Rent-A-DM

[EricNoah]

A true pyramid has five sides and would not make a good die. A d4, by contrast, is apparently a good way to die.

 

[Driddle]

(low moan)
Ach. That's painful. Just ... painful.

 

[Tewligan]

I think would got me was that he made the pyramid look like a d4. Dammit, it still seems legit when I remember the image.

I got sucked in by the Power Point presentation, myself. Remember the image of the 20-sider that had a dollar sign instead of the '20'? God, I couldn't throw money at him fast enough, that magnificent bastard...

 

[Rothe]

....

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.

Sold! I'd gladly pay to have a good DM. I almost invariably DM and would love to play with my players. The price above is well worth it if we can get along on a personal level, we can choose the rule system and set the general play style. No problem. We all have far more money than time at the moment, and at those rates it's very cost effective. If I start adding in the hours I spend prepping, the above rates are well worth. Can I pay you to prep my games?

Based on that, I cannot see any group paying for a regular game....... but the practical question is then how one would go about advertising the service?

If your near a large city you may do well. I could easily see shelling out $300 a month for two half day sessions.

Advertising? I thought you just did. Word of mouth, adventure journals on web pages, all might be good ways. Posts on forums that make people think, damn I'd love to play in that game. Maybe contact Vin Diesal (spelling?), I bet he has more money than time.

 

[delericho]

Sold!

I'm surprised. In previous threads on this topic, the notion of paying a DM directly (as opposed to with pizza and/or drinks) has been met with disdain or outright hostility. That seems to have become much less the case recently. Perhaps there is something in it after all?

Advertising? I thought you just did.

Actually, no thanks. I have various things I do 'for money', and other things I do 'for fun', with role-playing in the latter camp. Having seen the effect my career has had on my enjoyment of writing code, I would rather not see the same happen to RPGs. As such, even if the money were not an issue, I have no intention of trying to become anything other than a strictly amateur game-designer or DM (in terms of payment, not quality, of course). I would be willing to do the occasional session, if asked, but won't be making a habit of it.

But, when I spoke of advertising, I was thinking more of the likes of the one-off for a group of friends who used to game but drifted away from it. Such a group may well not be aware of ENWorld, or any of the equivalents. I suppose they might well do a Google search (in which case some sort of virtual 'notice board' could be set up), or they might well go back to their old FLGS if it still exists, and ask around there.

 

[Owen K.C. Stephens]

There are lots of people who are working, or have worked, on money for GMing. Ryan Dancey ran an organized play for a while. There's Otherworld Excursions (http://www.behemoth3.com/otherworld/), who have run at least one tour. heck, shortly after 3e came out some players contacted Onte cook and asked if they could pay him to DM for them. (I don't know if he'd have done it anyway, but my memory is they were in a different state, and Monte just gave them a realistic idea what it would cost to be worthwhile to him, and that was the end of the matter.)

Since an important part of GMing is coming up with neat ideas, any freelancer is in part getting paid to act like a GM, though I admit that's not all of it. But I often take things I originally developed for home games and make money off them, especially as pdf products or some of the lower-paying magazine articles.

I have had professionals in other fields offer to pay for my room, board and travel expenses to come GM for them, and I've even done it a time or two to meet new people and make contacts. (Having an author you like ask if you're free to come hang out is always exciting.)

I've even had casual friends ask if they could pay me to GM, but I've never seen those as really serious offers. I have a limited amont of time, and can't game with everyone I'd like to. I doubt anyone who has the resources to would -really- be willing to truly make it worth my while to professionally GM. To allow it to take up professional time (instead of leisure time), I'd need professional money. Besides, if I had a good time and got to like those players, I'd eventually feel bad taking money to run games for them, but wouldn't have the spare time to run games otherwise.

I do wonder if electronic gaming is going to change some of these dynamics. If I didn't have to leave home, and things such as miniatures and maps were easily taken care of for little expense, it might become much more economical to pay me to GM. And some sort of style guide and rating system might allow players to find quality GMs who run the kinds of campaigns they enjoy.

 

[Nightfall]

Owen,

So does that mean I can rent you out as a DM for a week?

 

[Owen K.C. Stephens]

Owen,

So does that mean I can rent you out as a DM for a week?

If you have the cash, with my NPCs you clash.

 

[Whisper72]

Well.... I would love to get paid to DM, however, the economics would be a little different then sketched by Delericho I am afraid.

To truly prep well (this would include making props, maps printed on 'parchment' and all that) and make sure you are up to date on all relevant rules, have good notes on 'what happened before' etc.) means you have at least as thrice as much time invested in prep as actual play. With the risk premium of being 'self employed', this would mean I'd need to earn _at least_ 50 euro's (that's about 75 USD if I am correct) per hour, so that would mean a 4 hour session would mean two full day's worth or 800 euro's or 1200 USD for the session. Considering a party of four, that'd be 300 USD _per person_ per session...

Not many would pay that I guess...

As to the issue of paid DMming now being less 'volatile' a subject, may have to do with the simple fact that many here on this forum have grown / aged and many will have jobs of their own, with little time to game and less to prep. With jobs comes money however, so the idea of paying someone for entertainment is less strange to the EnWorld population...

 

[masshysteria]

I don't think anyone could replace their normal job with being a paid-DM, however, there are probably a number of people who could make some extra money doing something they like to do anyway.

This way, the prices so far mentioned don't necessarily have to be so high. Also, I don't think it is out of the realm of reality to pay to have a good DM. It may be a lot easier to pay some one to go through all the prep and forethought and just come and play.

I think there would be two realms of Pro-DMs: The Rockstars - Play in the Forgotten Realms with Ed Greenwood, or the Local Guru - the that lives near you that has a knack for putting on real great games. Each realm would charge different amounts accordingly.