Many a GM has harboured a secret dream of making a living off their hobby, or even just earning a bit of spending money. Naturally (and thankfully) it goes no further than that in most cases. After all when you get paid to do something  it tends to turn into a regular job and the fun is gone.

I was wondering, however, if anyone has witnessed/been a GM who charges for the privilege?

Not outside of cons.

I wonder about that as well the con charges for your game but where does that money go and why do they charge?

However, I do run muder mysteries for hotels as a little sideline and they pay me for that (about $1200 for the weekend) and that is pretty much GM'ing a railroad mystery for a bunch of noobies that have no idea of how the system works.

Quote from: jibbajibba;456715Not outside of cons.

I wonder about that as well the con charges for your game but where does that money go and why do they charge?

However, I do run muder mysteries for hotels as a little sideline and they pay me for that (about $1200 for the weekend) and that is pretty much GM'ing a railroad mystery for a bunch of noobies that have no idea of how the system works.

Its an interesting point.   In Australia and the UK there is big money in hosting pub trivia nights.

Quote from: Fiasco;456714I was wondering, however, if anyone has witnessed/been a GM who charges for the privilege?

Not charging players per se, but I was employed by the SFBok store in Stockholm to run an open 'anyone can sit down and play' D&D campaign in their shop on Saturdays. It wasn't fantastically well paid, but kept me buried in RPGs, books, and DVDs for a couple of years.

Quote from: jibbajibba;456715I wonder about that as well the con charges for your game but where does that money go and why do they charge?

That money goes to pay for the special guests. It also goes to cover expenses of the volunteers. The biggest chunk pays for the convention space, which in recent years has skyrocketed. Then there's insurance, and taxes, if the corporation sponsoring the event is a non-profit 501c corporation, it is exempt. If it's a normal corporation or private business, here in the U.S. they pay income tax.

There's a charge for every room that hosts an event, and some charges for unused rooms and meeting space, so the event staff have to be savvy about how much space they reserve.

Big events like Origins, GenCon, Pax, Comic Con also have to pay for security services, either directly or indirectly. Smaller conventions get by, by bringing their own security, or by hiring a private security firm.

If I had to wager a guess, I'd say that Origins in it's prime nets 250-750k.
GenCon, 600k to 1.25 Million. Pax, 1.6-2.25 million, though that figure may be a bit on the high side, especially if the Convention has paid full-time staff.
ComicCon, having the largest attendance, probably has the largest income.

In the U.S. If you want to run your own convention, you'll make some coin if you can draw 1,000 or more guests.  Less than that, and the expenses get dicey. I know that smaller conventions have been getting squeezed hard in the first decade by the hotels and convention center, so would be surprised if they made more than 5-10k annually after expenses. Smaller conventions generally don't charge for games though, although in recent years, I have witnessed more smaller conventions adopt that practice.

For a simple rule of thumb to estimate the baseline gross income, multiply the attendance times the badge price... Then multiply the number of exhibitor spaces times the charge for the smallest exhibitor space. Multiply the number of events times the average event charge, and add those three numbers together.

Many of the performers and special events are paid by the convention staff. Special guests are also compensated, and have their travel, lodging, and food expenses reimbursed or are provided plane/rail tickets as well as hotel accommodations and board.

In recent years, I have noticed more special events such as dances, fundraisers, and late night gatherings at nearby restaurants. These generate some additional revenue, and provide the convention staff with goodwill (and generous discounts from the venues that are hosting the after hours events).

Quote from: Fiasco;456730Its an interesting point.   In Australia and the UK there is big money in hosting pub trivia nights.

One can earn a six figure income by hosting special events every weekend or regularly DJing at nightclubs in Miami Beach. I would presume there's a few other areas in the U.S. this is true for as well.

I will sometimes buy Soda and snacks. If you want some...either drop a buck or add to the snack pile. I only do this at game events in a LGS.

I've always heard the "Tale of the Paid GM" as a sort of gaming urban myth; everyone's heard about it, no one knows anyone who's actually done it.

I always assumned the lion's share of Con expenses are spent on getting the space, since they tend to be at Hotels in my area.

