who run sessions to introduce the game to new players. Before VTTs they'd be called brand ambassadors or some equivalent and basically do voluntary product rep work showing up at game stores and the like. Try to seek out someone like that.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
If you were to show up to a job interview drunk and then just let the interviewers talk amongst themselves for most of it, you would not expect to get the job. Apply the same critical eye to a session zero. It is the DM's job interview. If they don't show you that they are a professional, competent person, you're probably not going to have a great time whether you get ghosted or not.
Yeah, I'd say a sloppy drunk DM in a session zero, where you're supposed to be setting the tone and rules for the entire game, should be a big red flag. I probably wouldn't want to play in a game like that for free. Granted a few friends and I did "drunken improv D&D" a couple times back in college but that was in no way a serious attempt at a normal gaming experience.
The DM in my weekly game charges $5 per session and offered the first actual game session free. He also met with me personally in place of a full session zero because I joined the game on the third session of the campaign, and we covered the normal session zero things, went over my character and how he was going to introduce said character into the game already in progress. After that first session I decided continuing on in the game was well worth the price of a low end fast food combo meal and have been happily playing that game for going on three months now.
I would strongly advise against paying in advance beyond a single session until you know that you're actually going to enjoy the game. Or in your unfortunate case, that there will even be a game. Still, there are good people out there and good games to be found so I also recommend you keep looking. Just try to be sure you're happy with what you're getting before paying for it, like you presumably would with any other product or service. I also agree with the others who have already suggested looking for ways to provide feedback on the ghost DM to any server and forum, discord channel, or other community or service that you used to find them. It's standard policy fir any such communities/services to have a clear "at your own risk" policy when exchanging money for gaming, but perhaps you can at least warn other players against them in the future and some channels or forums might even go as far as to ban an individual if they get enough complaints about them (I wouldn't count on it, but I expect a few discord servers I frequent would probably do so).
A few adult beverages among adults at a game are fine as long as no one goes past their limit so their ability to deliberate is impaired, especially the DM. If the DM is being paid ... I dunno, I know some performer types who do have an adult beverage before or while performing to deal with social anxiety, but if it's clear the player is _drunk_, yeah probably not worth the price of admission unless you're looking for a "worst DM experience" to share on forums like these.
As far as vetting games and DMs, again, I don't think this is typical "paid DM conduct" at least among those who continue to find customers. One possible thing would be to reach out to local game storm, if you got one (usually Facebook is the place to talk this out) and see if any of their GM/DMs have adapted to online and who may be looking for players. That way you got someone vetted by the local game community. I don't run a store myself but in my "retirement dream job" I might and would be happy to refer someone to games LFP in our local area, figuring I'm at minimum doing a solid for a potential future customer (and I'd dread Amazon trying to creep into that space trying to turn DMing into something that could be governed by its so called Mechanical Turk program). Back in the day we used to have these cork quadrilaterals we'd stick paper to with pins ... we called them message boards.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I also agree with the others who have already suggested looking for ways to provide feedback on the ghost DM to any server and forum, discord channel, or other community or service that you used to find them. It's standard policy fir any such communities/services to have a clear "at your own risk" policy when exchanging money for gaming, but perhaps you can at least warn other players against them in the future and some channels or forums might even go as far as to ban an individual if they get enough complaints about them (I wouldn't count on it, but I expect a few discord servers I frequent would probably do so).
