Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Distracted DM" data-source="post: 9606252" data-attributes="member: 6894926">I doubt OP wanted to turn this thread into a "should paid games exist?" discussion, but it's always been a hot topic so it's understandable. I grew up with there being a heavy stigma attached to the idea of paying to play DnD- it was something you did with your friends.. or a way that you made friends! ...Or not, since some folk can be very unpleasant whether or not they're at a gaming table <img class="smilie smilie--emoji" alt="😅" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f605.png" title="Grinning face with sweat    :sweat_smile:" data-shortname=":sweat_smile:" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" />Anyway, it took my wife pushing me when I left my law job to get over that stigma and try GMing professionally. I've been lucky; over 2-3 years I've gotten a decently-sized pool of players that really enjoy the world and games that I run, enough that they pay $35-40/seat (I bounced between $25 and $35/seat for a while when trying to find players). I know it sounds crazy and/or evil to folk that're playing free games; I think one fear people have is that because some paid games exist, ALL games will eventually become paid games. That it'll destroy the hobby, or something like that... it's understandable to fear that, but I don't think it's realistic.Trying your hand at paid GMing is really a crapshoot- even if you're "really good," you need to luck into the players that'll vibe with your style.. AND if you want to do it full-time, those players need to be able to afford your prices! Or you need to be able to run multiple times per day without burning out.Burnout's real... I ran 2-3 West Marches sessions for friends pre-COVID in-person, and that was a blast for a couple years... but man, running 4-6 4hr sessions per week can be pretty draining! Physically and creatively <img class="smilie smilie--emoji" alt="😅" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f605.png" title="Grinning face with sweat    :sweat_smile:" data-shortname=":sweat_smile:" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" />edit: I was extra lucky because a few of my friends were more than happy to join my paid games! I still play with the rest in a game another friend occasionally runs.I can't really explain it from a players perspective ofc, but I think Iry's comparison to Patreon is a good one- I back A LOT of folk on Patreon for maps and assets for my games... It can kind of be similar.</blockquote>

Verification