D&D General My Requirements to Run a 1-20 Adventure.

[Zardnaar]

This is a hypothetical it's not something I'm wanting to do. I'm looking at 300+ hours not including preparation time. This means there's a cost (my personal games are free but capped around level 10 or 12).

Time.
4 hour session.
6pm-10pm East Coast USA Saturday night. Sundays NZ/Australia.
There is a little bit of wiggle room there +/- 1 hour.

Attendance 75% required.
PHB or equivalent is required pdf is fine.

Cost $20 USD a session per player. May require $25+ buy in (buying the material). 4E $30 a session may be required to provide the material. Modern D&D capped at 5 players, pre 3E up to 6 players. 1st session is free.

40 sessions a year weekly. 1 month break late December to late January.
Estimated Length 2 years. 3 years for 4E to 30 or pre 3E.

Offer not available for OD&D or 1E. B/X to level 14 is negotiable. Clones negotiable this includes Pathfinder 1st Edition.

Adventure Options.

5E prepublished adventure
Age of Worms (Greyhawk)
Savage Tide (Greyhawk)
Rise of the Runelords (Golarion)
Kingmaker (Golarion)
Prepublished Megadungeon
Otherwise custom campaign set in FR.

2E
Night Below
Mere of Dead Men (Waterdeep level 1-3)
Then
Into Return to Tomb of Horrors or Labyrinth of Madness.

Negotiable for other adventures cost to aquire will be on the players however. Eg any 5E adventure with level 11+ converted from somewhere else.

 

[Iry]

$20 USD per player per session is pretty standard. You can run the same session a few times a week with different players, too. The main problem is vetting players for a looooong time until you've got a nice stable of regulars. Even with heavy vetting things are still going to be rough for a while on the player front, probably a few years to get a rock solid player base.

 

[GrimCo]

Do we discuss your requirements or do we post ours?

From what you wrote, it's not unreasonable. IDK how rates are going for pay to play games, so can't comment on that one. But other things, like high attendence percentage and playing weekend is spot on. For games that go into high levels, continuity of play is big thing.

 

[Distracted DM]

$20 is pretty average as far as per-session costs go (the common range is $10-50)- but like Iry said, unless you get lucky you're probably better off starting with short adventures to see who fits at your table, and then you can plan for something longer once you have a number of players that enjoy your style.

 

[TheSword]

how does it work with vetting? If someone is paying their $20 do they get vetted on top of that? What does vetting typically look like?

I’m fascinated by how making the game transactional would change the social contract for long term playing?

 

[Kromanjon]

I would never pay a single dollar just to play in any campaign. This new world of GMs for hire is complete madness to me, an unspeakable and unknowable madness from beyond time and space. If I ever got to the point where I felt, either GMing or playing a ttrpg, was like a job to me, I would quit the hobby.

 

[GrimCo]

I would never pay a single dollar just to play in any campaign.

Same. Whole point of playing ttrpgs, for me at least, is doing something fun with friends. Paying to play with bunch of strangers doesn't really has any appeal to me. One or two friends of a friend i already play with is cool, but whole group that are strangers to each other, not my cup of tea. If all my friends call it quit tomorrow, i'm out too.

But i understand why people do it. At least it cuts off most of offtopic chatter during games, when people pay money to play, they focus on getting most play time they can get. For someone who plays for sole enjoyment of playing game, it can be solid bang for the buck.

 

[Remathilis]

$20 (USD) a month for a pre-published adventure is nuts. If you were doing your own prep, I'd argue that is reasonable, but $20 to read out of a book and make tweaks? No. If your going to charge, $10 for a published and $20 for an original is far more in line. Unless your $20 includes a semi-private provided space with it, big miss.

 

[TheSword]

So I absolutely would pay $20 if I thought it was going to be a great session.

I’ve done a bit of WFRP 4e with strangers online because I’m the DM of the group and I wanted to play. I will be honest the DM was great fun but some of the players were definitely ropey. If the quality of the session was going to be there (which depends on the players as much as the DM) then I think it would be good value.

Problem is I don’t see charging cash guaranteeing good players. There are pillocks with high disposable income (or at least enough to cover $20 a week). That’s why I was interested in the vetting process someone would use.

That said I’m would never commit to a regular Sat or Sun evening. It would shut down too many other activities.

 

[AlViking]

One of the people I play with is starting a campaign with a paid DM and wanted to know if we were interested. If I remember correctly it was $20 per session and they are playing a module. We declined in large part because if I can't find a game I also enjoy running the game. Finding and keeping players has never really been an issue.

For some people it works and makes sense for their situation so far be it from me to say a paid DM is not worth it just because it's not worth it for me.