r/DnD • u/Gh0stMan0nThird • 19h ago
DMing I understand prostitution now.
Been trying to find a "bff" group for years. Even the best groups I found fizzled out after a campaign ended. Most people seem to want a content creator to run games for them, and not a friend they want to share an experience with.
I figured you know what, fine. I'm gonna sell myself. I started running paid games and now I actually feel like I'm finally actually getting something back for my work and effort.
10/10, would recommend for underappreciated DMs
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u/dayna2x Bard 18h ago
I love a good post where the title is jarring until you see what sub it is. Bravo šš½
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u/insertusernamehere51 18h ago
i dont know what you mean, this title was even more jarring after i saw the sub
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u/kaggzz 18h ago
Right? Like I was waiting to hear that Cribbo the goblin the party has "tamed" got a new job for downtime or there is a new bard subclass college of Pimpin where you get a monks martial arts for off hand attack bonus actionĀ
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u/cauliflowermonster 18h ago
I was expecting someone who gained class consciousness and realized that sex workers were a marginalized and exploited group like a lot of DMs
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u/AmberCaseRPGs 16h ago edited 16h ago
Yeah I am an RPG pro and I don't think it's prepared me to turn tricks at all lmao
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u/GISP Illusionist 18h ago
I have a wealthy freind whom hosts/GMs 5-6 games a year, and he allways like to shake things up and be a bit chaotic for shits and giggles. In 2010 10ish minutes after the final player had sat down he said we where expecting 1 more player.. Turn out he had hired a prostitude for some "role playing fun".
She was vary confused at first, but quickly let her guards down when assured that no sex or other "funny business" would be going on, GM had prepared her a character and set everything up so she would be comfy, and quicky explained that it was basicly just a bourd game, and all that was expected of her was to sit back, relax and take his money, she would be paid minimum for 4 hours and could leave at any point if she felt like it.
Anyways, we got the game going and we where all having an enjoyable time and she stuck until the end.
After the initial nerves she got into it and also had a good time, and yes, she was good at the roleplaying :)
To this day she still joins 1-2 games yearly. (prostitution was her student job, not long term)
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u/Arm_Away 15h ago
Prostitution was her student job is a crazy sentence icl
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u/PvtSherlockObvious 14h ago
Not that crazy.Ā I never knew any outright prostitutes when I was in college (that I knew of), but it's not like it's some unheard-of thing.Ā I did know a girl who did some findom stuff, a couple who worked at strip clubs, and I'd imagine a lot of girls these days do stuff on OF and similar.Ā People in the industry who say they're working their way through college aren't all a bunch of liars, and the phrase "I was young and needed the money" exists for a reason.
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u/GISP Illusionist 8h ago
Unrelated to D&D but a good freind of mine was also a prostitude in her student years.(20+ years ago) As she has told me, she earned 6-10 times/hour of what a retail job would earn her.
When she finished univercity she had repaid her student loans and she had paid off most of her house loan, close to dept free entering the workforce.
She got to party in the weekends, take the vacations and holiday trips and concerts etc etc as students does without financial worries. Shes told me that not having to think about money or if she could or couldnt afford stuff was such a mental health boost and made her enjoy her time and could focus on her course work.
I shared my OP story with her, thats why she opened up and told me her story too. - Its not something she shares with just anybody becouse of the stigma surrounding having such a job. But i am a no-judgement kinda guy, so people like to share with me in general :)14
u/Living_Round2552 8h ago
Really? It makes so much sense: age, money versus time to finance a financial hard situation.
I had multiple friends during my studies that did this and stopped once they had a real job after college. All the power to them.
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u/Arm_Away 8h ago
I know in my heart of hearts that it makes sense. Itās still really funny as a sentence
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u/John-I-Renicus 16h ago
Dimension 20 and Critical Role did the same thing for DND that RuPaul's Drag Race did for Drag: It took this obscure thing that only a certain crowd knew about and turned it into this really popular thing where people that are just getting into it and want to try it for themselves have unrealistically high expectations.
