If you were paid to be a GM

[delericho]

The reason it could never work is because the amount of prep required increases the time, but the 'customer' is only getting a few hours' entertainment... A kid's magician at birthday parties may have spent months perfecting his act, but he only gets paid for a couple of hours' work; you don't pay him for 8 months.

Yep, that's exactly the issue. As far as I can see, the only real way to make it work is as I mentioned up-thread, or as you mention here with your "kid's magician" example - the GM prepares his 'act' ahead of time and then runs that same adventure with many different groups. Though 'hundreds' is probably a bit extreme, since neither the training nor the material requirements are as great for the GM as they are for the magician/musician/whatever. Still, good luck finding even 3 groups willing to pay £100+ a time to play through your adventure.

 

[Morrus]

Yep, that's exactly the issue. As far as I can see, the only real way to make it work is as I mentioned up-thread, or as you mention here with your "kid's magician" example - the GM prepares his 'act' ahead of time and then runs that same adventure with many different groups. Though 'hundreds' is probably a bit extreme, since neither the training nor the material requirements are as great for the GM as they are for the magician/musician/whatever. Still, good luck finding even 3 groups willing to pay £100+ a time to play through your adventure.

Yeah. In fact I was a bit optimistic in my assessment that you're competing with a movie or kid's magician in terms of value; you're competing with craploads of people who are perfectly happy to do it for free. It's just not sustainable.

 

[Grogg of the North]

If I'm running a game, chances are my wife will want to play as well. So ... enough to cover a babysitter?

 

[ThirdWizard]

Alarm bells would go off! If a group has to pay to get someone to DM for them, there must be something incredibly wrong with this group. In other words, its going to be a pain to deal with. So, I'm not sure I would take the job unless it paid quite a bit of money. Maybe I'd give it a go for one day with the option to run for the hills as soon as introductions were made? I dunno. Oh... but definitely would take place in a public place.

 

[Grogg of the North]

Alarm bells would go off! If a group has to pay to get someone to DM for them, there must be something incredibly wrong with this group. In other words, its going to be a pain to deal with. So, I'm not sure I would take the job unless it paid quite a bit of money. Maybe I'd give it a go for one day with the option to run for the hills as soon as introductions were made? I dunno. Oh... but definitely would take place in a public place.

Maybe they want you to DM because you are so awesome?

 

[Neonchameleon]

What am I running, and for how long? High level D&D 3.5 would take a much higher hourly rate than Dungeon World - which I turn up at the first session deliberately not having prepared. And whatever I was doing I'd be trying to work myself out of a job - if after half a dozen sessions no one thought they could step up and GM I'd consider myself to have failed.

 

[Ulrick]

I DM for food.

 

[Dice4Hire]

Ill do it for dice!!

 

[saskganesh]

"$100 per regularly scheduled 4 hr slot, no HST. We can play twice a month, your place. Travel negotiable. Contract is ongoing, but can be ended at any time by either DM or Player(s). Free initial consultation."

Something like that.

 

[Janx]

The question isn't as easy to answer as it looks like. When I'd ask/accept money for running a game, I would treat it as a job. As such it has to be able to support me.

For a one-shot (2 hours prep, 4 hours play), it would have to be €200-250.

For a campaign the rate would actually be higher, as adapting to the characters and maintaining continuity means additional pre work. Because this sounds bad, one could ask for a fixed sum for set-up (basic campaign fee), a yearly continuation fee, and a lower session rate.

I'm so happy that I can treat running games as a hobby. not as a job!

Yup.

Once money is involved, we're in the realm of it becomes work, that I have to do, and thus must meet the price of alternative revenue streams and thus must also meet quality levels to justify that price to the customers who could seek a cheaper GM.

A GM coming from a lower pay grade may be willing to accept lower pay (pay that is in effect the same as his current day job). For him, that's an upgrade. Better job, same pay.

Somebody in a more advanced career is looking at such pay scales as not worth their time to get involved in. Why work for $10/hour when you can easily get $50/hour or more (and $45/hour is the low end of contract development work)

And because I can get that much in work that is just as enjoyable (coding is fun). I'd be inclined to charge the same rate for GMing.

Would you be willing to pay $50/hour? $75/hour? For my GMing?

I doubt I'm worth that much as a GM. Especially in light of a better GM working at $15/hour someplace crappy. He could unlock his dream job, I'd just be overpriced product.