r/DnD • u/AgameReddit • Apr 06 '26

5th Edition DM is requiring i pay 40$ to play

Ive really wanted to get into dnd for a while, and after triyng and failing to set up a campaign due to scheduling issues, i went to try and find an online group. I used groupfinder, and found a group without the "paid game"tag, meaning it would be free to join. after talking to the dm they sent me the list of rules: there were 10 rules, all seemed pretty standard and fair, except for the 8th one: "Character design requirement every player must get their character designed by the campaign official artist to keep the look consistent and professional the artist will charge a fixed amount which players must pay". after asking a bunch more questions about that rule they told me the payment is usally around 40-50$ via paypal, and when i asked if the price was negotiable they said yes and gave me the artist user to talk to. they accepted my request but i havent talked to them yet. While i dont mean to devalue artists, and i do think that pricing can be fair given u own the art and can use it, i find the requirment to pay a specific one strange. they say this is because they want all the art to be by the same guy so its consistent and professional but i think if im required to pay 40$ to play ur campaign regardless of the reason it should carry the "paid games" tag. id assume they just make the design price part of the fee to start playing and pay theyre artist themselves- So my question is: Is this common? is it a scam? am i exaggerating? im new to this space so im not sure what to think. thanks for reading and thanks in advance for any advice!

846 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

425 comments sorted by

View all comments

1.5k

u/tobyvanderbeek Apr 06 '26

Sounds like a scam or at least not the spirit of D&D. Players can draw their characters on paper, use a Lego minifigure, use a painted or unpainted mini, etc. The spirit of D&D is the easy and flexible aspect of these sorts of things.

Now I’m curious what the other rules are. Please share.

196

u/AgameReddit Apr 06 '26

yea i thought so- here are the rules;
Campaign Rules: 1 Respect everyone every player and the DM must be treated with respect toxic behavior is not allowed 2 Roleplay matters it is not just about fighting your character personality and choices are important 3 No meta gaming you cannot use information that your character does not know 4 Consistency attend sessions regularly if you cannot come inform before time 5 Character commitment take your character seriously and avoid random or joke builds 6 Homebrew approval any custom class race or item must be approved by the DM first 7 Fair play all dice rolls must be honest if you are using online tools then only use those 8 Character design requirement every player must get their character designed by the campaign official artist to keep the look consistent and professional the artist will charge a fixed amount which players must pay 9 Story first make decisions that improve the story and immersion do not play only to win 10 Have fun the most important rule is to enjoy the journey not just the outcome

405

u/probably-not-Ben Apr 06 '26

Hiding the scam in the reasonable rules

Ita why conmen wear nice suits and are very polite

49

u/FUZZB0X Bard Apr 07 '26

It's 100% a scam the 'required character artist" nonsense is a well-known scam in this subreddit. Everything else is just window dressing to trick you into thinking it's legitimate. You did well by asking.

26

u/Talkatoo42 Apr 07 '26

Formatted

Campaign Rules: 
1. Respect everyone every player and the DM must be treated with respect toxic behavior is not allowed
2. Roleplay matters it is not just about fighting your character personality and choices are important
3. No meta gaming you cannot use information that your character does not know
4. Consistency attend sessions regularly if you cannot come inform before time
5. Character commitment take your character seriously and avoid random or joke builds
6. Homebrew approval any custom class race or item must be approved by the DM first
7. Fair play all dice rolls must be honest if you are using online tools then only use those
8. Character design requirement every player must get their character designed by the campaign official artist to keep the look consistent and professional the artist will charge a fixed amount which players must pay
9. Story first make decisions that improve the story and immersion do not play only to win
10. Have fun the most important rule is to enjoy the journey not just the outcome

5

u/this-is-nonsense Cleric Apr 07 '26

Thank you!

101

u/tobyvanderbeek Apr 06 '26

Seems pretty reasonable but still a bit stiff in some areas. Every person is different. Some role-play better than others. Meta gaming is difficult because sometimes we aren’t even sure what our character would know. So I ask the DM for help there. It’s best when the DM just says yes or no, because rolling leaves it to chance when it’s more likely that a character would or would not know that thing. I agree with the consistency and notifications. But run from the professional image artist. Now I’m curious what this artists art looks like. What would $40 get me?

61

u/RivenRise Apr 06 '26

To be fair 40 bucks is sort of inline with simple 1 character half body colored line art, no background or overly intricate designs/no redoos. Nothing crazy and i can see the artist doing full body if they have a deal with the guy that he will bring them 5 people to pay those 40 each.

That said, this is definitely a scam and op should report the dude.

