Are DMs subsidizing player fun?

[Glyfair]

This jumped out at me from another thread.

For example: the "Shackled City" hardcover costs $60. When my group ran through the campaign (from the magazines, so we even missed out one of the chapters), it took us 11 months of weekly gaming, with sessions averaging 6 hours or so of gaming. There were five of us (four players and myself).

So, that works out at less than 5 cents per person per hour.

It occurred to me that is a good deal, looked at like that. However, in most groups I've seen the DM is the one incurring the expense for buying adventures, campaign settings, etc. Even creating your own adventures doesn't get your around it, your just investing a lot of your own time instead of money (usually a significant portion of it).

In addition, in my experience, when there is someone not having fun, more often than not it's the DM. He has a lot of responsibilities and in general it's considered his job to make sure everyone is having fun.

Thus, it's not surprising that finding DMs is often an issue. The various "how to start a gameday" threads always mention the difficulty in getting people to run games. In fact, I know there has been a problem in my area getting people to run games for Free RPG Day. But, without a DM, you don't have an RPG.

Is it any wonder that a lot of tabletop RPG players are migrating to MMORPGs? Sure, they have their attractions, but one advantage the traditional RPG players have to see is the built in DM.

I know this has been discussed before. Indeed, I believe this what part of the impetus for DM Appreciation Day.

Does anyone have a different paradigm in their groups that seems to work well? Any solutions?

 

[Sigurd]

You can't get around it.

DM's do way more work than players. DM's clean up after players and fix the world again so the game can continue. We worry about whether the players are having a good time and keep the story going.

It's often a thankless job and more expensive to boot.

If that turns you off, don't DM.

Before you ever mistreat a DM remember it.


The upside is you get to have live people walk through a world of your creation. Hopefully some of your players appreciate your efforts. And you get to experiment with a great ant farm they call a game setting.


Sigurd

 

[SiderisAnon]

In my group, we have one guy who bought pretty much every WoTC "Complete" book as they came out, along with a lot of the other official material. He basically lent it to me (the DM) on a semi-permanent basis. (I sent it back with him when the campaign ended and we changed game systems for the next game.) This allowed there to be a lot more material used because I had the books to access. Without this player, I would have had access to only a few of the official books.

That same player has also contributed money for ink cartridges when I was making up various tiles for the game and making other cards for the players to use.

I have had a few other players over the years lend me some of their books. In a few cases, I've had people lend me entire collections, but that's only when they wanted me to run a game that they had all the books for but I had very few.

I had one player who had a really big battle mat and so kept it at my house so we could use it each week.


The above works really well. Unfortunately, in 20+ years of being a DM, I have found such players few and far between. Almost always, it is the DM who has the monetary outlay for books, modules, miniatures, and other accessories.

In truth, though, if I were a player in someone else's game, I don't know that I'd be any better than a typical player. I'd certainly bring my tiles and miniatures and such for use in the game, but I'm not sure I'd be wanting to buy modules and such for the DM. Maybe it's too many years as a DM; I've had to outlay so much of my own money for stuff, I kind of expect to end up with whatever stuff I outlay my money for.

 

[Nifft]

The real subsidy is prep time.

Rushed, -- N

 

[Glyfair]

In my group, we have one guy who bought pretty much every WoTC "Complete" book as they came out, along with a lot of the other official material. He basically lent it to me (the DM) on a semi-permanent basis. (I sent it back with him when the campaign ended and we changed game systems for the next game.)

This sort of reminds me...

Way back when, one of my gaming buddies wanted to play in a Runequest game. Under the condition that I run a campaign he gave me the rulebook & Cults of Prax (and I seem to remember a 3rd book, but I'm not sure if it was Apple Lane or not). I really fell in love with the world and the system was a nice change of pace (although I never really fell in love with the system).

 

[Minicol]

DM bribe

Well, it's certainly true I have a huge budget for D&D, but I get invited a lot to the restaurant ...

 

[delericho]

However, in most groups I've seen the DM is the one incurring the expense for buying adventures, campaign settings, etc. Even creating your own adventures doesn't get your around it, your just investing a lot of your own time instead of money (usually a significant portion of it).

In addition, in my experience, when there is someone not having fun, more often than not it's the DM. He has a lot of responsibilities and in general it's considered his job to make sure everyone is having fun.

There's no doubt that it takes a very special kind of person to be the DM - someone who really enjoys watching PCs suffer all the fiendish torments he can devise, and someone who really enjoys all the behind-the-scenes prep work that is required for the game.

In terms of funding, remember that most books now sold as player supplements of one sort or another. If the group could somehow arrange for the players to buy these for the group and for the DM to provide the adventures, that would be more equitable. Of course, that wouldn't help those DMs who, like me, say "anything I don't personally own is banned outright."

Does anyone have a different paradigm in their groups that seems to work well? Any solutions?

I wonder if it would be realistic to create a DM-less game, possibly by expanding the scope of the miniatures game? I know some games have dabbled in this area, but I haven't heard of any resounding successes - of course, that could just be because they're not D&D or White Wolf, and so remain fairly small players in the market.

 

[Mortellan]

I own and use primarily three books, the PHB, DMG and MM1. I too run AP's from paizo at a meager subscription cost (and even that is now bye-bye) when compared to the tons of cash my players throw into splat books which I generally refuse to buy (but have on pdf, wink), the PHB and in some cases the DMG as well (because players got to have their magic item shopping catalogue). Then there is the minis for their personal characters! They can either pay out the nose for an exact likeness in a metal fig or buy tons of pre-painted booster boxes until they find the right class-race. I am a luddite by comparison and still mostly use cardboard/cardstock counters when DMing. So yes at my table, i'm the one saving money!

 

[kensanata]

Half of my players have the PHB, the other half has nothing. I have DMG, PHB, MM, and tons of adventures. But to compensate, we play at my place. That's one to two hours of commuting for my players. Lost opportunity costs for these guys would be USD 40-80 per session (software engineers in their thirties in Switzerland), if they thought about it this way. So I'm not complaining.

 

[Pbartender]

Does anyone have a different paradigm in their groups that seems to work well? Any solutions?

In our group, my wife and GM most often, however... Since we have kids, everyone else travels to our house when its time to play. That more than evens things out, so we usually cook dinner for anyone who shows up a little early.

Usually, when its time to start a new game, whoever wants to GM suggests on eor two ro three possibilities for a new game... These are campaign ideas that are (first) something the GM is interested in, and (second) something the GM thinks the players might enjoy as well. It may sound a little harsh, but if a player doesn't like any of the suggestions, he's got three choices -- shut up and play, shut and don't play, or GM a game himself.

In our group, GMs have long since given up bending over backwards to accomodate players with picky tastes, and we refuse to run games that we don't enjoy running.