Quote from: Zalman on March 11, 2023, 08:48:06 AM

Quote from: Wasteland Sniper on March 10, 2023, 10:55:01 PM
A friend/former coworker is paying me to DM for his son and two other kids.

Yeah, that's the thing: it's not necessarily the players who are paying the DM.

Quote from: Ratman_tf on March 11, 2023, 12:01:13 AM
Like most of my hobbies, I'd hate to turn it into a job.

Yes, but ... I've managed a few times to turn my job into a hobby, by selling RPG time to my employers as a team-building and creative thinking exercise. We played weekly sessions on company time.

Sure. If someone else has the mental bandwith, more power to 'em. It's just not an idea that appeals to me, personally.

I think it's strange but I get it.  Maybe they want to play with their friends but don't have a willing DM.  Maybe the DM would rather get paid than put in all the effort for free.  Given that there are way more players than DMs, it makes sense.

I'll also speculate a bit- a lot of the stuff I've seen is 5ed players looking for a DM.  Maybe there's a reason why that system in particular has such a skewed ratio?  It only takes a brief glance at reddit to see some players who get real mad if the DM "bans" the splatbook nonsense.  Sure, some people will defend a DM doing that, but others will be on the attack, and honestly, the position some few of them have is totally indefensible.  I'd probably have to be pulling a paycheck to run a game for some of their bullshit, is all I'm sayin.

I can see the market, especially among older professionals who value time over money. I certainly know people who would happily pay a great GM to run a monthly kickass session with all the bells & whistles and $100 for 4 friends for 4 hours of gaming would be nothing for them. But the GM would have to be impressive.

And when you break down $25 per player per session, assuming 4 hour game, that's $12.50 for 2 hours - aka a movie ticket. So if you and your 3 buddies went to 2 movies, that's $100 and I'd certainly rather 4 hours of a great game vs. 2 Hollyweird wokecrap movies.

I doubt many can pay their rent via GMing, but some might make some extra beer money doing what they enjoy which is fine.

Quote from: Ravenshire on March 10, 2023, 10:01:40 PM
So I've noticed a bunch of posts on several of the big Facebook rpg groups of DMs running ads for their games, usually like $25 a session. What is everyone's thoughts on paid DMing?

So this is a serious thing and you can find paid GMs all over

https://startplaying.games/

i.e.

https://startplaying.games/game/welcome-to-drakkenheim-an-introduction-to-a-new-dd-setting

10-20 years ago it was largely urban legend and considered a joke. On The Big Purple, I remember a post around that time about a corporate trainer who did D&D all day as a job, seriously, to build team cohesion.

People posting about being paid for it were generally laughed at. It seems especially with COVID and all the online options now, it's much more of a thing.

Quote from: Spinachcat on March 12, 2023, 05:20:19 AM
I can see the market, especially among older professionals who value time over money. I certainly know people who would happily pay a great GM to run a monthly kickass session with all the bells & whistles and $100 for 4 friends for 4 hours of gaming would be nothing for them. But the GM would have to be impressive.

And when you break down $25 per player per session, assuming 4 hour game, that's $12.50 for 2 hours - aka a movie ticket. So if you and your 3 buddies went to 2 movies, that's $100 and I'd certainly rather 4 hours of a great game vs. 2 Hollyweird wokecrap movies.

I doubt many can pay their rent via GMing, but some might make some extra beer money doing what they enjoy which is fine.

It's not for everyone, but it's certainly a viable side gig if you're retired, disabled, or otherwise have stable income. Like, I'm a disabled veteran and money isn't a problem, so if I were to go on StartPlaying and schedule a 4-hour recurrent gig for every day of the weekday, I'd be pretty stoked because it would be something I legitimately enjoy *and* feel validated because I was paid a cash value for it - because people were willing to pay for it.

I'd start with one session a week at first. I'd focus on learning exactly what kind of prep would be necessary for the kind of campaign I'd be running. Once I had the workflow down and a few sessions under my belt, I'd open up slots for additional days until I hit a comfortable peak workload.