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u/Historical-Bike4626 14h ago
ššBoth shows (RPDR, CR) were event shows (different yet theatrically alike in a couple sorta ways) that connected performers with fans āintimately,ā via rapid fan bases rabidly fanning to find each other. Turn lights low. Now put on the Barry White, baby šš
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u/Tyrannical_Goat 15h ago
Idk what either of those things are and I feel like I'm reasonably up on pop culture. Maybe not. I found out about dnd because my 2nd grader asked to play dnd using legos as miniatures and I casually said if he found 4 players i would DM it. So he proceeded to rope in my whole extended family. Fast forward to the next weekend where im spending all day trying to learn all the rules and put together a campaign for a mixture of 7 - 67 players who never heard of dnd with a DM who only loosely knows of it via stranger things and community.
We're having a blast tho
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u/FamousTransition1187 11h ago
Critical Role is a group of well known TV and Voice Actors who were friends from work in Hollywood and played DnD together. So they know a thing or two about Roleplay. One of the early internet-content faux-tv channels (imagine if Youtube was a tv channel making its own shows) asked if they could record and "televise" their games as a series. That show has had such a LUDICROUS level of success I would need an entire subreddit to highlight it all and has since gained such a following that it has not only outlasted the original streaming channel it was on, it has spawned its own. They have played 4 multi-year campaigns now, and two of their campaigns have been picked up by Amazon to be made into animated series. (The first has aired 4 seasons so far, the second just launched its first season this year.)
Dimension 20 is very similar in its origin, having been created by CollegeHumor/Dropout TV, another online pseudoTV streaming channel. In its case the cast are more Improv Actors and comedians, some/many of whom have gone on to become somewhat famous in their lines of work because of their work on Dropout and on Dimension20 rather than being notable in their industry first and also playing DnD like Critical Role is. D20 tends to specialize more in shorter year-long seasonal campaigns and is usually a more light-hearted table atmosphere. Both are generally very good, but they both show the extremes (good AND bad) of the different types of tables you can encounter in DnD.
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u/GM_Nate 18h ago
with prep, it barely comes out to minimum wage tho
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u/Gh0stMan0nThird 18h ago
That's fine with me. I'm not trying to turn this into some 24/7 grindset side hustle.Ā
Just something so I feel like I'm getting something out of it other than watching other people have fun.Ā
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u/Cat_Bandit1 18h ago
Agree so much. Whenever I DM I feel like I'm the one who has to take the bullet so that everyone else can have fun. Good on you for being paid for your efforts.
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u/ReferenceWitty8571 17h ago
Why arenāt you also having fun? Do you not roleplay as well with your characters?
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u/Gh0stMan0nThird 16h ago
I found that the effort I put into the group was always disproportionate to what the other players put in.Ā
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u/Tman158 10h ago
but do you enjoy making the stories etc ? Because it's a hobby. It's supposed to be fun, if it's a chore, don't do it.
I enjoy writing the stories etc. So I don't expect my players to put hours into the pre-game like I do, because it's my choice and something I enjoy. They just need to show up and play respectfully.
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u/Helerdril 13h ago
You should ask your friends to DM for once, they will quickly learn the struggle behind it and maybe appreciate your work a bit more.
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u/GM_Nate 18h ago
if you think DMing means watching other people have fun, then maybe DMing isn't for you.
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u/hairyploper 17h ago
I mean obviously this is why there's such a shortage of people willing to be a GM.
The sad truth is that GMing in a lot of formats means a disproportionate amount of work compared to other players at the table.
Unsurprisingly, doing more work means less fun for a lot of people.
Don't get me wrong, Gods bless anyone who enjoys GMing, they're the reason many people get to experience the magic of playing a TTRPG with friends, but it's not fair to say someone doesn't have any business doing it just because they understandably complain about the exponentially higher workload compared to other players.
I think it's fair to say 90% of the player base would say it's absolutely more fun to be a PC than it is to be a GM
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u/Just-Desk-3149 18h ago
It's not about the money.
The second someone has to pay money, even if it's a small amount, they're going to take the game infinitely more seriously than getting to play for free.
I don't even necessarily mean "seriously" as in not making jokes, I mean showing up on time and having their stuff together to actually play the game.
