It is terrible. I've written on my blog about this. The problem links back not to evil companies, but to the model by which RPGs are sold and how consumers pay for them. Most home campaigns spend far more on snacks than they do for the adventures. Most RPG gamers claim to love RPGs more than anything else, but pay significantly less for the hobby than they do for video games, TV, or movies. Gamers are quick to show outrage when a publisher (regardless of size) tries to price a product at anything higher than current rates, even when every aging publisher seems to need a GoFundMe campaign for their health care.
It's a problem if you aspire to make a decent living writing RPG material, certainly. But a TV doesn't come with the means to make your own shows. Nor does a disc or streaming service, nor do most video games. You never hear someone say "I would never watch a published TV show" - but it's a pretty common refrain among people who run RPGs. RPGs typically come with their own means to generate near-infinite content which lessens the need for "more". Once the rulebook/books are out, the basics are covered. That endless stream of adventures, character options, and setting details that some think are an essential part of a game are very very optional. Adventures have been tagged as non-money-makers for decades - I think Paizo is the first company to make steady income from those as a major focus.
As others have mentioned:
a) No barriers to entry as you need no special skills or qualifications to write an RPG adventure.
b) It's easy to translate existing material into new games and many gamers have a backlog of old material waiting to be used in some way so if you want to sell a lot of that material there are some limitations on what you can charge.
c) Everyone that wants to play a videogame generally has to have a copy or a subscription of some kind. A group of six gathers for an RPG session only one person really has to have a copy of the game. It's a different kind of thing. You could have a similar number of people playing each and sell a tenth of the units for the tabletop, regardless of price.
d) Gamers tend to be thrifty with their purchases, for whatever reason. There is a small set of people who can/will spend whatever they want on their games, and a much larger set who would prefer to spend as little as possible. They are very resistant to pricing increases as noted. It's not new.
So, yes, writing rates for RPGs are low. They've always been low, relative to other options out there. Keep in mind the rates shown in this article are 25 years old and some people are saying they would be competitive today! I think anyone looking at that as a career option had better really really love it as you're probably not going to make much money doing it. If you can treat it as a hobby or a source of extra income then I think you'll be better off in a lot of ways.
As far as the regular GoFundMe requests ... these are people who have spent a lifetime in an industry doing something they loved and have achieved some level of recognition or notoriety yet they often have no financial security at all. That's definitely a problem but really that should be a warning to up-and-comers, not a siren's call. These are the people who were successful doing what you want to do - look how it turned out for them! There's another article up right now about layoffs at Lone Wolf - the HeroLab people. There's not much good news there. It's a small industry and there's just not that much money in it. A few people will do well, more people will "get by", but most will have a hard time making a living wage, especially if you have a family to support.