Another though on this, I think discord and VTT's sort of shield themselves with the "at your own risk" policy because the VTTs and discord. (nor DDB) is really designed to insure secure commerce between users. So saying that, and if you want more assurance you might want to look at some of the sites that are specifically for "pro DMs". I want to say that these sort of game brokers actually handle the payment process meaning there are better recourses/sanctions if fraudulent or just flakey incompetent practices take place. Side dealing Venmo's and Paypals put the transaction out of reach of anyone in the game circle. However, both Venmo and PayPal aren't happy about being used for fraud either, so you could send your documentation to their customer service. They may not be able to do much for you, but if certain accounts are producing pattern complaints, sanctions could be levied ... and if there is in fact a "big problem" (this is a pie in the sky scenario and unlikely so under spoiler):
(The folks in companies like Paypal/Square/Stripe that address these issues tend to be former money cops with a habit of writing up a criminal complaint and sending it over gift wrapped to their colleagues still authorized to investigate and prosecute so that jr. agents and prosecutors can start their careers with slam dunks ... that's probably not going to happen with a small scale flake, but the way some short end scams are bundled by larger enterprises is fascinating and often informs my gaming set in "true crime" contemporary or science fiction settings).
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
This is why I find the very concept of a ‘paid DM’ an utter disgrace. It’s a game, played for fun either with friends or people you are going to be friends with. Never pay, just grab your mates. Share costs like a room hire if you don’t have someone’s house to play in, share snacks and drinks. But that’s it.
Personally I would lambast the guy, report him on the site you met him, make posts about him giving his name etc. Make it obvious who he is so nobody else gets conned by him. Try and get your money back, paypal is very good, or if you paid by card then contact the provider. Speak to the police as well, they may already have received complaints about him, and you might help with getting him prosecuted.
This is why I find the very concept of a ‘paid DM’ an utter disgrace. It’s a game, played for fun either with friends or people you are going to be friends with. Never pay, just grab your mates. Share costs like a room hire if you don’t have someone’s house to play in, share snacks and drinks. But that’s it.
Never paid for or been paid as a DM, but this is silly. What if you and your friends really want to play instead of DM? And what if you've been trying for half a year to get into a good group but there's nothing local and the handful of online ones you got in have been massive disappointments? All of these circumstances happen, and while paying a DM (particularly one you don't know) doesn't come with guarantees you should have much better odds of a) finding a group to play with that b) plays close to your prefered style of game and c) has reliable attendance and d) a DM with a vested interested in making it worth your while.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
Sometimes "among friends" someone stiffs the rest of the group for pizza money the whole group leaves one holding the bag when the delivery person rings.
While the OP's story is a familiar one, I. doubt there's any more fraud in this area than there is in any other space where unsecured/unregulated "at own risk" transactions take place online.
As quarantine and social distance rules have relaxed, I've been alarmed by the number of people who've said "I think I'm going to try being a professional DM" with no TTRPG experience whatsoever, like it's the latest get rich quick scheme. Literally said in passing, either to me or in earshot of me, not knowing who in the room might be have some game experience. Now I'm only talking about 4, but that's still a bizarre number of people with the same bad line of thinking ... I think they think it's like babysitting or adult baby sitting. I'm wondering how many of the "ghost" DMs have a similar origin, choking when they realize actual work is involved. Anyone else come across people like this?
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I'm wondering how many of the "ghost" DMs have a similar origin, choking when they realize actual work is involved. Anyone else come across people like this?
I haven't, but it doesn't surprise me. You see similar issues with a number of hobbies or creative skills where people think they can monetize their time and fail to realize that doing a hobby as work often changes your enjoyment of it, that there's more to a business than just the work itself, and that they may just not be good enough to warrant getting paid in the first place.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
I'm wondering how many of the "ghost" DMs have a similar origin, choking when they realize actual work is involved. Anyone else come across people like this?
I haven't, but it doesn't surprise me. You see similar issues with a number of hobbies or creative skills where people think they can monetize their time and fail to realize that doing a hobby as work often changes your enjoyment of it, that there's more to a business than just the work itself, and that they may just not be good enough to warrant getting paid in the first place.
You're right, but what I'm talking about is even weirder. I'm talking about people who have never played the game saying, "I think I'm going to try my hand at being a professional DM." I think there's a misconception of how widespread monetary returns in playing the game actually is, so it's drawing some element of the get rich quick scheme set. Ironically, many a fraudster confession when things have criminally gone out of hand tend to have the suspect relate not realizing how hard making money in ... usually some sort of investing or biz development ... actually can be (or rather, that it's actual work), so they start cutting corners and misrepresenting, and then it sort of spirals from there.