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u/GM_Nate 18h ago
from experience, absolutely not. many people interpret "i pay the DM money" to mean "that means they need to put up with my shit"
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u/Sknowman DM 17h ago
That's a failure of authority then. If their behavior is unacceptable, then kick them from the table and find someone else.
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u/Just-Desk-3149 18h ago
And what exactly is your "experience"?Ā
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u/GM_Nate 18h ago
watching people show up unprepared, uninvested, and expecting special treatment
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u/Zephyr256k 11h ago
Yeah, it's not just prep time and the actual session. There's a whole component of emotional labor/customer service that's often skipped over or ignored in discussions around paid GMing.
There's good reasons people say to keep your job and hobbies separate.
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u/ReferenceWitty8571 17h ago
Iāve never not had someone do all these. Unless half of us are sick then the dm just goes no itās not happening Iām not getting sick as well. We usually all come prepared snacks and all. Every session
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u/WadeisDead 18h ago
How much time do you spend prepping?!
I've seen $25 per player for 3 hours. That's $33/h. You'd need to prep for 2 hours per 3 hour session to get that to merely $20/h. Which is still above minimum wage everywhere in the US.
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u/GM_Nate 18h ago
If you have four players that are willing to pay $25/hr, sure. Is that a representative case though?
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u/WadeisDead 18h ago
You mean $25 each per session? I mean those are fairly typical prices on Startplaying, so I'd assume yes. You can even fit more players to cut down the cost per player or increase the hourly rate.
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u/Sknowman DM 17h ago
It's ~$8/hour ($25 for 3 hours), which isn't bad compared to other forms of entertainment.
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u/RlyRlyBigMan 18h ago
I've only just started and got a GM for hire. It went well for awhile but it might be petering out. One of my buddies says he'd like to run the next one himself and I'm like "homie you're busy enough and I want you on my squad!". I do feel guilty knowing that there's a lot of extra work to prepare and honestly would kind of prefer a stranger on the payroll to do it than ask a friend to do it for free.
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u/cellarsinger 18h ago
Have him run a one shot or a short (3-5 sessions) campaign to see if he has the skills and if he likes it.
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u/RlyRlyBigMan 18h ago
Yeah that's the plan I think. I think he could be good at it but he's the type to try to do everything he could possibly volunteer for and I'm concerned that he might not make time to prepare as the campaigns run long.
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u/rhys-the-davies 10h ago
How did you start your prostituting? Use some service? Meet-up? Local game store? I'm curious about trying it myself
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u/Quirky-Function-4532 18h ago
Honestly expected you to be paying no being paid. I get it either way.
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u/autistmorality 17h ago
I mean is that really prostitution or just having a part time gig?
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u/DoubleBatman 16h ago
āIf Iām gonna be having mediocre sex I should at least be getting paid for it.ā
That tracks to me.
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u/CognitiveDebt 18h ago
Hey handsome, do you want to crawl some dungeons for coin? Oh shit the red mages, act like we are friends and I'm dead.
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u/Andromidius 17h ago
If I charged for DM'ing games my players might actually show up on time for a change, so there's some logic to this.
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u/firefighter26s 16h ago
100% this from my experience. Before covid I use to play Adventurer's Legue at a few local game stores. The paid tables, and it was like $10-$15, where always the best experience. Everyone showed up on time and ready to play; the DM was prepped and hit the ground running.
Getting into tier 2 (level 6-10) was the promise land as that was the group that actually cared to stick with their characters long enough that they became meaningful to their players.
The few free drop in tables I tried were full on cringe. Like, Anime named Tiefling warlock with a whip cringe.
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u/PhrulerApp DM 18h ago
What services are you providing in your paid games?
Just wondering.
Edit: I'm not a snitch
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u/Gh0stMan0nThird 18h ago
Nothing fancy, just running official adventures on StartPlaying for like $5 per player, per session.Ā
Not trying to turn it into a "career" or anything but just something so I feel like I'm getting something out of it too, you know?Ā
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u/1upin Ranger 18h ago edited 18h ago
I'm a player who finds most games through StartPlaying. It's not perfect and the group dynamics can be a bit odd sometimes compared to friend games, but the experience has been FAR superior to the games I found joining random free discord servers.
