Professional GM: Possible Return

[UngainlyTitan]

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.

I do not believe there is any stigma, as such, but a short time perusing these boards reveal that people play D&D with many different values of what they consider fun and the same applies to other rpgs. Running a rpg is a fair bit of work, even if you are just running a published module. It is not fun if you and your players are not on the same page. Now, imagine doing it for money.

Also consider, what happens in the event of a rules dispute?

 

[Captain_Commando]

I'll see about adding RPGA game days to the business. I RSVPed for an LFR session this wednesday and hopefully the DM will have a membership application and card waiting for me. The Herald test is supposed to give quicker certification now so I should be able to run RPGA modules soon. Thanks kitsune9.

A reminder that this is on the side while job-hunting. I can cancel or reschedule a hired session if it conflicts with a job interview.

On the WotC forum, it was suggested that I approach old gamers. They might be particularly open to hiring a young person to prep and run games for them while they sit back and drink their coffee. It was also suggested that I add writing for a client's campaign to the service. If a group won't hire me to run games, they might hire me to flesh out their game world.

The more options I can add to the business, the more likely I can get hired for it.

Not every potential group has a game master or have the patience or inclination to just wait for one that fits their schedule to become available. Perhaps for just the one week or month, nobody has the time to prep a session. I might get hired just the one time by a particular group in between game masters or regularly prepped games. There may be enough of this in NYC to at least get me a couple of sessions a week. It's a big community and there are beginners popping up daily. Also, if I can sell my services as a team-building exercise, perhaps I can get a regular session contract with a company.

It's a workable side business if I can network with the right groups. I may be the only one offering a schedule that is so flexible and offering the "full experience" at the same time. Most groups go where the game master is setting up. I'm setting up where ever the group hires me to set up. It's a huge amount of convenience for the potential client.

On the writing thing, I do have a publisher contact at Crown Publishing (a subsidiary of Random House) who may be able to fast track my novel. This was one of the last cool things my father was able to do for me.

 

[Captain_Commando]

I do not believe there is any stigma, as such, but a short time perusing these boards reveal that people play D&D with many different values of what they consider fun and the same applies to other rpgs. Running a rpg is a fair bit of work, even if you are just running a published module. It is not fun if you and your players are not on the same page. Now, imagine doing it for money.

Also consider, what happens in the event of a rules dispute?

The hiring process will include a survey of the client's preferences to help me adapt the session to the group's enjoyment.

I'll have rules errata with me and for anything else I can come up with a semi-plausible solution that the group can accept. I'm actually good at improvising that sort of thing.

For those disputing my ability to act based on the job interview, I couldn't lie to hide wanting a temporary job instead of a long-term job. It would have been dishonest. It's different at the gaming table when everyone knows you're not really the characters you portray. There's a line between performance acting and fraud that I will not cross.

 

[Tav_Behemoth]

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.

Yep, that's why you're not the target market. The problem with using RPG forums to reach potential customers is that just about everyone who's reading this would have no problem finding a non-pay-to-play game if they were in NYC. The trick is reaching the people who are so out of the loop that having a gaming experience pre-packaged for them is a service worth paying for, and it's a difficult trick because it's hard to reach people who are that out of it! I certainly never found a good solution to that solution.

On the other hand, Piratecat, you definitely are in the category of creators whose fans would be willing to pay to be part a RPG session you ran - I think this was said earlier in one of these threads, and I heard it from folks I surveyed for Otherworld Excursions as well. If you put together a game plus susequent story-hour writeup, offered it at a time & place where a lot of gamers could do it (e.g. Gen Con), and maybe donated the proceeds to your favorite charity, I think you'd get an enthusiastic response.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Wow. Between the PDF brouhaha and the revival of Captain Commando... it's like when you get so many great presents that you kind of want to cry tears of joy.

 

[Piratecat]

Huh. Tav, I may think about a charity game for GenCon 2010. Interesting idea.

Captain_Commando, I certainly wish you the best, and I hope it works. Nothing would make me happier than for you to prove me wrong.

 

[gizmo33]

On the WotC forum, it was suggested that I approach old gamers. They might be particularly open to hiring a young person to prep and run games for them while they sit back and drink their coffee.

Those guys were so right. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. As an old gamer I have a number of special needs that could be catered to by someone who was spry and motivated:

1. crawling into narrow spaces to retrieve lost dice (d20s don't grow on trees and I can only afford so many on a fixed income)
2. protecting my share of the pizza that we ordered - as a DM I am often easily distracted and short-changed in the process
3. carrying heavy RPG tomes to gaming sessions (this will become more of an issue as 4E ages along with me)
4. looking up rules in the book
5. making sure people aren't cheating on their dice rolls (requires above-average eyesight and reputation for honesty. candidate must bring their own taser)
6. keeping notes on what transpired during the game session. Thorough documentation may include periodic photographs of the battlemat.
7. taking over DMing when I get angry at the players and need a break
8. take over a PC when a player doesn't show up
9. Park the players cars for them when they do show up. Dressing up and parking the car in character would be a bonus.

I'd be able to enjoy my coffee a lot more if I knew this stuff was taken care of.

 

[Captain_Commando]

Huh. Tav, I may think about a charity game for GenCon 2010. Interesting idea.

Captain_Commando, I certainly wish you the best, and I hope it works. Nothing would make me happier than for you to prove me wrong.

If you run a charity game, I'd like to suggest donating to the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

Thank you. Considering the extremely rare nature of what I'm doing and the fact that there is indeed precedence (also extremely rare), it might be a toss up. Maybe the old gamers will take pity on a poor young game master.

Even if I only see a trickle of income from this, it's better than nothing. An online writing jobs site was noted by a poster. Maybe I'll be able to get something out of that.

 

[Flatus Maximus]

I love this thread so much, I wanna have its baby.

 

[catsclaw227]

As an old gamer I have a number of special needs that could be catered to by someone who was spry and motivated:

1. crawling into narrow spaces to retrieve lost dice (d20s don't grow on trees and I can only afford so many on a fixed income)
2. protecting my share of the pizza that we ordered - as a DM I am often easily distracted and short-changed in the process
3. carrying heavy RPG tomes to gaming sessions (this will become more of an issue as 4E ages along with me)
4. looking up rules in the book
5. making sure people aren't cheating on their dice rolls (requires above-average eyesight and reputation for honesty. candidate must bring their own taser)
6. keeping notes on what transpired during the game session. Thorough documentation may include periodic photographs of the battlemat.
7. taking over DMing when I get angry at the players and need a break
8. take over a PC when a player doesn't show up
9. Park the players cars for them when they do show up. Dressing up and parking the car in character would be a bonus.

I'd be able to enjoy my coffee a lot more if I knew this stuff was taken care of.

My goodness! A DM/player personal assistant.... Our group would pay a 14yr old $5-$6 an hour to do this for us every 2 weeks. They might earn anywhere from $40-$50 bucks on a Saturday.

And you can recruit young gamers that way!

Edit: I just realized that, without the quote, this looks awful creepy.