An extra $3-400 a week wouldn't be bad, and I'd be doing what I love anyway.

Quote from: FF_Ninja on March 12, 2023, 02:10:04 PMAn extra $3-400 a week wouldn't be bad, and I'd be doing what I love anyway.

Once you're doing it for pay, you work for the players. You'll find yourself running things differently to how you would for fun, maybe putting up with shit at the table you normally wouldn't. Sure you can pick and choose clients, but then the jobs will dry up.

Mostly when I see paid GM's it's connected to Millennial weirdos with poor people skills, and a lot of expectations. A lot of them essentially want a trained monkey.

The Grognards paying for a kickass GM is like finding a unicorn, not the standard. The standard is running a bland adventure with silly voices, for a bunch of snowflakes running homebrew animal-kin.

Quote from: Spinachcat on March 12, 2023, 05:20:19 AM
I can see the market, especially among older professionals who value time over money. I certainly know people who would happily pay a great GM to run a monthly kickass session with all the bells & whistles and $100 for 4 friends for 4 hours of gaming would be nothing for them. But the GM would have to be impressive.

And when you break down $25 per player per session, assuming 4 hour game, that's $12.50 for 2 hours - aka a movie ticket. So if you and your 3 buddies went to 2 movies, that's $100 and I'd certainly rather 4 hours of a great game vs. 2 Hollyweird wokecrap movies.

I doubt many can pay their rent via GMing, but some might make some extra beer money doing what they enjoy which is fine.

Greetings!

I saw some hottie chick online that farted in jars and sold them for $30 per jar. She made--according to the commentator who did the video about her, $50K in her first month *alone*

There was some other Thottie that sold her *BATHWATER* for $29.99 per bottle. She made hundreds of thousands of dollars, *snap* like that! Fucking mind-boggling incredible.

I'd wager those women made far more than "Beer Money"!!! *Laughing* Insane, I know, brother!

I agree though. Let someone try and make a buck from being a Paid DM.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Quote from: Grognard GM on March 12, 2023, 06:53:42 PM

Quote from: FF_Ninja on March 12, 2023, 02:10:04 PMAn extra $3-400 a week wouldn't be bad, and I'd be doing what I love anyway.

Once you're doing it for pay, you work for the players. You'll find yourself running things differently to how you would for fun, maybe putting up with shit at the table you normally wouldn't. Sure you can pick and choose clients, but then the jobs will dry up.

Mostly when I see paid GM's it's connected to Millennial weirdos with poor people skills, and a lot of expectations. A lot of them essentially want a trained monkey.

The Grognards paying for a kickass GM is like finding a unicorn, not the standard. The standard is running a bland adventure with silly voices, for a bunch of snowflakes running homebrew animal-kin.

I'm not arguing with you, but I personally do not have any experience one way or the other with the pGM community as a whole - on either side of the screen. Everything I'm putting forward is currently conjecture.

It'd be great if I was able to interview some pGMs that interact regularly with the community to see what trends and what the typical paying player is looking for.

I'm being paid to GM a game of Old School Essentials for a group of 8 10-16 year olds. It's actually really fun. And they're a great group. At the end of the day there are always going to be people who bitch and moan it's not worth it. But I don't actually have enough income to justify the work and time I normally put into being a DM for free. GMing can be fun. But it is work. And it's thankless. You got to be a designer, performer, therapist, social worker, and judge all in one. For people who aren't always great at interpersonal relationships.  I can justify putting a lot more work into what I'm doing if I'm getting paid for my time. I also really enjoy it.

Quote from: Grognard GM on March 12, 2023, 06:53:42 PM

Quote from: FF_Ninja on March 12, 2023, 02:10:04 PMAn extra $3-400 a week wouldn't be bad, and I'd be doing what I love anyway.

Once you're doing it for pay, you work for the players. You'll find yourself running things differently to how you would for fun, maybe putting up with shit at the table you normally wouldn't. Sure you can pick and choose clients, but then the jobs will dry up.

