On being a Professional GM

Many folks on here have asked me about my .sig and what the reference to being a professional game master actually means. I figured that rather than hijacking someone elses thread I would just post a brief explanation here and answer any other questions (if there are any).

About 7 months ago I was trolling around ENWorld and noticed a thread in the Gamers Seeking Gamers section labelled "Looking to hire a DM". I thought to myself "No Way" but I clicked on it any way and saw that it was legit. Not only that, but the folks looking to do the hiring were only minutes from my other job!

I contacted them, and sure enough, they were looking to hire someone on through their company to run a couple of employee games as a continual team building exercise! I applied for the position and sent them my professional and gaming resume. A few day's later I was interviewed. Let me tell you, that during all of this I was in a constant state of disbelief.

My first thoughts were that it was too good to be true or that it would just be a bunch of guys in their parents basement wanting to pool their cash each week. I couldn't have been more wrong. I think the truth of the situation finally hit me when Rian (my boss) informed me that they had selected me for the position and that I needed to come in to fill out some paperwork (Taxes and stuff like that).

At first it started out with me running a DnD game on Saturday afternoons and it wasn't long after that and they requested me to start running a Friday evening game as well. Time has gone by and some tastes have changed so now I run Star Wars d20 on Fridays and Call of Cthulhu d20 on Saturdays. The games are great, and I am really enjoying it. The extra money is nice of course, but I think my favorite part ahs been getting to meet these guys and make new friends.

One of them joined me on my annual journey to GenCon this year and it was a blast. It has truly been an amazing experience and at times I am still in shock over getting payed to do the one thing in life that I enjoy more than just about anything else.

If anyone has any other questions or anything of that sort, I am more than happy to answer them (although I will not discuss my pay).

Later.

Yeah, bugaboo used to do that too.

So, do you have waivers exempting you from any responsibility of what happens to their characters?

Heh. Nothing (well, almost ) is better than actually enjoying one's job. Congratulations!

Bye
Thanee

Joshua Dyal said:

Yeah, bugaboo used to do that too.

So, do you have waivers exempting you from any responsibility of what happens to their characters?

Click to expand...

No waivers, but they are a pretty mature bunch. We had several long conversations up front, so that I could determine best how to fit their play style. I was curious what would happen the first time it came up, but it went just fine. In fact, there are times they are easier to deal with than what I call my "charity" gamers.

So you're living the dream? Nice going!

It must require considerable DM and people skills to pull that off properly / professionally.

Sheesh. Now I am jealous. Doubt there are any companies here is SA that would do this, RPGs are a way too marginal hobby!

I hate you... j/k!!! One summer several years ago I was hired to run a 2 hour game one night a week for some high school students who were attending a summer program at a local college. That was a lot of fun, and I was pretty let down when it ended.

**wonders how to slip this sort of thing into a resume'**

I always assumed Bugaboo was engaged in a long-running practical joke, myself. If this isn't the same thing, that sounds pretty amazing.

So, this company team-building thing. Is is a short-term thing? Do they rotate players in and out on you? (That, BTW, would be pretty amazing to me, that Personnel would come to me and say 'BTW, you're playing D&D on Friday afternoon for the next six weeks').

Do you have a set of instructions to go by or situations to use? Do you report back specific results from those or make notes of who does what? (Like 'Put them in a burning building and see who saves the kids and which ones climb over the backs of their fellow man to get out').

Does what happens in the game apply to reviews ('Now, Johnson, it says here that you always like to play evil characters. I think we need to talk about that' or 'Marcia, about your stealing from other party members...' OK, not that literally, but are they graded on participation, leadership, problem-solving, etc?), or is it like a 'mandatory company picnic' type of thing?

Katerek said:

No waivers, but they are a pretty mature bunch. We had several long conversations up front, so that I could determine best how to fit their play style. I was curious what would happen the first time it came up, but it went just fine. In fact, there are times they are easier to deal with than what I call my "charity" gamers.

Click to expand...

Oh, that was a joke. A few years ago there was this infamous thread by notorious troll bugaboo wherein he asked some advise on how to handle his thriving DMing business, and lots of folks were taken in and were outraged. It was tons of fun.

I wonder if that was archived? I think it was from a much earlier version of the boards -- before it was ENWorld even.

Oh, My Dear Lord.

You know, now I can say I've heard of everything. Simply amazing.

Wonder if I can get my company to hire me like that?