What do you make and what do you do?

[Crothian]

I left the banking world and went into retail. Odd change but the hours are oddly much better. Pay is a little worse, but I drive less all week to and from the retail place then I did just going to the bank. It is also a much nicer place, just less professional.

 

[apoptosis]

I am a molecular biologist and neurochemist. I work for a small agency that does strategic planning and publication development for pharma companies.

 

[Pinotage]

I'm an engineer and earn well enough to support my addiction to RPG pdfs!

My group has one other engineer (now a full-time mother), a military guy, an actor, and two others that I'm not sure what they do. All I think, earn well enough to easily support this hobby. Let's face it, gaming is cheap. Core books for $60 or whatever Amazon sells them for and you get thousands of hours of fun.

Pinotage

 

[blargney the second]

Self-employed: I teach swing dancing.
-blarg

 

[johnnype]

I'm a Certified Financial Planner and Partner at my firm. I've been in the business 15+ years. I make a decent living. Enough to live well in San Francisco. I have 3 degrees.

I love RPG's but have no intention of pushing them on my 3 year old son.

The stigma and bad stereotypes surrounding the hobby are still alive and well. Sure, more and more "respectable" gamers are coming out of the woodwork (Stephen Colbert, Jon Favreau and Anderson Cooper to name a few) but it will be a while before a 16 year old can walk through the hallways of his/her high school with a PHB in his hands and not get looks, snickers or worse. Given the choice I'd rather my kid avoid that if at all possible. If he likes them great. If not, that's OK.

 

[Evilhalfling]

Im an Urban Planner, and not well paid. Spent the last two years as a DINK (Double Income No Kids) where the disposable income is very nice.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

I work in the veterinary pharmaceutical company owned and managed by my parents.

Much of what I personally do is export - we sell our products and a few other lines all over the world. The only continent I don't have customers on is Antarctica!

Now, while I make about US$33,500 per year doing this, at least at current exchange rates, it's only a temporary situation for me. Eventually, I'll go back to university for a postgraduate degree in my field (religious studies), and hopefully teach. My wife is planning to go back to school and finish her degree in fine arts, too, so we need to be pretty stable before either of us can afford to do so.

As for the group I currently run D&D for (my circle of gaming friends doesn't form permanent gaming groups), all of us except my wife have bachelor's degrees. Two of my players are in postgraduate research, one in psychology and the other in computer science (artificial intelligence).

 

[airwalkrr]

I am currently unemployed, planning on going back to school in the fall to become a high school science teacher. At that point, I expect to be making about $30,000 annually although there are currently a number of incentives in my state for high school science teachers so it is possible I may make more. The people I game with have always been fairly successful individuals. I don't think gaming should be used a barometer for success though. That kind of thinking led to some very close-minded opinions being developed about the game in the 80's at the height of D&Dmania.

 

[noretoc]

I work in a call center for Bank of America, handling high end clients. I am a low level manager of the dept and am right in the middle of the scale for pay. I did not finish college (or even go for more than a class or two), but D&D has definately helped me. I moved from a mook to management (out of about 140 people, one opening) of the second highest client base dept because of problem solving skills. D&D helped me learn to think out of the box. I am also currently next in line for a promotion as soon as a spot opens up. Have you kids play if they like it. It can't hurt! (and you wont have to worry about teenage sex, lol)

 

[Buttercup]

I'm a librarian. Our gaming group currently consists of me, a chemist, a software consultant and a business developer/game designer. In the past there have been other librarians, a historian and an IT guy. All well adjusted, clean, contributing members of society.

I can think of far worse hobbies to promote for your kids. D&D fosters reading comprehension, math skills, co-operation and creativity. Plus you get to kill things and take their stuff. Who wouldn't to teach their kids that?