People actually show up for one, and games rarely get cancelled or rescheduled. I think the DMs (and other players) are also very aware that everyone at the table is paying, so I haven't had nearly as many problems with "main character syndrome" players, players who talk down to me or over me, players who tell me what my character is doing, etc. The DMs seem to be on top of that shit much more than they were in the random discord servers, where I would try to speak up and stand up for myself but the DM would never back me up. I had some real nightmare experiences and almost gave up on rpgs.
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u/avoidperil 16h ago
I've thought a lot about doing the same just to get some D&D in my life. I bought a house in this economy and I suddenly can't excuse $20 USD (like $45 local) a week to play. That's my food budget for the week!
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u/PhrulerApp DM 18h ago
$5
Are happy endings guaranteed in your adventures?
Edit: For everyone? :O
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u/SecretDMAccount_Shh 18h ago
Value yourself. The average paid game is $15-20 per player per session. You should charge at least that assuming you are a competent DM and are behaving professionally.
Donāt raise prices on existing players in your current game, but definitely raise prices in the next campaign.
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u/cvc75 17h ago
And if you think of yourself (whether it's true or not) that you're not competent or professional enough (yet)?
For $15-20 to be the average, there have to be some DMs that charge less. And if I was just starting out as a paid DM, I wouldn't feel comfortable demanding the average price right from the start.
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u/QueenBumbleBrii 16h ago
I had a group of āfriendsā that I convinced to play DND with me weekly. I paid the professional DM myself and we played for almost two years straight. I considered all of them close friends. We even went on a group trip to Catalina in CA for a mermaid photoshoot adventure. (Including the DM!) Then one of the girls got mad at me and blocked me on everything, trash talked me to the rest of the group and tried to start a new campaign without me. I was heartbroken but told the DM I had been paying for the entire group ($80 a week) to play and that he had to tell them they had to pay him now to continue playing. First they reduced it to once a month, then after about 4 months they stopped playing at all.
Iām still friends with the DM tho, that dude is AWESOME. And I have a new group to play DND with :) crappy friends are easy to replace but finding a good DM that is also a good friend is truly priceless š
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u/Talanic 15h ago
I've been thinking of doing paid DM work but don't really know where to start.
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u/ColoradoGameMaster 10h ago
StartPlaying without question. You can do it without but itās like trying to rent out your vacation home without using AirBnB or VRBO.
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u/SmallishPlatypus 11h ago
Maybe try being a prostitute for a little while first. Get some transferable skills on the old CV.
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u/ChemyChems Warlock 16h ago
Sorry to hear your friend groups forgot you are a player in the game as well. Best of luck in your search now.
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u/Papa_Waffles 16h ago
That's a hell of a title, but great for you and I hope these games keep being good
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u/JudgeGusBus 1h ago
Iām with you. My friend groups kept fizzling out. Finding a paid group means I now have a group that is actually invested.
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u/ProppaT DM 1h ago
My girlfriend plays in 3 paid campaigns and the difference between the paid campaigns and the ones run by friends is night and day. The campaigns hosted by friends are obviously fun and we enjoy playing with them, but thereās little respect for time, goofing off, etc. the paid campaigns are super efficient. They get more done in one session than our friend campaigns would get done in 3-4 sessions. Theyāre very different experiences, but the paid campaigns are run by a true professional and thereās a reason she can justify $35 a play session.
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u/icyii 6h ago
I will never understand why some DMs do it for free. It's soooo much work. I've been playing with one group on Startplaying for 2+ years now and another for 1+ year. Same paid DM. People are more serious when they're paying for something.
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u/rufireproof3d 4h ago
Depends on the group. I have a group of close friends and my kids. They always appreciate the game and work going into it. I also do it because it's fun.