I'm talking about people who have never played the game saying, "I think I'm going to try my hand at being a professional DM."
How hard can it be? :p
Part of it may just be a bandwagon thing. People think they can be an influencer or social media personality and rake in cash too because they see the success stories, not the failures (or the effort, the actual business side of it, the potential investments needed or the fact that some people just have a head start in life). It's hardly TikTok, but D&D is going through a golden age and good DMs make it look effortless.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
Probably right. I think it's another reverberation of the Mercer effect maybe, but a public who isn't aware Mercer was the opposite of a paid DM. That his his group was his group of friends, who all happened to have a bit of dramatic flair and connections to the Hollywood "how do we monitize podcasts and stream scene?" and it worked, though exceptionally compared to everyone else trying to do it. I've had conversations with people who are looking for a paid DM to make the "next Critical Role" and they won't be disabused of the fact that a lot of that shows dynamic is predicated on long lasting relationships.
And then you got some folks swooping in to pick up some cash and fleecing the paid market, some probably intentional, some probably just flakey.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I've had conversations with people who are looking for a paid DM to make the "next Critical Role"
This sort of reminds me of that scene in the Simpsons when they are having a local film festival in Springfield, and Mr. Burns wants to hire Steven Spielberg to make his biographical movie. When the real Spielberg is not available he just hires someone with a similar name (Senior Spielbergo) and thinks he's going to get something equal to a Spielberg movie.
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BioWizard
I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
I've had conversations with people who are looking for a paid DM to make the "next Critical Role" and they won't be disabused of the fact that a lot of that shows dynamic is predicated on long lasting relationships.
It's not just the dynamics and the game itself either. It's a bunch of fairly expensive equipment, tech work to make it all run smoothly and provide graphics, a community manager, editing for the upload to youtube, etc. Geek & Sundry did all that before the CritRole gang started their own business, and it involves a lot of work and investment.
Besides, there's a bunch of next CritRole's already. Really good streamed games, clearly made by people who know what they're doing and doing it well, and while some of them are pretty darn successful they don't come close to CritRole in terms of revenue. But hey, if people want to give it a go I'm not stopping them.
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Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
Me either, and I've become very adept at saying "You do you, but your really don't know what you're talking about" when telling some players I'm not interested.
There's some great Crit Role stuff, but I also frankly like the next wrung down on quality where the folks are figuring out the game, having issues with the VTT etc. ... Crit role is good for story arc and ''beat" fodder, but the less professionally produced streams I think are actually more instructive in game play. I think something like MannShorts' livestreams sort of straddles that. They've got their sketch comedy type stuff, but their livestreams are them just playing (like right now playing the Star Wars based off of 3.5 and clearly only the DM really knows how to play it) and it's good to hear where they. get caught up as well as the "clearly, not sponsored by Roll20" hiccups during play. Their DM leans more into old EU than Disney Canon, I do the opposite but I like him (also like the gag on the sketch side where he occasionally cameos as like the worst DM ever but he's pretty dang good IRL).
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
It's super common but generally not with paid GMs. At least in theory.
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Adventures worth winning. Forming an immediate connection with players and tying their character into the greater world. Your character matters. I empower you to change the world around you. Your choices matter.
I am a professional DM crafting the greatest stories. Message me for openings in my games. Discord: thirstybard#5980 Website: https://bardicgaming.com/
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So, not a rant, more like a general question/complaint. Hooked up with a paid DM through the subforum for a VTT game. Okay zero session (concerning that the DM was self-admittedly rather drunk), although most of the discussion was left to the players to coordinate with occasional input from the DM. Paid after the session for a month, with the plan being weekly sessions. I got all read up on source material and the PHB, since I'm new to 5e, but the week up to the session had zero communication. Odd, but sure, people have jobs. Day of session 1, nothing on Discord, so I try to log into the server as directed by the DM, nope, doesn't work. Queried the DM on Discord, still nothing.
