Rent-A-DM

[joshuakanton]

If your blond, female and have a large set of dice, I'm sure you can get paid to DM for other people. Otherwise, it's finding the people willing to pay you for your services and what your expectations are.

If you try it, Good Luck. I hope it works out for you.

 

[Crothian]

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

It was a sad, sad day. I get choked up just thinking about it.....

 

[Janaxstrus]

There has been many times I would have considered paying for a good DM.

The problem is finding that someone. We have quite a few people that want to play, but no one that wants to DM.

 

[Wraith-Hunter]

It also depends on play style. I have played with some pretty bad or annoying DM's. Sometimes it was almost to the point I wouldn't want to play. But with a Dm with a similar style I would from time to time.

 

[Tewligan]

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

That was him - if you'll recall, that's what lead to the bill that nearly got passed which would have required all dice to have "...no points or sharp edges that might cause irreparable bodily harm when introduced to the eyes and/or soft tissues of the posterior region." Jeez, that guy very nearly caused all of us to end up playing with cardboard chits instead of dice! Still, I hear he was a hell of a DM, and very reasonably priced.

 

[Slife]

Really? I thought Bugaboo was the one who got government funding.

 

[diaglo]

Really? I thought Bugaboo was the one who got government funding.

block grant.

i was one of the reviewers on that grant request.

 

[delericho]

In general, I prefer to DM. As a result, i would only pay to play under one of the top top DMs in the world, and then mostly to see what they do differently in order to pick up some tips and techniques.

As far as being paid to DM, I think you underestimate my charges. If I'm being paid, then it's a job, and I'll treat it as such. This means being fully prepared, arriving on time, being polite and professional, and basically doing everything in my power to ensure the group have a good time... and it means charging real money for my services.

My prices would most likely be the equivalent of $30 per hour for a regular session (half that if I can include 'prep time' as part of my billable hours), or $150 for a half-day game session (probably about 6 hours gameplay). Those numbers can come down if I can do sufficient business to make this my primary means of employment... but since I wouldn't be able to, you pay a premium for cutting into my 'leisure time'. This is a far cry from paying 'a few bucks each' for the priviledge.

Based on that, I cannot see any group paying for a regular game. There are too many DMs, and too many really good DMs, offering their services for free, to make that arrangement work. I can see the occasional group wanting a one-shot session, perhaps as a birthday celebration, or because the old gang are back together for one day only, or whatever... but the practical question is then how one would go about advertising the service?

However, there is one other way I can see this working, and it was mentioned by the OP...

If I'm running a game store, then I might well consider hiring a DM for a day every few months to run demo games for new players. The idea here is to get someone who runs a really good game, and more importantly a really good demo game, and thus suck newcomers into the hobby. As we all know, the single best advert for D&D is to play it with a really solid group, so there it is.

More to the point, I might look for the ability to run a really good demo game amongst the people I would be hiring anyway, and try to get them to do the job for me, since hiring a professional DM at $150 every few months is likely more than my store could afford to spend.

In that instance, though, my expectation is that it's the game store, rather than the players, who pay for the DM, and that it is done as part of their 'advertising budget' rather than for any other reason.

 

[Lockridge]

Good post Delericho,
I think you covered everything. One question though: is that $30 per player or per group?

 

[RFisher]

For quite a long time "Hire professional DM" has been at the top of my when-I-win-the-lottery to-do list.

My current group was formed by a game store. The players had to pay, but I didn't as DM, but I didn't get paid either. As soon as their "six week membership" expired we just moved the game away from the store.

At least one group has hired EGG to DM a session for them.