Chuck Ocenasek
First Post
Who says AL is free?
The Monetization of D&D Play
Iry
Hero
Earlier in the thread you will find my personal account of DM'ing as a source of income, where I charged $20 for 8. So that is objectively false. Part of the problem is the number of people that believe (as several people in the thread have voiced) that this service is only worth around $5. We should be spreading awareness that there is nothing wrong with DM'ing as a source of income, that this choice should not be villified, and that $5 is not a reasonable amount of money to pay a monetized DM.
Of course, this is all going to take some time. Change doesn't happen overnight. And even when it does, there's probably still going to be plenty of 'starving artists', so to speak. But we can still promote decency and respect for anyone who tries to make a living doing it.
I'm surprised people are willing to pay you. $20 a session is really steep seeing this is a once a week thing. It only cost $15/month to play WoW last time I checked. This might work where you're at, but it's not going to catch on. I live a big city with plenty of options. If the store I go to decides that everyone needs to play to play, then I'll just go to another store, of find another group. If that playing at your table was my only option, I would just find a new hobby. D&D isn't worth spending $80-100 a month. Like someone else said, if you were some sort of celebrity DM and paying was a one time thing, for some special event, then sure why not, but week in and week out is ridiculous.
The only acceptable things I can see paying for is, a room in a store, so you don't have to be shouting over a bunch of other people, or if the players decide they want to chip in to help pay for a campaign book, but those should always be voluntary things, not requirements.
Myrdin Potter
Hero
$160 once a week is beer and pretzel money. You are not going to be able to afford rent and insurance, especially after the 15% self employment taxes. That was what, a 3-4 hour session? So you made $40 an hour? If you did it 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, you would make $1,600 a week? Where are you going to find so many players for so many hours? $80K a year is maybe what a unionized actor makes if they get a decent amount of roles and they need a reasonable amount of star power. The super-stars are tiny in number.
As a one off, every once and a while, sure.
But I still think you should get that accounting degree I suggested. Plumbers and other skilled trades people can easily make that.
Iry
Hero
I had no shortage of players interested in paying that amount at my table, but I do live in a capital city which definitely put demand higher than supply. And while it's absolutely true that video games and things like Netflix are amazing time value for money, a DM who is attempting to make a living with her skills cannot afford to charge anything less. She's going to have to cater specifically to the people who CAN afford $80-100 a month.
It's tough, but that's fine. As long as nobody is villainizing the DM who is trying to make a living.
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The problem is, if you're running AL in stores, you shouldn't be charging people. That's against AL's policy and I'm not sure the legality of profiting off of any printed material owned by WotC. If you're running your own campaign at your house, well you can do what you want. It might be better if you wrote your own campaign and submitted it to WotC for publishing.
Iry
Hero
It's definitely possible to build up a loyal playerbase who are willing to pay for your services, but dramatically less likely that your campaign will be selected by WotC for publishing. The first one is difficult but do-able. The second is... let's just say it's much more reasonable to become a freelance writer for a gaming company and/or publish on the GM's Guild than count on WotC publishing your campaign.
Myrdin Potter
Hero
I was responding to your second mention, but 8 hours for 4 people is only $10 an hour, so that is $40K a year and only if you can do it 5 days a week. So even worse than I said. And your player base was terrible. Plus, there cannot be enough demand to have more than 1-2 people doing that.
Again, a regular job and DMing for beer and pretzel money if you are dead set on being paid seems the only real option.