Is this common, getting ghosted? I mean, the money is one thing, but I'm just disappointed here, it took forever to connect with a group, and this happens. I had such high hopes about getting back into DnD with a good group, like I had a long time ago.
Should I just expect an uneven ride trying to get into a solid group? Or is this a one-shot?
"You think you have won! What is light without dark?
What are you without me? I am a part of you all. You can never defeat me. We are brothers eternal!"
Anyone paying a DM to run a game has it's risks. In your case you found a bad DM. Sounds like the DM cares more about the money over having a fun little adventure. Something worth it. Be careful with paid DMs.
I've thought about getting into paid DM. My first rule would be that session zero would be free. So that players get to know each other and I'd get to know them. Back stories and what the players would like to encounter. It's a learning process.
What you are going through sucks. But it's not uncommon for paid DMs to do such a thing. Find a better DM.
Any kind of feedback about the DM possible via that forum? And can you check basic info about the DM's account? If somebody you pay is just a handle on a forum whose history you can't really verify and who you have no recourse against if you get stiffed, I'd expect this will get abused from time to time. If you can check posting history to see how 'solid' the account is and if you can report people taking advantage and ghosting you though, it becomes a lot easier to vet prospective DMs and you should find mostly DMs who hold up their end of the bargain.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
The DM showed up admittedly drunk to explain work they wanted to do for pay and you still retained them?
Ghosting/scamming seems to happen in these paid for DM spaces, I couldn't tell you the frequency other than acknowledge that it does happen. Most productive thing for you to do would be convey this story on the VTT's forums or customer service channel. "DMs" conducting themselves like this shouldn't be happening, but they will continue to do so unless the venues they utilize effectively police them.
I'd say be more patient when vetting your next DM. Especially as a new player you don't want someone as hands off as this one (thought it doesn't seem they were engaged at all, that's a red flag). There are some DMs out there who run sessions to introduce the game to new players. Before VTTs they'd be called brand ambassadors or some equivalent and basically do voluntary product rep work showing up at game stores and the like. Try to seek out someone like that.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
If you were to show up to a job interview drunk and then just let the interviewers talk amongst themselves for most of it, you would not expect to get the job. Apply the same critical eye to a session zero. It is the DM's job interview. If they don't show you that they are a professional, competent person, you're probably not going to have a great time whether you get ghosted or not.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
Yeah, I'd say a sloppy drunk DM in a session zero, where you're supposed to be setting the tone and rules for the entire game, should be a big red flag. I probably wouldn't want to play in a game like that for free. Granted a few friends and I did "drunken improv D&D" a couple times back in college but that was in no way a serious attempt at a normal gaming experience.
The DM in my weekly game charges $5 per session and offered the first actual game session free. He also met with me personally in place of a full session zero because I joined the game on the third session of the campaign, and we covered the normal session zero things, went over my character and how he was going to introduce said character into the game already in progress. After that first session I decided continuing on in the game was well worth the price of a low end fast food combo meal and have been happily playing that game for going on three months now.
I would strongly advise against paying in advance beyond a single session until you know that you're actually going to enjoy the game. Or in your unfortunate case, that there will even be a game. Still, there are good people out there and good games to be found so I also recommend you keep looking. Just try to be sure you're happy with what you're getting before paying for it, like you presumably would with any other product or service. I also agree with the others who have already suggested looking for ways to provide feedback on the ghost DM to any server and forum, discord channel, or other community or service that you used to find them. It's standard policy fir any such communities/services to have a clear "at your own risk" policy when exchanging money for gaming, but perhaps you can at least warn other players against them in the future and some channels or forums might even go as far as to ban an individual if they get enough complaints about them (I wouldn't count on it, but I expect a few discord servers I frequent would probably do so).
