D&D 5E How many players would use a service like this

[Paul Farquhar]

Thing is, something can be of value to people and yet not be commodified. Freeware, for example;

People generally produce freeware to publicise their skills. Like the "free" stuff on D&D Beyond the people who create it hope to get something in return.

or anything created with the specific intent of releasing it into the public domain; or volunteer work. Commodification is a choice;

No, it is not.

People need food, they need shelter. In order to fulfil that need they need money to pay for it. They cannot earn money if they spend their time giving stuff away. They need to commodify their time in order to make a living.

it's just that we tend not to think of it as a choice because it has become so deeply ingrained as the default.

Well, they could choose to starve, or subsistence farm and make all their own stuff. But that doesn't leave much time for gaming.

DMing - and playing, for that matter - is something that has largely resisted this push, at least so far.

It hasn't "resisted", it's just difficult to commodify in a way that is profitable. Unlike rulebooks, adventures, settings etc, which people where very quick to commodify. No one is getting rich by being a pro-DM, even at the rates outlined in the OP. They are lucky to break even.

 

[Hussar]

I wonder if the spread of online gaming has had an impact here. I imagine Covid has made it much harder for people to find live games, so, a pay game, where you don't have flakey DM's and flakey players, isn't a bad option.

Additionally, let's not forget, that the HUGE growth of D&D in the past five or so years, has made it actually an option to do this. Before, you really couldn't do the paid DM thing because there just wasn't enough players. But now? Now you've got a pretty broad range of players who may have the money to make a paid game their choice.

 

[HaroldTheHobbit]

I've never heard of a paid DM here in little Sweden, perhaps it exist. If people want to pay to play or DM for cash, go for it.

But for me one of the best parts of the hobby over the decades has been all the wonderfully weird and odd people I've met, a bunch of who I still play with. Many of them are bad players or DMs in a professional sense, but incredibly funny and interesting people to hang with around the table.

So for me the one big negative aspect of normalizing roleplaying as a paid for activity is if it means DMs - and players - are expected to live up to some streamlined professional market standard. Perhaps it has already come to that with streaming big shows and the Mercer effect, but please leave room for non-commercialized gaming with og nerds and geeks.

 

[Hussar]

I've never heard of a paid DM here in little Sweden, perhaps it exist. If people want to pay to play or DM for cash, go for it.

But for me one of the best parts of the hobby over the decades has been all the wonderfully weird and odd people I've met, a bunch of who I still play with. Many of them are bad players or DMs in a professional sense, but incredibly funny and interesting people to hang with around the table.

So for me the one big negative aspect of normalizing roleplaying as a paid for activity is if it means DMs - and players - are expected to live up to some streamlined professional market standard. Perhaps it has already come to that with streaming big shows and the Mercer effect, but please leave room for non-commercialized gaming with og nerds and geeks.

Again, I doubt there is any chance of this. I really doubt that professional DMing (such as it is) will ever become more than a tiny corner of the hobby. The overwhelming majority of us will play the way we've always played, for good or for ill.

Even things like the "Mercer effect" is just such a small, minuscule drop in the bucket. There are many, many, many more gamers out there who have never seen an episode of Critical Role than have. Most gamers only know the show by name (or maybe by animation).

The existence of professional pretty much anything has largely zero impact on the hobby of whatever activity people choose to do in their free time.

 

[Reynard]

I wonder if the spread of online gaming has had an impact here. I imagine Covid has made it much harder for people to find live games, so, a pay game, where you don't have flakey DM's and flakey players, isn't a bad option.

Additionally, let's not forget, that the HUGE growth of D&D in the past five or so years, has made it actually an option to do this. Before, you really couldn't do the paid DM thing because there just wasn't enough players. But now? Now you've got a pretty broad range of players who may have the money to make a paid game their choice.

There also seems to be a generational reluctance to get behind the screen for many GenZ and younger millennial players. I'm not sure why, but there's circumstantial evidence all over Reddit, not to mention a major uptick in GM emulators (although that could be more pandemic related since it is wrapped up in solo play).

 

[Paul Farquhar]

There also seems to be a generational reluctance to get behind the screen for many GenZ and younger millennial players. I'm not sure why, but there's circumstantial evidence all over Reddit, not to mention a major uptick in GM emulators (although that could be more pandemic related since it is wrapped up in solo play).

They have to work longer hours and have less disposable income than older folk.

 

[Mannahnin]

I don't know; I think a shortage of DMs/GMs has always been a thing. Hence the "forever GM" trope, which several regulars on here have talked about being, because no one else they play with ever wants to do it.

This was also the original motivation behind Colville's Running the Game videos, as well, IIRC. He wanted to popularize the idea that running the game is less difficult and more fun than people think, and increase the number of DMs out there. And Colville's what, around 50? He's not playing with a bunch of zoomers.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I scrolled through their various GM's, and found one guy who thinks he is worth 40 bucks US a session, per player. At those rates, it is almost a gig that pays the mortgage. The average rate seems to be 25 bucks per player per session.

I'm not sure that I would do either run for money or pay... but I think $40 a session is still nnot that expensive. I did some math a while ago and figured I spend about as much time preping my games as I would a part time job... like 20+ hours a week. but that is AFTER world creation... I figure I have spent a few hundred hours making my worlds. If every week for a year I made $50 that would be $2,600 most people I know make more than that a month, and I am sure no one is making less then that a year (min wage here in states is $15,600 a year and my state min is double that at $31,200)

 

[delericho]

I'm not sure that I would do either run for money or pay... but I think $40 a session is still nnot that expensive. I did some math a while ago and figured I spend about as much time preping my games as I would a part time job... like 20+ hours a week. but that is AFTER world creation... I figure I have spent a few hundred hours making my worlds. If every week for a year I made $50 that would be $2,600 most people I know make more than that a month, and I am sure no one is making less then that a year (min wage here in states is $15,600 a year and my state min is double that at $31,200)

Yeah, it's not going to be a main source of income. Possibly good as a side hustle, or maybe as part of a portfolio career. Even then, I expect most people could come up with something that pays better, if simply maximizing incomes were the goal.

 

[HaroldTheHobbit]

Again, I doubt there is any chance of this. I really doubt that professional DMing (such as it is) will ever become more than a tiny corner of the hobby. The overwhelming majority of us will play the way we've always played, for good or for ill.

Even things like the "Mercer effect" is just such a small, minuscule drop in the bucket. There are many, many, many more gamers out there who have never seen an episode of Critical Role than have. Most gamers only know the show by name (or maybe by animation).

The existence of professional pretty much anything has largely zero impact on the hobby of whatever activity people choose to do in their free time.

That's what I hope. But when stuff gets commercialized it tends to have trickle-down effects, and nowadays I don't underestimate the power of money to change things for the worse.

Not that it matter for me personally since I have my permanent table of grogs, it's the principle of roleplaying as an inclusive, open and pretty cheap hobby.