I've been thinking about getting back into paid DMing, but it's been a while.What features do you most want to see in a DM if you are paying them? What do you most want to avoid?
On topic: First and foremost, I'd probably want an unpaid session zero (not sure if that's the norm or not). I'd like to know if they want what I want out of the game before the Washingtons start trading hands.
Beyond that, I think it really depends on the group. I imagine that they'd want you to stick to the things outlined in session zero that you agreed to. It's hard to say things like, "I'd like a homebrew world with tons of politics and a huge plot" when not everyone wants that out of DnD.
Then again, perhaps you are asking what kinds of things are expected from players willing to pay a DM. I think it's a subtly different question. I imagine it starts with "owning a lot of books for player options."
I don't pay for stuff that's available for free. So that's a hard bar to get over: To get me to pay, you'd need to deliver something I cannot get just by signing up for a game online. You'd need to be a first tier GM at every level, you'd need to somehow provide a stable game without players or GM ghosting out after 2,5 or 9 sessions, and you'd need to provide a module I wanted to play.
Based on my personal experience, that's ... not easy.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
I'll chime in here, since I have a lot of experience as both a paid and non-paid DM. I am assuming that you are competent at running a game smoothly. This includes knowing your source material and rules well. You should be capable of making quick, fun, and fair rulings without bogging down a game by spending a lot of time looking things up when you don't have the exact RAW in front of you. If you are lacking in these areas, you should probably not be charging at all.
The amount you charge should correlate with what you are offering. At $5 per session for each player you should necessarily be offering a lot less in perks than if you are charging $20 or $40 per session.
Think about it from the perspective of your client. What you are charging for is entertainment value.
Assuming a typical D&D session of 3-4 hours, how much does a similar amount of entertainment cost?
The average cost of a movie ticket these days is over $15, and the average feature film is roughly 90 minutes long. Movie watching is a purely passive experience. In D&D time equivalence, that works out to $30 per person for an activity where the participants take nothing away except (hopefully) good memories.
The typical escape room experience charges $35 for 60 minutes of interactive problem solving, which works out to over $100 per person in D&D time. And again, players take away nothing but memories.
The average cost of a D&D session on the most popular paid DM site is $30, and the amount of perks varies widely.
Some perks I have offered personally or seen others offer include providing players with custom artwork for their characters, creating journals, videos or comic-book style documents to recap the previous sessions, and giving players PDF souvenir copies of the module or adventure once play is complete (obviously you would only do this with adventures you have written yourself, for copyright purposes). The list of potential perks can be as endless as your creativity, but for each one you must decide how much added value it brings.
I've been thinking about getting back into paid DMing, but it's been a while.What features do you most want to see in a DM if you are paying them? What do you most want to avoid?
The core feature I'd expect to see is entertainment that matches the price. This is, frankly, the biggest problem for paid DMing, because you're competing with entertainment products that pay for themselves by getting a very small amount of money from a huge number of people; you obviously aren't going to achieve the quality of a show with a production cost of 6-7 figures per episode if you're charging $20 to five people.
If I'm going to pay someone to DM for me or my players...
It'll be someone with some degree of pedigree.
That Critical Role 5-Star Dinner & DND dream I had was AWFULLY clear & I was lucid during it, after all. & it was before I'd been even a toe deep into CritRole.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I've been thinking about getting back into paid DMing, but it's been a while.What features do you most want to see in a DM if you are paying them? What do you most want to avoid?
you_guys_get_paid?.meme
On topic:
First and foremost, I'd probably want an unpaid session zero (not sure if that's the norm or not). I'd like to know if they want what I want out of the game before the Washingtons start trading hands.
Beyond that, I think it really depends on the group. I imagine that they'd want you to stick to the things outlined in session zero that you agreed to. It's hard to say things like, "I'd like a homebrew world with tons of politics and a huge plot" when not everyone wants that out of DnD.
Then again, perhaps you are asking what kinds of things are expected from players willing to pay a DM. I think it's a subtly different question. I imagine it starts with "owning a lot of books for player options."
I don't pay for stuff that's available for free. So that's a hard bar to get over: To get me to pay, you'd need to deliver something I cannot get just by signing up for a game online. You'd need to be a first tier GM at every level, you'd need to somehow provide a stable game without players or GM ghosting out after 2,5 or 9 sessions, and you'd need to provide a module I wanted to play.
Based on my personal experience, that's ... not easy.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
I'll chime in here, since I have a lot of experience as both a paid and non-paid DM. I am assuming that you are competent at running a game smoothly. This includes knowing your source material and rules well. You should be capable of making quick, fun, and fair rulings without bogging down a game by spending a lot of time looking things up when you don't have the exact RAW in front of you. If you are lacking in these areas, you should probably not be charging at all.
The amount you charge should correlate with what you are offering. At $5 per session for each player you should necessarily be offering a lot less in perks than if you are charging $20 or $40 per session.
Think about it from the perspective of your client. What you are charging for is entertainment value.
Assuming a typical D&D session of 3-4 hours, how much does a similar amount of entertainment cost?
The average cost of a movie ticket these days is over $15, and the average feature film is roughly 90 minutes long. Movie watching is a purely passive experience. In D&D time equivalence, that works out to $30 per person for an activity where the participants take nothing away except (hopefully) good memories.
The typical escape room experience charges $35 for 60 minutes of interactive problem solving, which works out to over $100 per person in D&D time. And again, players take away nothing but memories.
The average cost of a D&D session on the most popular paid DM site is $30, and the amount of perks varies widely.
Some perks I have offered personally or seen others offer include providing players with custom artwork for their characters, creating journals, videos or comic-book style documents to recap the previous sessions, and giving players PDF souvenir copies of the module or adventure once play is complete (obviously you would only do this with adventures you have written yourself, for copyright purposes). The list of potential perks can be as endless as your creativity, but for each one you must decide how much added value it brings.
Hope this helps! :)
The core feature I'd expect to see is entertainment that matches the price. This is, frankly, the biggest problem for paid DMing, because you're competing with entertainment products that pay for themselves by getting a very small amount of money from a huge number of people; you obviously aren't going to achieve the quality of a show with a production cost of 6-7 figures per episode if you're charging $20 to five people.
If I'm going to pay someone to DM for me or my players...
It'll be someone with some degree of pedigree.
That Critical Role 5-Star Dinner & DND dream I had was AWFULLY clear & I was lucid during it, after all. & it was before I'd been even a toe deep into CritRole.
DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.