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<blockquote data-quote="Laurefindel" data-source="post: 8661589" data-attributes="member: 67296">My first D&amp;D game was with a paid DM as one of the town-sponsored activities. Town would provide a room (and transportation from school) in the community center/town hall, and the DM provided books and dice and minis and whatnots. I must have been 14-ish at the time.A year later my friends and I would host our own game for &quot;free&quot;. I use &quot;free&quot; in quotation marks because the town-games' fees transformed into other expenses; books, dice, food, snacks, and gas for commuting (I come from a place where your closest friend is 1h away on a bike through hilly roads). Later in college I would pay a yearly membership to be part of the gaming club and have access to game rooms, tables, and whatever boardgame or RPG the club owned. Then there were many LARP where i would pay to play, etc. All that to say that paying to be able to RP is nothing new.Paying a DM for material, a place to play, and the expertise of a good DM is something I'm willing to do (perhaps less so for an online game however). Through these games you meet other people and typically end up starting your own private game, but it's a good springboard toward something else. I know one or two DMs who DM &quot;professionally&quot; for high school kids and one that DMed adult games. But even at $40 per game per player (which is more expensive than what I see in my area) , that's $40/hour (assuming a 4-hour long 4-player game) for a few hours, at best a few times per week, not counting all the prep time that players expect (with reasons) from a professional DM, the expenses you have to do for your player and typically, the rental of the playroom. If you could cram 8 hours of this 5 times a week, perhaps you could pay your mortgage but looking at my friends, it's not very lucrative once you've covered all your expenses.The way I see it, it's not very different from paying to see a concert - even if I have enough musician friends that I could listen to their music every week.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Laurefindel, post: 8661589, member: 67296"] My first D&D game was with a paid DM as one of the town-sponsored activities. Town would provide a room (and transportation from school) in the community center/town hall, and the DM provided books and dice and minis and whatnots. I must have been 14-ish at the time. A year later my friends and I would host our own game for "free". I use "free" in quotation marks because the town-games' fees transformed into other expenses; books, dice, food, snacks, and gas for commuting (I come from a place where your closest friend is 1h away on a bike through hilly roads). Later in college I would pay a yearly membership to be part of the gaming club and have access to game rooms, tables, and whatever boardgame or RPG the club owned. Then there were many LARP where i would pay to play, etc. All that to say that paying to be able to RP is nothing new. Paying a DM for material, a place to play, and the expertise of a good DM is something I'm willing to do (perhaps less so for an online game however). Through these games you meet other people and typically end up starting your own private game, but it's a good springboard toward something else. I know one or two DMs who DM "professionally" for high school kids and one that DMed adult games. But even at $40 per game per player (which is more expensive than what I see in my area) , that's $40/hour (assuming a 4-hour long 4-player game) for a few hours, at best a few times per week, not counting all the prep time that players expect (with reasons) from a professional DM, the expenses you have to do for your player and typically, the rental of the playroom. If you could cram 8 hours of this 5 times a week, perhaps you could pay your mortgage but looking at my friends, it's not very lucrative once you've covered all your expenses. The way I see it, it's not very different from paying to see a concert - even if I have enough musician friends that I could listen to their music every week. [/QUOTE]

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