Does your convention reimburse DM's or just free events?

[Emirikol]

Around here, DM's have been getting credit for each adventure they run. For example, at local game days, players pay a couple bucks a round and that money goes towards buying the DM a gift certificate at whatever store the game is being held at.

Is this happening in your area?


jh

 

[Crothian]

No idea. I gave up the hassle of running official con based events years ago. Even when i got a free badge it was never worth my time and effort.

 

[Emirikol]

My problem was that we were, in the old days, given free "play" slots. Well, I'm a DM, not a player..so it was useless to me.

I really like the new idea of store credit. That's gone over well here..except with the convention organizers, who would probably make less profit. It's made getting DM's for conventions more difficult since gamedays actually pay you to DM.

jh

 

[Varianor Abroad]

ICon has been very good to me. Free pizza and a t-shirt. I love it! I go every year because of that. (Contrast to GenCon who are adding rating systems, increasing the amount of hours to get room reimbursements, and last year's hassles as an independant just trying to find my badge.)

 

[scottdunphy]

I really like the new idea of store credit. That's gone over well here..except with the convention organizers, who would probably make less profit. It's made getting DM's for conventions more difficult since gamedays actually pay you to DM.

jh

Conventions DON'T make a profit. Sometimes they operate at a loss but most of the time they break even or make enough to run the next con. We have two convention organizations in Colorado, the Rocky Mountain Benefit Gamers Association (RMBGA), which runs Ben Con, and the Denver Gamers Association (DGA), which runs Genghis Con and Tacticon. RMBGA is a charity orginization, i.e. if they paid to GM you they'd be giving less money to charity. The DGA runs the biggest con (Genghis), but if they make any money from it they need it to run their much smaller con (Tacticon). So if they paid GMs they might not make enough money to run two cons a year for us.

Store credits isn't a new idea in Colorado. I got store credit for GMing games in Colorad as long ago as 2001. It's wonderful when the stores can do that and it's probably great for their business or they wouldn't.

I guess you can say that it's an unfortunate side effect that some GMs who grew accustomed to receiving store credit started demanding payment from convention organizers. The convention organizers refused and offered the same, generous GM package they always have in Colorado - free addmission if you GM 3 or more games and free games for each game you GM (if you want them). Some of those GMs refused to GM at the conventions if they didn't get paid. I don't see it as a side effect of store credit for gamedays, I see it as a lack of character on the part of those GMs.

Genghis Con 07 had to turn a lot of players away this year due to a lack of GMs. This doesn't hurt the "profitability" of the DGA, it hurts gaming in Colorado.

Scott Dunphy