Professional GM: Aftermath and Revelations

[Captain_Commando]

I forgot to post up the update on what happened.

This is a continuation of the tragic venture described at:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/genera...professional-gm-diary-final-preparations.html

Here's what I posted on RPG.net. This is how things went:

I regained some of my sanity on the subway ride to Café 28. I regained the rest while waiting there for nobody.

I'm pulling the plug on Caravan of Blades. My business plan from beginning to the near end was never going to work. My new business plan might have worked but it's too risky and would require more time than I can afford.

There were too many problems going in and I knew it. I still went forward like an idiot. I am an idiot.

When my father was alive, he was the one always taking care of things. Ever since I dropped out of a chemistry major I'd been kind of wandering lost, not knowing what to do with my life. I was also afraid of responsibility. When my father died several months ago, I got hit with the responsibilties of life pretty hard. In hindsight I think it was my fear of something I never really had to deal with that precipitated the whole mess of this debacle.

There are a lot of things that would be needed to make paid GMing work.

-credentials
-a website made just for the campaign
-video footage of my "methods"
-ads that make $ whenever a hit is made on the site
-a campaign design that didn't need too much work to maintain
-ads in the papers or magazines
-a financial safety net
-sessions that can be cancelled easily

There's certainly more.

I think I was desperate not to face the harsh reality of my father's absence, and the pressure it puts on me to be a breadwinner.

A pay-for-play campaign is a risky venture if you don't already have a stable financial situation. Gming for hire probably requires knowing the right people.

It was an epic crash and burn but I think I'll be okay now. There are jobs I'm going to go look at to tide things over.

I went a little nuts at the end. I'll leave the funny stuff up on the ff d20 website while I take down the business stuff.

 

[Captain_Commando]

***Here is what is happening now***

I ended up sleeping for 14 hours straight. My back doesn't shoot up when I turn or twist anymore.

Since I did title this thread with "Aftermath", I'll follow up a bit with what I'm doing in the aftermath of "Caravan of Blades".

I'm looking through a book called "How to Find Work in the 21st Century" by Ron McGowan. It's got sample resumés and a CD-ROM.

I starting job-hunting by googling for waiter jobs in NYC. The first thing I found was this club opening up in Manhattan on the 20th. It's offering part-time work at $12 per hour. I'm going to keep searching today until I've got a good list of possible opportunities.

I'll also try to find someone to help me get a website up with uploaded videos of demonstrations of my "pro GM storytelling" and other goodies related to RPGs. Maybe I can make a few bucks on the side from website ads from people checking out the site. That is how that works right?

 

[Dragonbait]

First off: My condolences for your loss.
Secondly: Good luck with the job hunt.
Thirdly: uh..wut? If this is a continuation of a previous thread, I'd highly reccomend linking to the old thread(s) right at the beginning of this one so random readers (like me) can make sense of things.

 

[Captain_Commando]

First off: My condolences for your loss.
Secondly: Good luck with the job hunt.
Thirdly: uh..wut? If this is a continuation of a previous thread, I'd highly reccomend linking to the old thread(s) right at the beginning of this one so random readers (like me) can make sense of things.

Thank you. I just added the link to the original post.

The support site board was at:

http://ffd20.orgfree.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=11

There's not much left. I took most of it down. You can see what I ended up changing the campaign to at the last moment. Think of it as the mad ravings of a sleep-deprived lunatic. When I go anywhere near 40 or more hours without rest I kind of go bonkers.

 

[S'mon]

Good luck on engaging with reality and getting a real job!

If your bad back is like mine, you'll find that jobs which allow regular moderate movement are best.

Waiter jobs can be well paid, but you need to look right as they are usually fussy about appearance, eg if you don't look 'cool' and move gracefully you're unlikely to get night club waitering work. Kitchen work is usually easier to get but a lot less pleasant.

A friend of mine worked in a library, that's pretty much ideal for most gamers - light movement, pleasant environment, and plenty of time to think about your game.

Depending on your back problems you may want to avoid work that locks you in front of a computer screen, like data entry.