A few adult beverages among adults at a game are fine as long as no one goes past their limit so their ability to deliberate is impaired, especially the DM. If the DM is being paid ... I dunno, I know some performer types who do have an adult beverage before or while performing to deal with social anxiety, but if it's clear the player is _drunk_, yeah probably not worth the price of admission unless you're looking for a "worst DM experience" to share on forums like these.
As far as vetting games and DMs, again, I don't think this is typical "paid DM conduct" at least among those who continue to find customers. One possible thing would be to reach out to local game storm, if you got one (usually Facebook is the place to talk this out) and see if any of their GM/DMs have adapted to online and who may be looking for players. That way you got someone vetted by the local game community. I don't run a store myself but in my "retirement dream job" I might and would be happy to refer someone to games LFP in our local area, figuring I'm at minimum doing a solid for a potential future customer (and I'd dread Amazon trying to creep into that space trying to turn DMing into something that could be governed by its so called Mechanical Turk program). Back in the day we used to have these cork quadrilaterals we'd stick paper to with pins ... we called them message boards.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Another though on this, I think discord and VTT's sort of shield themselves with the "at your own risk" policy because the VTTs and discord. (nor DDB) is really designed to insure secure commerce between users. So saying that, and if you want more assurance you might want to look at some of the sites that are specifically for "pro DMs". I want to say that these sort of game brokers actually handle the payment process meaning there are better recourses/sanctions if fraudulent or just flakey incompetent practices take place. Side dealing Venmo's and Paypals put the transaction out of reach of anyone in the game circle. However, both Venmo and PayPal aren't happy about being used for fraud either, so you could send your documentation to their customer service. They may not be able to do much for you, but if certain accounts are producing pattern complaints, sanctions could be levied ... and if there is in fact a "big problem" (this is a pie in the sky scenario and unlikely so under spoiler):
(The folks in companies like Paypal/Square/Stripe that address these issues tend to be former money cops with a habit of writing up a criminal complaint and sending it over gift wrapped to their colleagues still authorized to investigate and prosecute so that jr. agents and prosecutors can start their careers with slam dunks ... that's probably not going to happen with a small scale flake, but the way some short end scams are bundled by larger enterprises is fascinating and often informs my gaming set in "true crime" contemporary or science fiction settings).
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
^^^ This.
The DM should not have ghosted the OP, but buyer beware here. You shouldn't pay someone who shows up to session 0 drunk.
BioWizard
I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
This is why I find the very concept of a ‘paid DM’ an utter disgrace. It’s a game, played for fun either with friends or people you are going to be friends with. Never pay, just grab your mates. Share costs like a room hire if you don’t have someone’s house to play in, share snacks and drinks. But that’s it.
Personally I would lambast the guy, report him on the site you met him, make posts about him giving his name etc. Make it obvious who he is so nobody else gets conned by him. Try and get your money back, paypal is very good, or if you paid by card then contact the provider. Speak to the police as well, they may already have received complaints about him, and you might help with getting him prosecuted.
Never paid for or been paid as a DM, but this is silly. What if you and your friends really want to play instead of DM? And what if you've been trying for half a year to get into a good group but there's nothing local and the handful of online ones you got in have been massive disappointments? All of these circumstances happen, and while paying a DM (particularly one you don't know) doesn't come with guarantees you should have much better odds of a) finding a group to play with that b) plays close to your prefered style of game and c) has reliable attendance and d) a DM with a vested interested in making it worth your while.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
Sometimes "among friends" someone stiffs the rest of the group for pizza money the whole group leaves one holding the bag when the delivery person rings.
While the OP's story is a familiar one, I. doubt there's any more fraud in this area than there is in any other space where unsecured/unregulated "at own risk" transactions take place online.
As quarantine and social distance rules have relaxed, I've been alarmed by the number of people who've said "I think I'm going to try being a professional DM" with no TTRPG experience whatsoever, like it's the latest get rich quick scheme. Literally said in passing, either to me or in earshot of me, not knowing who in the room might be have some game experience. Now I'm only talking about 4, but that's still a bizarre number of people with the same bad line of thinking ... I think they think it's like babysitting or adult baby sitting. I'm wondering how many of the "ghost" DMs have a similar origin, choking when they realize actual work is involved. Anyone else come across people like this?
