Forum

[Bodhiwolff]

First off, I wish you the absolute best of luck with your endeavours.

However, in the spirit of helping you refine your idea, I might make a few comments. After all, you had one failed attempt, and if your second attempt is going to work, you want to enter it with a completely realistic approach.

I'm going to compare you to, say, the people who sign up to GM games at popular gaming conventions. But first, some pre-amble.

Anybody who pays money for a service wants to be assured that this service surpasses anything they could get for free. We pay money to eat out at a restaurant because we feel that the increased quality over our own cooking justifies spending hard-earned cash on the experience. We pay money to see an old movie at a revival theatre (rather than watch it on DVD) because the experience of "going out" itself holds value for us.

So if I pay money for a professional GM, I want an experience that I feel surpasses anything I could do myself, or anything which my friends can do.

At 8 dollars an hour, for a 5 hour game, I'm expected to shell out 40 dollars for your services. If I don't get value for my money, I'm going to be royally ticked off.

This means that you are expected to excell at ...
a) rules mastery
b) game presentation
c) game mastering / player interaction / impromptu storytelling
d) Adventure design

If you take a look at game conventions, you have people sign up to host and GM games for serious gamers. People sign up to play these games, for free, but their expectation is that anybody who is going to GM such a game is going to provide a truly exceptional experience. After all, they're GMing for serious gamers at a convention, not just their friends and family!

If you then read the forum comments after the games, some GMs are shocked to discover that people's expectations weren't met. Their game is torn apart. Their style is ridiculed. All in all, people just aren't that impressed. They could've got this at home!

Now, what you're asking for is people to pay money to have you perform the exact same service, for the same sort of crowd (anybody willing to pay money for a GM is a serious gamer), but have them pay money for it.

You might want to test the waters first. Set up some test games, with an anonymous response system (e-mail, internet forum, paper questionairres, something), and get people's opinions. Get them to rate the various factors I discussed, and get their feedback. Make sure that *strangers* (not friends, never friends!) get a chance to judge you, and rate you anonymously, and then you take their comments to heart. And finally, make sure to ask them if they'd be willing to pay the fee you're asking for such an experience.

If, after 5 or so test games, your responses indicate that this is viable, then you're off to the races. Sure, you missed out on approximately $200 in fees, but that's peanuts compared to the feedback that you're getting. You can even use this as an advertising mechanism -- you can show some of the positive ratings and comments as part of your sales pitch. People can be assured that they're getting a quality service!

If, after 5 or so test games, your responses indicate that people aren't satisfied in the way you need in order to be able to charge, then you might reconsider your move to turn professional.