Rent-A-DM

[masshysteria]

After seeing businesses like Super Suppers and Let's Dish pop up, where people pay to make a meal with their friends under the supervision of a chef, I'm wondering about the possibility of a paid DM.

A bunch of friends get together at a gaming store and each pay a small fee to have a game DMed for them.

The DM has a list of prepared adventure paths, so you just choose the genre you wish to play in: D&D, Modern, Sci-Fi, etc.

This could cater to casual gamers, beginning gamers, people who can't find a group or DM, player looking to try something different.

Thoughts? Anyone tried this? If it was offered at your local gaming store, would you use it?

 

[Crothian]

IT might be neat for beginners, but for established gamers I don't see a lot of use for this. I perfer to game with friends for free in a long lasting campaign.

 

[jollyninja]

A long time ago, there was a situation like this in the town I live in. The owners of a local comic/gaming shop would DM anyone who wanted to play for 5 bucks an hour (for the whole group) with the side note that any character you played could be used in their independent comics and any fiction they wrote. While I never took advantage of the service, I hear their DMing Quality was spectacular. They later went on to make a little game called Baldur's gate. The Half orc in the mine was my friend Wade's pc in one of their games. They called him to clear it when they picked up the actual D&D liscence and he immediately called everyone he knew who would care. I thought it was cool.

edit, bad punctuation

 

[Mark CMG]

People pay to play all of the time, if the RPGA and conventions are anything to go by. The missing piece of the puzzle is whether or not the DM is paid, or directly paid (since some conventions reimburse DMs for convention fees or add other perks). There was a group of players in KC, IIRC, who advertised for a DM, interviewed a number of respondants, and then hired a regular DM for their group. If approached professionally and with some forethought, I do not see why a person could not set up a part-time DMing business in this day and age.

 

[Vrecknidj]

A couple years ago, someone posted that he DMed for his job. He worked out an arrangement with the HR departments of a lot of businesses to come in and lead workshops. You know, those "let's get the workers together" kinds of things.

So, instead of rock climbing, or meditation centers, he'd come in with an adventure, some characters, and dice, and played D&D for the afternoon. He'd work out a schedule where he'd do a few each week (I think he lived in NYC), and he cleared something like $30,000 annually doing this (I suppose some businesses had good budgets for these sorts of things).

That's not enough to live on in NYC, but, it's awfully nice for supplementary work, or for someone who is a student and/or who doesn't have kids or a spouse.

Just a thought.

Dave

 

[Vanuslux]

I had a friend who worked in a game shop who would occasionally get paid to run at birthday parties.

 

[EricNoah]

I think maybe Bugaboo had a similar suggestion a few years ago...

 

[Mark CMG]

I think maybe Bugaboo had a similar suggestion a few years ago...

Best not to speak of him in this regard since he lost his life in a DMing-related accident.

 

[EricNoah]

Let's see, did he fall face-first onto 3d12 four-sided dice? Or am I thinking of someone else?

 

[Land Outcast]

Best not to speak of him in this regard since he lost his life in a DMing-related accident.

I'm confused, quite confused... What the heck?!