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I haven't, but it doesn't surprise me. You see similar issues with a number of hobbies or creative skills where people think they can monetize their time and fail to realize that doing a hobby as work often changes your enjoyment of it, that there's more to a business than just the work itself, and that they may just not be good enough to warrant getting paid in the first place.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
You're right, but what I'm talking about is even weirder. I'm talking about people who have never played the game saying, "I think I'm going to try my hand at being a professional DM." I think there's a misconception of how widespread monetary returns in playing the game actually is, so it's drawing some element of the get rich quick scheme set. Ironically, many a fraudster confession when things have criminally gone out of hand tend to have the suspect relate not realizing how hard making money in ... usually some sort of investing or biz development ... actually can be (or rather, that it's actual work), so they start cutting corners and misrepresenting, and then it sort of spirals from there.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
How hard can it be? :p
Part of it may just be a bandwagon thing. People think they can be an influencer or social media personality and rake in cash too because they see the success stories, not the failures (or the effort, the actual business side of it, the potential investments needed or the fact that some people just have a head start in life). It's hardly TikTok, but D&D is going through a golden age and good DMs make it look effortless.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
Probably right. I think it's another reverberation of the Mercer effect maybe, but a public who isn't aware Mercer was the opposite of a paid DM. That his his group was his group of friends, who all happened to have a bit of dramatic flair and connections to the Hollywood "how do we monitize podcasts and stream scene?" and it worked, though exceptionally compared to everyone else trying to do it. I've had conversations with people who are looking for a paid DM to make the "next Critical Role" and they won't be disabused of the fact that a lot of that shows dynamic is predicated on long lasting relationships.
And then you got some folks swooping in to pick up some cash and fleecing the paid market, some probably intentional, some probably just flakey.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
This sort of reminds me of that scene in the Simpsons when they are having a local film festival in Springfield, and Mr. Burns wants to hire Steven Spielberg to make his biographical movie. When the real Spielberg is not available he just hires someone with a similar name (Senior Spielbergo) and thinks he's going to get something equal to a Spielberg movie.
BioWizard
I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
It's not just the dynamics and the game itself either. It's a bunch of fairly expensive equipment, tech work to make it all run smoothly and provide graphics, a community manager, editing for the upload to youtube, etc. Geek & Sundry did all that before the CritRole gang started their own business, and it involves a lot of work and investment.
Besides, there's a bunch of next CritRole's already. Really good streamed games, clearly made by people who know what they're doing and doing it well, and while some of them are pretty darn successful they don't come close to CritRole in terms of revenue. But hey, if people want to give it a go I'm not stopping them.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
Me either, and I've become very adept at saying "You do you, but your really don't know what you're talking about" when telling some players I'm not interested.
There's some great Crit Role stuff, but I also frankly like the next wrung down on quality where the folks are figuring out the game, having issues with the VTT etc. ... Crit role is good for story arc and ''beat" fodder, but the less professionally produced streams I think are actually more instructive in game play. I think something like MannShorts' livestreams sort of straddles that. They've got their sketch comedy type stuff, but their livestreams are them just playing (like right now playing the Star Wars based off of 3.5 and clearly only the DM really knows how to play it) and it's good to hear where they. get caught up as well as the "clearly, not sponsored by Roll20" hiccups during play. Their DM leans more into old EU than Disney Canon, I do the opposite but I like him (also like the gag on the sketch side where he occasionally cameos as like the worst DM ever but he's pretty dang good IRL).
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
It's super common but generally not with paid GMs. At least in theory.
Adventures worth winning. Forming an immediate connection with players and tying their character into the greater world. Your character matters. I empower you to change the world around you. Your choices matter.
I am a professional DM crafting the greatest stories. Message me for openings in my games. Discord: thirstybard#5980
Website: https://bardicgaming.com/