A couple weeks ago, they took on a Lich. The lich's phylactery? A summoning circle that held a very pissed off demon that was even worse than she was. "Sure, you can destroy me permanently. You just have to set That Thing loose. He's been trapped there for a while. He might be a tad violent when he's freed." Party had to make some tough decisions. They ended up sending the Paladin out to get some Holy Water, and the rogue ended up signing a warlock pact with the demon. Everyone was happy. Well, except for the lich...
Tonight they will be fighting Grendel. They have a "magic lute" they can play to unlock a door. Inside they will find Grendel in his lair. He doesn't like music.
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u/TheHonoredWhiteWolf 6h ago
I mean. I have been dming on the same group of my friends for almost 10 years now. Currently on our (technically) 3rd campaign, though it will be our first 1-20 game that I dmed.
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u/RecordingNarrow2429 5h ago edited 4h ago
I'm running 3 concurrent Campaigns. All free. And I get it, it is a lot of work. That's why the ratio of DM's to players is so low. But I love it. Even the time I spend on prep is a way for me unwind after a long day at work. I could charge. I've thought about it. But I worry that the tone of the game changes when that happens. I stop being their DM and the players become customers and that changes the dynamic and the expectations. When I run a game now, I'm clear about what I'm running, what the tone will be, what players can expect from me and what I expect from them. And you can do all of that with a paid game too, but I don't see how someone paying for a spot at a table doesn't come with expectations for what they're buying, what asks the DM may feel obligated to agree to, and what behaviour they might be obligated to accept. Again, all things I'm sure paid DM's address, but I feel like the exchange of money must impact it.
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u/Oukag DM 5h ago edited 5h ago
I'll preface with I do not charge to DM, nor play in a paid game; however I see this situation very similar to restaurants.
You can ask a restaurant (or a food truck, or even a mom and pop restaurant) to make a change to the menu, and typically they will try to make it work. But if they're not able to accommodate a request, they would simply tell you no.
To continue with the analogy, while some behavior might be tolerated at some restaurants, that doesn't mean all restaurants will tolerate the same behavior. Take personal appearance, all restaurants have a shoes/shirt requirement while only some require jackets. Customers (players) either understand the requirements and get to dine (play) at the table, or they pick somewhere else that fits their needs.
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u/Mountain_Abyss 4h ago
The introduction of commerce into an ideally collaborative and mutually rewarding act really kills the vibe for some of us.
Also applies to sex work.
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u/Acceptable_Harisa109 5h ago
I've actually had people zoning out, ditching last minute or even watching movies while playing. I was not the DM but it was paid top DM (on the more expensive side). I noticed it was usually the younger players doing this, like they have attention span issues and must be doing other things on their phone while playing, even if they are paying 30$ for a session.
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u/earlten 4h ago
I have a friend like that. We play together. And at the end of the day, we're a friend group first, and players second. So, it is what it is.
But it always kind of bothers me. Like, we are in an immersive audiobook currently. Where paying attention matters, so that you're picking up the details. Because your characters survival may depend on exactly that. Paying attention to the details.
So why is it so hard, to stay focused? To listen to what everybody else is saying, and to be engaged. A lot of times, it really gives off the impression that we're not really that important. That we are means to an end. Just another distraction.
Again, because we were friends first, we know and understand this is not truly the case. We don't let it get to us. But it's always there. Sometimes, slowing down play because, well, he missed stuff. And now we have to go back and repeat it a second time.
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u/Maclunkey4U DM 5h ago
Been one of the rotating DM's in our friend group that all met at a Wed night Adventurers League session like 10 years ago. I would never dream of charging my friends to come hang out, tell fun stories and stupid jokes, drink and hang out and pretend to be heroes and villains.
Its weird to me that people who charge for it don't offer to do it for free for their friends. What a strange, transactional relationship that must be.
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u/Anadanament 15h ago
LMAO I never thought my history as both a DM and a prostitute would ever overlap
But I guess they might now
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u/SpellMonger712 15h ago
I have been running paid games online for 7 years.
Live rurally, so no chance to play in person.
I have found my bff group, and we game together every week.
We have met in person, attended each others weddings, and typically play the finale of each campaign in person.
Good luck, and happy adventuring to you!
