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<blockquote data-quote="Tav_Behemoth" data-source="post: 4752606" data-attributes="member: 18017">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 &amp; 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 &quot;We want to play!&quot; 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.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Tav_Behemoth, post: 4752606, member: 18017"] 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. [/QUOTE]

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