Professional GM: Possible Return

[Captain_Commando]

This:

Has turned into this:

Again. And followed by an OCD-like list of ideas/hopes/goals. And yet nowhere in the list is a bullet point for "get hired by someone who pays my wages to do this." It's all freelance or partnerships, still.

You have to get a day job.

This is NOT a pay-for-play campaign. Did you even read the thread through?

This is also NOT a replacement for a day job. I'm still job hunting while having this service up. It's not as easy to get a job in NYC as you may think. Most of what I find is in a different borough with lots of competition especially because of layoffs.

There are multiple sources of income in this business plan. My marketing strategy is completely different than what I tried with the pay-for-play campaign. These threads are also NOT part of my marketing strategy. They are for brainstorming.

My mother rented out a couple of rooms so I don't need to make everything. That's why I'm looking for a part-time temporary job. I've got a book with 2 chapters done and notes for the rest of it. Within 2 months it'll be done and I'll have representation. Within another 2 months after that, I'll have an advance and things will be fine.

I just need to pull in a certain amount, less than a full living, to make sure we aren't evicted. I'm still job hunting and will able to continue do so because this buisness will be flexible in its hours. Prep time is much less because I'll likely be recycling many of the same adventures since it is NOT a pay-for-play campaign.

 

[Matthan]

My mother rented out a couple of rooms so I don't need to make everything. That's why I'm looking for a part-time temporary job. I've got a book with 2 chapters done and notes for the rest of it. Within 2 months it'll be done and I'll have representation. Within another 2 months after that, I'll have an advance and things will be fine.

I almost wish this was a joke (and it may well be), but on the off chance that you're serious, please don't pin all your plans on getting a book published. The chances of that happening in the time frame that you're describing is remarkably slim.

When I read the above quote, I see someone who may make unwise decisions thinking their break is right around the corner. You cannot fall into that trap.

You can be a writer. But that is a craft that takes talent, skill, dedication, time, and perseverance. Every writer that I've ever met or listened to tells stories of months or years of rejection notices before finally breaking through. Be realistic for the sake of your family and commit yourself to your job search. Learn some interview techniques (google or check your local library). Get in a situation where you can support yourself so you can spend your free time pursuing your dreams. Start saving money so that when the time is right, you can quit your job and pursue your dream. You can do this, just have some foresight.

As for the DMing, you may be able to occasionally run game days or something for some spare cash, but the bulk of your time would be better spent in the job search.

Honestly, what's your dream? Do you want to DM the rest of your life? Do you want to write? If you are going to do anything creative, you need to earn enough income to support yourself while getting your creative career off the ground. That means a steady job (even at Burger King). That also means that there is a good chance that you will be at a job long term (a year maybe two). But it gives you the means to pursue your dream. Just think about it.

 

[aboyd]

This is NOT a pay-for-play campaign. Did you even read the thread through?

Well, I... I must have missed that part, because obviously the plan will work now! I should have seen it.

I've got a book with 2 chapters done and notes for the rest of it. Within 2 months it'll be done and I'll have representation. Within another 2 months after that, I'll have an advance and things will be fine.

Wow. So, you're all set then, and not at all flailing about in desperation. Good.

 

[Tav_Behemoth]

you may be able to get paid to DM, but you are not going to make a living at it. Principally because people do it for free

A good rule of thumb is that people will pay for professional GM services, or for the experience of playing a RPG, only if it's offered as part of something else they're accustomed to pay for.

People pay for someone to educate their kids & give them a safe place to go after school and over the summer, so they'll pay Becky Thomas & her Roleplay Workshop GMs to run games.

People pay for full-service vacation packages in Hawaii, so it seems like a reasonable bet that they'll pay Yax to run a game while they're there.

People pay for walking tours, so they'll pay Ken Hite to use that experience as the basis for a Call of Cthulu session.

People give money to charities, so they'd bid on the chance to play with Dave Arneson in a charity auction.

People pay to gamble, so D&D for Cash can generate some income for its GM.

People pay more for coffee if it's in a pleasant social setting with nice places to sit, so they'll pay for time in a gaming cafe.

The two that are most relevant here are:

People will pay to experience Dave Arneson or Ken Hite's creativity through their game design and writing, so they'll also pay to experience it in a RPG session.

People will pay to go to a gaming convention, so both the people who run games at conventions and the convention organizers can be compensated somehow (although it's usually the organizer who actually gets paid, while the GM typically gets free stuff).

The problems with the first of these is that it's extremely difficult to make any kind of a livelihood with game design or SF/fantasy writing, much less to parlay that into a pro-GM gig. The number of people who earn enough in these fields to make a decent living doing it full-time is similar to the number of professional astronauts or ballerinas. I'm not saying you can't become an astronaut, but you've got to have a realistic understanding of the challenges involved. You can no more expect to have an advance for a novel in two months or two years than you can expect to be in space at that time, and I think you're also deluding yourself about how measly that advance is likely to be.

The problems with the second of these is that the margins are small. If you divide the amount they spend on their trip by the number of hours of gaming enjoyment they get out of it, after you subtract the cost of the other services they're paying for you're not left with a lot to cover the GMing part of things. And people only go to Gen Con once a year.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

I've decided to try the business out. Other jobs will be pursued as the business is underway.

If I may offer some advice, unless you're still in high school, please go after the other jobs as a priority, even if the DM for hire gig works out. The longer you go without stable work, the harder it will be for you to get a job. You're going to have a hard time explaining this one on any interview, and to most people, its going to look like a big gap in your employment record.