I knew a guy who actually made his living for several years at least as a DM. He ran an after school program and a "summer camp" where he ran D&D games for middle school kids. This was in the 1990's in Berkeley CA. He may still be doing it, for all I know. The guy had some serious, serious, serious issues though, and even though he ran all the games in coffee shops and other public spaces, speaking as a parent, all I can say is no.fucking.way.

I know of a gm who asked for donations at a Larp and that money was used to pay for gming supplies (character sheets, inventory cards, gm stamps and cant remember what else)....they also raffled off a rule book.  It was not for making profit though it was used to buy supplies.

You can get paid for LARPS, and Cons because the staff (even if it is just you) can handle a large enough volume of people to make it worthwhile. The trivia night host is an example of that.

Tabletop GMs have a limited bandwidth in how many people they can handle. This ultimately makes the whole exercise unprofitable as you can't get enough return on your time.

It happens to LARPS and Cons as well where a below a certain size you can't generate enough profits to justify the time spent and reverts to being a hobby.

I personally was paid to teach four classes at the YWCA in Meadville, PA on Dungeons & Dragons in the summer of 1983. Basically 6 to 8 people with session on teaching the rules, creating a dungeon, campaign, and finally with me running a session showing how it done. So in a way I was paid for DMing but it was more than that. It turned a small profit for the YMCA I got like a $100 ($25 per class each 3 sessions).

Currently I playtest most of my writing before I publish at conventions and at Gold Star Anime. Pretty much, teaching, and playtesting your stuff, are two main ways I can see for anybody to profit off being a tabletop gamemaster.

Quote from: jibbajibba;456715Not outside of cons.

I wonder about that as well the con charges for your game but where does that money go and why do they charge?

Originally the entry fees for Gencon went to pay for the prizes for each session.  Large tournaments had respectively larger prizes.

Unless it is a game only convention there is no reason to charge for games to defray non-game activities  that should come from your badge fee.

In many conventions event run hours counts toward badge refund or event room refund, but again that should be from badge fees since there are not additional charges for other activities which also net volunteer hours.

I had a long discussion one year in the hearing of the gaming coordinator regarding this.  He scoffed saying, "So you want to be PAID to be a gm?"

Yes I do.

Those who ran larps were able to pocket their profits.  Why not the individual gm's?

I charged (past tense) back in high school for a while in private school, and then right at the end of college again.  Maybe for a total of 10 sessions between the 2.

Nothing more than 5 bucks a head at the peak, and it was just because I had built a rep and especially the second time, I had built a body of work.  
Nota bene that people were paying for the experience, but also because my players were a bunch of elitests that talked me up.  

It being the social hobby that it is, especially with all the closeness it creates between players, I am more embarressed than anything about the experience.

I'm on the Board of Directors(and one of the investors) of GameCon Memphis. This year(Sept) will be our 5th year. We are still operating at a loss, every year, but we are improving as we get bigger. Like has been said up thread, running a Con is expensive. Our single biggest expense is the Hotel/Convention space. We also provide a "Con Suite" that has free soda, chips, snacks and PB&J sandwiches(and danishes for Breakfast) that we provide at no cost. It is our second biggest expense. We give GMs and Volunteers discount badges or Free Badges based on the hours that they work. So, technically, we are paying our GMs, Free Entry Fee, Swag, and junk food.

I ALWAYS make sure that each person that plays a RPG at our con gets some kind of swag. At least one item. Last year was tough because a lot of game companies don't have the money to provide us with as much swag as we used to get. A couple of years ago, each person that played HackMaster received a hardbound Kingdoms of Kalamar book as swag provide from K&Co.

So, on a good year that we have a lot of swag, it is actually possible to get more dollar value swag than what you paid for your Badge. Every year for GMs who get in for Free. This year(and until the gaming industry economy improves) there's no guarantee of that happening though, but I hold out hope! Personally, I really love being able to give out free stuff to those gamers who attend our Con cause I like seeing people come out and have fun.

Other than Cons though, I really don't see that happening unless the GM was the only game in town, AND he was really, really good...

I'll GM for Pizza.