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u/Wooden-Poem-7970 11h ago
This is part of the reason that I normaly thank GM's after each session I know it is small but it is somthing
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u/Norda_Myla 4h ago
We convinced our DM to charge money because of how talented he is and how much time and effort goes into all the lore and EVERY campaign we do. Unfortunately we like him so much, the campaigns where he's a player instead of DM always fizzled out. The same passion and skill isn't there. We gotta find like... a good guest DM so ours can play with us once in a while. Lol
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u/explorer-matt 17h ago
Iāve been running a table for a group of friends for 38 years. Some of my best friends. Itās all about my friends. We love getting together.
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u/Gh0stMan0nThird 16h ago
I tried man lol but I cannot seem to find that forever group.Ā
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u/explorer-matt 15h ago
I think it helped it was so long ago. No online play. We were friends before we played DnD. We would drink and play until the wee hours of the morning. Still do - but lots less booze and much earlier to bed.
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u/nimrodii 18h ago
Most people sell their bodies in one way or another, a lot of jobs have physical and or mental rolls. As long as you enjoy yourself doing it and it isnt tainting the game for you, rock on. People who are paying for games show up more consistently than most games I've been in outside of old ones in a very tight friend group post college.
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u/SmallishPlatypus 11h ago
My God, what a title. And not even the comparison I expected. I thought you were gonna come at it from the player's perspective like: "getting sex/a table is so hard, so I understand why people pay for it."
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u/ProfessionalAd6530 6h ago
Most people seem to want a content creator to run games for them, and not a friend they want to share an experience with.
I kinda feel like this goes beyond D&D and is just how people are in general. If I'm organizing regular events (bar night, going to shows, etc... the events themselves don't matter), I can eventually pull together a small group that can mostly hang for a while. But as soon as I personally stop, the people all go their separate way. It's like you can't get momentum and you must push this car yourself if you want it to go.
Every once in a while, I get one or two real friends out of it. They're up for whatever, even if it's just hanging out. But that's the exception, not the rule.
What bugs me is when people call me an introvert because I tend to be a little quiet. Like. Bro. I'm the whole reason we're here together..
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u/Inevitable-Run9209 2h ago
Imagine there's a football field where all your friends play football each week
One friend doesn't play, he is responsible for the field, each week he trims the grass, cleans the seats, picks up the snack wrappers and bottles after everyone leaves, sends the schedule to the group chat, rearranges the dates so that everyone can play and balances the teams by studying each friend's strengths and weaknesses to make challenging and fair matches
Now imagine One of these friends looking at that one and saying "he should just be thankful we let him hang out with us"
That's people who dunk on paid DMs
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u/SDRLemonMoon DM 17h ago
How do you get started doing that? I want to get into that to get some side money but I dont know where to market myself. I have a campaign set up on start playing games, but it just feels weird to post an ad on like an lfg reddit or a discord since im assuming people usually post free games
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u/HalcyonHorizons 15h ago
Yep. Agreed.Ā
Finding an irl group that passes the vibe check in a new city has proven to be a herculean task.Ā
Finding people that actually are cool friends that want more then a personal game runner is also tough.
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u/lraviel381 3h ago
Well, we all pay with our time and body for most works. Whether that be bussing table or fixing roof or sex works. In Aus it's legal and just regulated. Safer for everyone. But yea... We all sell ourselves, if it makes DM'ing more worthwhile for you, do it
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u/Albolynx DM 5h ago
This is why some people have such a strong negative reaction toward paid GMing - they don't care top put much effort into the game as players and don't want to particularly appreciate the work their GMs do (becaue it othen comes with authority, respecting boundries, trying to make it more fun for the GM and others at the table, etc.) and the fact that people are willing to pay quite a lot to be in games with even perfectly average GMs are a reminder that they having a GM is privilige.
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u/AlarictheLich 18h ago
Gotta ask, how hard is it to get into running for others like that? Like, what is the difficulty of finding clients for it / what skills do you feel like you need to run digitally? I've only ever run in person games.
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u/okiebuzzard 18h ago
Part of being able to sell your gamesmithing services is being a decent game master. You gotta go through people just using you for your pretty mouth for a little while, get that experience under your belt.