If this works out for you, great. Just get (and dont quit) your day job.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

18. Attire and behavior should be professional. A nice shirt and slacks if not a suit and tie.

I'd recommend a tux, or on casual fridays, a tuxedo t-shirt.

 

[Janx]

if you need money, everything you do should lead to making money in as direct a fashion as possible.

Consider how many hours of prep work it takes to run a 4-5 hour session. Add those together, and that's the total time cost to make the money you get for that gig.

Compare that to flipping burgers for $8 an hour (or more I hear). The prep-time to flip burgers is basically travel time to get to work.

At your pricing, you should find that flipping burgers is more efficient, leaving you more time to work on "what you really want to be doing."

Not to bash you, but when you say you think you botched an interview for BK, how does that indicate you have the communication skills to be an exceptional GM. I do give you credit for being aware that you botched the interview, some folks aren't even alert to that. The point though is, to be a good GM, you should have hireable attributes. Not being able to land a job isn't a promising sign.

As a whole. the Pay-to-Play plan is risky (and it is Pay to Play, as in paying money to play). There's too much competition of free GMs, even if I'm surprised that they don't charge for it, given the scarcity of good GMs. You will need to be lucky to get an audience that is willing to pay. That's hard.


If I were going to do a pay-to-play system, I'd go with a flat rate, and write my material to have an estimated duration of 4-5 hours. I'd do a flat rate, because I know my work level increases as head-count goes up. I also don't want to be bothered with managing working minutes, to prove my bill is correct. I'd also screen/interview clients, because I'd want to build a party that can play together (and that I can stand working for). I'd make sure they get the right level of "munchkinism" because frankly, the players are paying me to have a good time, not slog through poverty and depressing realisim, unless they actually say they want that (which is the point of interviewing them).

The reason I don't do a pay-to-play system is that I'd need to be networked to the exact audience that is willing and able to pay. That's harder to find. The people who are paid-GMs have lucked out on finding that audience, and I would bet most of them were ASKED to do it.

We all would love to do something with our hobby and get paid for it. But the fact is, we can't all have dream jobs. Somebody has to flip the burgers, haul the trash, and scoop the poop.

Your best money-making bet is to find something people ARE asking for, and if you can deliver it, do so. That's how you'll get paid. If nobody's asking for a GM, with an "I'll pay him" clause, then it's not a likely market.

 

[Piratecat]

I just need to pull in a certain amount, less than a full living, to make sure we aren't evicted. I'm still job hunting and will able to continue do so because this buisness will be flexible in its hours. Prep time is much less because I'll likely be recycling many of the same adventures since it is NOT a pay-for-play campaign.

Sadly, that isn't how the writing and publishing industry work. Once you finish a book, you're awfully lucky if you even get a rejection letter six months after you convince a publisher to look at it. I strongly recommend you read the second half of Janet Evonovich's How I Write to get a good, realistic view of the submission process and the time involved. I know excellent authors, ones who write for a living in their day jobs, who have four potential novels out to publishers and have never heard back on any of them.

Considering this, I think the only realistic way to get paid for running D&D is to strike up a deal with a local game store owner. Convince him that you'll run superior games for his customers several times a week, and have him pay you (under the assumption he makes money by getting customers into the game store). I still don't think it's feasible, as volunteers will always be willing to run games for free, but it may be the best hope.

Incidentally, if I were going to try to do this, I'd also get a day job and use the game store gig to supplement my income. It just has no stability or long-term prospects.

 

[Piratecat]

2. The cost might be $15/hour. <no tip mentioned> Too little or too much can drive away clients. The existence of a mandatory tip may cause problematic expectations. A 4-hour session split between 5 players would thus be the equivalent of a movie ticket in Manhattan. Special session packages may be offered at higher or lower rates.

When you pay for a movie ticket, you're subsidizing the millions of dollars that went into making that movie. More importantly, your buddy Bernie can't make a movie himself.

Sorry to be discouraging, but realistically if my group has a choice between spending $75 on a DM for five hours or buying both lunch and 2 hardback gaming books that one of us will use, I know which we would choose.

 

[Tav_Behemoth]

The people who are paid-GMs have lucked out on finding that audience, and I would bet most of them were ASKED to do it.

When Becky Thomas was a teacher, she had her students do a cartography assignment so she could work on a map for her home campaign & use it as an example. Some of her students noticed her still working on it after the assignment was over and asked her about it; when they heard it was for a game they said "We want to play!" which led to an after-school activity that led to the Roleplay Workshop. Similarly, I've heard of a game designer who was approached by his fans, and I asked Ken Hite to run the Otherworld Excursions walking tour.

On the other hand, JSimpson answered a call (at EN World IIRC) for a pro GM - the fact that it was in his area counts as luck, certainly - and although I don't know for sure I assume that Dave Arneson approached the auction organizers and offered to run a game, secure in the knowledge that people would bid on it. If so, he may have been more willing to do so because it was for a charity rather than his personal profit. As threads like this highlight, the idea of a professional GM is controversial.

Whether it's because of a stigma attached to the idea or because recruiting an audience and organizing an event for them is a lot of work they're not interested in doing, I can confirm that most of the gaming creators I contacted with Otherworlds were willing to do pro-GM gigs when asked, but aren't willing to actively pursue setting them up for themselves.