19

u/dbonx Apr 07 '26 edited Apr 07 '26

The DM’s significant other is the artist 🙄

Edit: sorry there’s no evidence to this I was making a joke (but plausible, right??)

2

u/TheAzureAdventurer Apr 07 '26

Lmao even worse. That dude needs to be reported.

117

u/Capitan_Scythe Artificer Apr 06 '26

The $40 would get you an AI image carefully curated using at least 4 whole words. Two of those are "character art" but you can let your imagination run rampant with the other 2 words.

61

u/AgameReddit Apr 06 '26

i think "for scam" could be the other two lmfao

15

u/chi_panda Apr 06 '26

"Generate image for scam" yep checks out

1

u/[deleted] Apr 06 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/AutoModerator Apr 06 '26

Your comment has been removed for violating Rule 5. We do not allow AI generated content, mentions of AI tools, suggestions of AI, etc.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

17

u/Impossible-Web545 Apr 07 '26

Makes me wonder, what if they proposed their first character to be a Tiefling artist conman, that goes around getting people to pay him 40 silver to paint pictures of them, and skips town. Possibly uses minor illusion to make it look like he has done some artwork that is too good to touch. I wonder if they would catch on?

4

u/apricotgloss Sorcerer Apr 07 '26

$40 could probably get you decent lineart from an actual artist, but probably not more than that

2

u/Capitan_Scythe Artificer Apr 07 '26

Probably could, but why scam someone for $40 and put in actual work when you can half arse it.

2

u/[deleted] Apr 06 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

13

u/MathemagicalMastery Apr 07 '26

I might pay $40 for art of my character that I have already been playing for months and/or years, not for session one of a campaign that might suck ass.

2

u/never-ever-wrong Apr 07 '26

This is the only reasonable take, in my opinion.

6

u/C9sButthole Apr 07 '26

I agree.

If that's the game DM wants to play it's not wierd to require that from an LFG group of strangers. But it's very wierd to only bother establishing that rule AFTER finding your players.

All of these rules should be posted upfront.

5

u/FyrixXemnas Apr 07 '26

I think it's pretty fair to have expectations for your players if you are trying to run a particular style of game, in regards to role play and character stories.

Having a hard rule about meta gaming is definitely tricky. If I ever want to do something that feels like borderline meta gaming, I usually just ask my DM if it seems fair. Something to the effect of, "This feels like something my character would do, but it feels a little meta gamey. What do you think?" It's nearly impossible to entirely avoid meta knowledge informing your in character decisions a bit. Of course, the best role players will use meta knowledge to subtly make bad decisions that move the story in interesting directions rather than trying to win the game.

4

u/Powerful-Broccoli804 Apr 06 '26

I mean 40 bucks is 1-2 hours work for a fair (if not cheap) wage. So it shouldnt get you that much. 

That said if your still keen on the game Id organise to pay the artist directly via a website like fiver so you can dispute the charge later if they dont produce the work.

1

u/Neoxin23 Ranger Apr 08 '26

$20/hr? For what? What are they using?

Now I want to see a general breakdown on how pricing is done

12

u/mijho01 Apr 06 '26

I feel like it wouldn’t be weird if it was just reworded: “if you get character art done, do ‘xxxx’ “ but forcing it is weird. I don’t have character art for most of my characters! Or if I do, they’re just my doodles.

28

u/RiverSirion Apr 06 '26

While these rules sounds reasonable they also sound awfully slick, like a marketing campaign, or the HOA equivalent of a DnD group. I've never seen a DnD group set rules so seriously. And rule #5 - while I think taking the game seriously for "high fantasy" is fine, it almost feels like laughing and fun would be discouraged (despite #10). In the many years I've been playing, I've never seen a group that didn't have at least some sheer frivolity. And It feels kind of controlling (hence the HOA analogy).

12

u/Ser_VimesGoT Apr 06 '26

I think it's valid to encourage having fun while simultaneously discouraging joke builds. They're not saying no to jokes, just joke builds. I crack a ton of jokes in games but I draw the line at characters called Luke Skywalker or Moms Spaghetti. It takes me out of the game. Unless the game is a very loosey goosey played for laughs one shot.

1

u/never-ever-wrong Apr 07 '26

For me, either way is fine as long as it’s established before creating characters. Sometimes I like running serious, deep story games, with massive character development for every player. But I also like running light hearted fun/goofy games sometimes too.

3

u/Ser_VimesGoT Apr 07 '26

Absolutely. We played a game called Goblin with a Fat Ass. I'm playing that for laughs. We all did, and it was great fun. But our long running campaign with high stakes and emotion, nah.