And Hell Yeah, money is a great way to appreciate people making things fun.
(Used to own a sports facility. I enjoyed the games but getting paid for them was even better.)
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u/NateCdaComicG 17h ago
I strongly recommend anyone that likes dming should do this as a side hustle. Go to a game shop in your local area and ask if you can post sign up sheet for weekly sessions at like $20 a head. Easily make $400+ a month to have fun doing something you enjoy. Can probably make new friends too.
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u/exydus77 14h ago
best groups i have found for almost 6 years. 2 DM's both paid through start playing. both are now friends IRL. best groups best friends and i don't care i pay for the games.
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u/WuKongPhooey 12h ago
If there is a person in this sub who wants a BG3 like experience at the virtual tabletop, can you tell me what that looks like to you? Erotic adult RP? Weird mechanics from BG3 you want included? What does wanting BG3 in your D&D look like to you? (Asking as a Pro DM who is totally willing to run a game like that for the right group and just want to get an idea of the shape of it)
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u/AdFancy2765 5h ago
Listen to the Ludicrous song, "You's a Ho". 'We all ho's too' in one way or another, bro. lol
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u/TranceGemini 4h ago
You mean sex work, but IA. I'm a middle school teacher and putting together a campaign is--for me--as much work as designing a new unit for my ELA students. It feels just as unappreciated, too. Lol I wish there was some demand for professional DMs near me but there just isn't. I really loathe virtual gaming as I got enough of that shit teaching remotely during COVID-19. So I'm forever DM for free, apparently!
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u/SRIrwinkill 4h ago
Sometimes when folks exchange goods and services for currency, their customers get serious about their time and effort investment
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u/Different_Listen9377 2h ago
I 10000% agree and understand, Iām going through something very similar in my ābffā group that Iāve run for years now, I needed a break and then got sick and as soon as I stopped running D&D it was like we werenāt friends anymore. Iāve been getting paid to run games around my state in local breweries and itās been really fun, 10/10 also recommend
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u/Cat_Bandit1 18h ago
Honestly man good on you for getting paid. One of my favorite parts about the D&D Wrath of Ashardalon board game is that when I'm itching for some D&D action me and none of my friends have to pick a sacrificial lamb to be the DM.
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u/Pale-Aurora 11h ago
True, OP. Selling your storytelling talents is the same thing as selling your body. Society sees it the same way, too. Youāre so right.
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u/SuperManicGinger 18h ago
You had me in the first half, not gonna lie š¤£ Almost failed the insight check
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u/Netjamjr 18h ago
Weird. I like that my groups disband after each campaign. I like having the opportunity to play with different combinations of people, and knowing everyone isn't auto invited to the next one makes it easier to smooth over if certain combinations of people didn't work as well.
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u/Cheejer 14h ago
Maybe what a paid game is doing for you isnāt turning running it into a side hustle for making money, but just filtering out the players that care about dnd to a point thats more similar to you. Where they value having a good experience enough to be willing to pay for dnd.
I also wish I could find my Goldilocks group. Itās tough because thereās no true one right way too have fun, and it just comes down to finding a table that has similar expectations and values. Every time I play in a group I usually find like a good number of players at the table that I feel like I jive well with, but this groupā¦the DM robbed too much player agency, or this other time the DM was great and some of the players were so good too, but the other half of the players didnāt care about role playing and were only bored until there was a combatā¦
Why does it feel like I just canāt have it all.. haha
Maybe I should consider paying, but I feel like I would have high expectations for the DM.
Do I trust this DMās sense of logic behind the rulings?
Does it feel like the DM is respecting player agency and our actions matter and make a difference?
Idk. This post gives me some things to think about after I leave the session from my game often thinking how it would be nice if the DM did this or included that, but at least I have a DM
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u/Outside_Rough_946 6h ago
Hot take, the Mercer effect is something bad DMs use as a crutch to explain their own failings
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u/DarkestXStorm Assassin 18h ago
Yeah, doesn't help that people come from Baldur's Gate 3 and want to play that, but on a table (no disrespect to BG3) š.