Mostly when I see paid GM's it's connected to Millennial weirdos with poor people skills, and a lot of expectations. A lot of them essentially want a trained monkey.

The Grognards paying for a kickass GM is like finding a unicorn, not the standard. The standard is running a bland adventure with silly voices, for a bunch of snowflakes running homebrew animal-kin.

Nope my group are kids and I'm still basically running what I'd normally run. In fact the kids constantly demand I make things harder and have more death. They are very bloodthirsty and crave more grognard stuff. Which is nice. And I've been recommended to an older group looking to run OSRIC. So I'm the unicorn. I think I'm really starting to get people out of the 5E rut which is just magical for me. At the end of the day as a paid GM you set your expectations for the group and communicate the kinds of games you want to run. If there's a market and you have a good rep, you will find games. And people will be happy to pay.

Quote from: Ravenshire on March 10, 2023, 10:01:40 PM
What is everyone's thoughts on paid DMing?

Paying for a DM is money wasted.

Quote from: King Tyranno on March 12, 2023, 10:44:35 PM
GMing can be fun. But it is work. And it's thankless. You got to be a designer, performer, therapist, social worker, and judge all in one. For people who aren't always great at interpersonal relationships.  I can justify putting a lot more work into what I'm doing if I'm getting paid for my time.

You're not GMing though. That's the problem.

Quote from: Shawn Driscoll on March 12, 2023, 11:54:15 PM

Quote from: King Tyranno on March 12, 2023, 10:44:35 PM
GMing can be fun. But it is work. And it's thankless. You got to be a designer, performer, therapist, social worker, and judge all in one. For people who aren't always great at interpersonal relationships.  I can justify putting a lot more work into what I'm doing if I'm getting paid for my time.

You're not GMing though. That's the problem.

If you're going to say that it would help if you defined what GMing is in your mind. I didn't realize running games for people somehow wasn't GMing but I'm sure you'll set me right.

Quote from: Iron_Rain on March 12, 2023, 11:52:00 AM

Quote from: Ravenshire on March 10, 2023, 10:01:40 PM
So I've noticed a bunch of posts on several of the big Facebook rpg groups of DMs running ads for their games, usually like $25 a session. What is everyone's thoughts on paid DMing?

So this is a serious thing and you can find paid GMs all over

https://startplaying.games/

i.e.

https://startplaying.games/game/welcome-to-drakkenheim-an-introduction-to-a-new-dd-setting

10-20 years ago it was largely urban legend and considered a joke. On The Big Purple, I remember a post around that time about a corporate trainer who did D&D all day as a job, seriously, to build team cohesion.

People posting about being paid for it were generally laughed at. It seems especially with COVID and all the online options now, it's much more of a thing.

I also noticed that on Roll20: The number of paid GMs has increased enormously. I can only hope that GMing doesn't become an officially recognized profession in the EU, so that you need a certificate to run a game. (Still a joke now, but the EU is known for doing pretty crazy things).

Paying for a GM sounds a lot like paying for porn. It's free if you know where to look, but for some reason people still dole out the money. I understand having the market for younger players just getting into the hobby (where the parents who can't be bothered just hire someone instead), but for older kids and *gasp* adults, it boggles my mind. If you can flesh out a character and give it depth and nuance, you can be a GM. It's essentially the same thing, just applied on a macro scale.

But I disgress. Hey, if you make a gig out of it and get paid $25 buck per head per session, good on you. It seems there's no lack of simps out there willing to buy your bathwater and jarred farts. I'm just not one of them.

Quote from: Ratman_tf on March 11, 2023, 12:01:13 AM

Quote from: Ravenshire on March 10, 2023, 10:01:40 PM
So I've noticed a bunch of posts on several of the big Facebook rpg groups of DMs running ads for their games, usually like $25 a session. What is everyone's thoughts on paid DMing?

Like most of my hobbies, I'd hate to turn it into a job.

this. personally, i'd never do anything i really like for a living (provided there were other options).