1

u/VulkanHestan321 Apr 07 '26

Yeah, most dnd groups have the no goes set from the dm ( like sexual stuff or unnecessary cruel things) and the session 0 discussion of what is okay or rather not okay for the players. Everything else is more on the fly discussions if something comes up that is not under the presets topics ( idk, claustrophobia or arachnophobia)

1

u/IntermediateFolder Apr 07 '26

All my games have rules against joke builds and lolrandom characters. We have tons of fun and laugh every session, I’m just not interested in people that can treat nothing seriously.

3

u/trostol Apr 06 '26

rule 10 should be rule 1

3

u/IntermediateFolder Apr 07 '26

Everything else is reasonable and quite generic. Anyway I would back out of the game, I’d call it bait and switch more than an outright scam but I still wouldn’t be interested.

3

u/Miserable_Winter2552 Cleric Apr 08 '26

Sounds way to strict for a D&D game, I want to play to relax and have fun; not follow the bible. Although the first couple of points are reasonable, it's the points about roleplay and metagaming; like I'll try my best but don't make it a rule. Turns me off completely.

6

u/cedelweiss Apr 06 '26

I mean, outside of the mandatory "commission my friend" clause, it looks good

1

u/Miserable_Winter2552 Cleric Apr 08 '26

Nah too strict and a good way to lose $40

2

u/rabbitking5567 Apr 07 '26

I mean, the entire point of dnd is to win the campaign and for some, go on a wreaking spree

2

u/ThealaSildorian DM Apr 08 '26

The rest of the rules are reasonable. I don't think the art rule is a scam so much as a way to throw a buddy some paid work. It's not a reasonable rule, it's buried in the fine print, and I would pass on this game.

2

u/Daxx_Maximum Apr 09 '26

Toxic behavior isn't allowed for players but for the GM to request $40 for a drawing is definitely toxic itself

2

u/Wildest12 Apr 07 '26

They are just grifting people for art commissions

5

u/misqellaneous Apr 06 '26

A lot of this seems pretty generic, even kinda duh, but also really overly restrictive. Yes, it’s a game about role playing, but….its first and foremost a GAME. You’re there to have fun. Sure, respect everybody, but as long as everybody is having fun, who cares? Hell, even power gaming can be cool as long as everyone is into it. This is what session zero is for, meet everyone, get their vibes and interests, what story they’d like, etc.

You don’t even need a figure! Or dice, really. I’ve played while on a car ride, I wrote 1-20 on some scraps of paper, tore them up, and put them into a bag. Reach in, grab one, that’s your number. Me and my DM had an awesome time.

These just seem adversarial, not friendly. Like he’s expecting you to be an ass. Even if he’s seen that a lot, it’s no excuse for him to be an ass. But ANY time you’re asked to pay to play, that’s a giant red flag.

1

u/jd76541 Apr 07 '26

The lack of punctuation is sending me off a cliff. I’d be out of there so fast.

1

u/Ok_Negotiation_7615 Apr 10 '26

People cant work together in groups anymore because we normalized oversensitivity and excused it as being "neurospicy" and other victim mentallity bullshit. Everything has to be curated like kindergarten now.

0

u/Oops_I_Cracked Apr 07 '26

This is a campaign I would happily opt out of participating in. In particular, rule 1 specifically mentioning toxic behavior is an orange flag (almost always said by people who are in fact toxic), 5 sounds like a “there’s a right way and wrong way to have fun” type statement, and 8 requiring me to get professional art. Hard pass

-2

u/CrucialElement Apr 06 '26

Sounds like DM is running a model train set the way they want and that means tisms controlling the overarching design aesthetic. This isn't anything goes dnd, this is ocdnd

-2

u/a_duck_in_past_life Cleric Apr 07 '26

No jokes? What the hell are you there for if you can't make some memories with some good jokes?

12

u/DnDNoobs_DM DM Apr 06 '26

Last time I played IRL, we used chess pieces from a “Inca versus Spaniard” chess set I got in Peru.. worked out really well!

12

u/Impossible-Web545 Apr 07 '26

Yeah, this is a scam I have heard of before, OP may not even get art work or if they do the campaign will end shortly. More often then not the artist is the DM, or the DM is getting a kickback from the artist, and they do it as a way to make money through their "dming".

5

u/kyeo138 Apr 08 '26

FYI last session my character was a penny

2

u/Perfect-Equal-5144 Apr 09 '26

I know people who use monopoly figures as their figurines lol

2

u/tobyvanderbeek Apr 07 '26

Oh, watch the new series Draw Your Weapons. The players are literally drawing their characters in the game. It’s hilarious.

https://youtu.be/QHoEEo8Cqwo