The GM wants to charge players real money for each session

Unless he uses his own setting and OGL type rules it's technically illegal.

Fuck that noise. If he doesn't derive satisfaction from GMing and from the prep work in itself, he shouldn't be GMing.

It's a hobby. Either do it because you enjoy it, or don't do it at all.

>fully functional gaming club that has private rooms with miniatures, maps, dice, tokens, whiteboard, books, snacks, drinks, etc.

Why do I have a feeling the drinks and snacks are sold at cinema-level markups?

wired.com/story/its-a-living-meet-one-of-new-yorks-best-professional-dandd-dungeon-masters/

>Not taxing your players to fund the pizza and beer money
unless you just want chips and water, which is cool too I guess

GMing should always be a labor of love, that said players can provide compensation in the form of snacks, my players have also bought me book on a few occasions.

If I were running a game online with fantasy grounds, an ulti license costs 9 a month so if my friends chip in we could improve our experience

>gming for free under the yoke of role players
I thought slavery was abolished.

If you're playing with strangers at a store or something that seems entirely reasonable. Especially if the GM puts a lot of time and effort into the session it's practically a job at that point.

My 2 cents.
I know people who will DAM for free. I will even DAM for free. I know great DMs who DM for free.
So why would I pay for something I already get for free? It's an unwanted and worthless service to try n sell.

>Players pay the GM by providing food.

It makes sense to me. Its can be tough to be DM especially if you put a lot of effort into design, prep, and running. For me Its like paying a tour guide in some respect. You get to focus on a well put together game with fellow players. if you just want to game and for whatever reason don't have a group than it would be nice to be able to get a confirmed spot with a notably good DM if they have the rep and skill.

youtu.be/UdAwX8JB66E

I mean if your wanting this guys level of exp and dedication. I can see paying for his services.

I don't have internet so I can't watch YouTube.

What's the link? Some cancer like Roll20 or Yogscast or other shits?

>DM wants to charge players fake money for each session

You don't have to play.

It's that one retard who runs a session every six months that has kept the same game going for a long ass time.

The article is actually quite sad. Sure, he charges $350 a session, but he spends the game pretending to be friends with the people who pay him, who seem to have more money than sense. The clown comparison is quite apt.

If you have money and don't want to roll the dice on a rando GM, then why not pay someone to GM for you?

If you have the skills to GM games and people are willing to pay for your services, why not take their money?

Paid GMing does not affect the free side of the hobby in any way. Get your head out of your arse.

>GM charges money
>party wipes
>everyone demands money back

Yeah he wants to filter out all you flakey cunts who don't turn up/turn up excessively late constantly/ don't bother reading even the bare basic rules/don't bother reading even 1 page of a setting guide/don't bother even writing a paragraph of backstory.

I think all GM's should charge, it also filters out all the millenial, neet, waste of space,nu-males as well who only play this game for memeshittery and NAT 20 ROFL lulz.

Yes dear friend. There are many legitimate reasons for charging money. GMing is a fledgling enterprise after all, yes?

I'd never charge money to GM, but I'd expect the plagers to bring snacks and beer.

>not paying GM at least 10 sickles for session
You're a muggle AND poor m8?

Imagine it like this. Friend invites you to play football, you come over and you talk shit, drink, kick the ball then the cunt says "Okay this was fun but this is 20 bucks." arguing that its his ball and beer, that there's nothing wrong with being an entrepreneur and that having more money makes him more human.

>Being friends with people who would be insulted for you charging them money for what it's essentially a part time job.

Get better friends cuck.

That's completely true, and I wouldn't play with a DM that attempted to charge me for the privilege.

You are thinking way too much of it dear. Look at this good fellow Charging your friends for the privilege of playing in your games is something only a true entrepreneur would do.

I agree that it is only right to pay the gm considering the preptime and cost of rulebook.

Just as i charge people for playing warhammer againt people who haven't spent as much time on their armies as i have on mine.

>Needing 15-30 hours a week to DM
>Needing to weasel as many burgerbucks as you can from your friends
>Not enjoying DMing enough for it to be it's own reward
>Not having multiple DMs with their own prepared content in case of emergency or DM burnout

It must be terrible to live the life of a plebeian.

This is why I charge chocolate doubloons per player instead.

>Fuck that noise. If he doesn't derive satisfaction from painting, he shouldn't be painting.

>It's a hobby. Either do it because you enjoy it, or don't do it at all.

There's this guy on youtube with informative Roll20 videos that apparently charges for his sessions. I can't image how much one would actually charge for that sort of thing. Doesn't seem worth the effort to me.

Truly paid GMs (chipping in for the GMs share of pizza doesn’t count) are a cancer I pray doesn’t spread. It destroys the colaborative nature of the game and fundamentally changes the GMs role from a referee into a performer playing for a paying audience and seeking only to delight them, never to disappoint them.

you joke but i agree, true art can only be created from passion, not to say you cant make a career out of art but when your painting to pay the rent its just not the same as painting for painting sake.

The hipster/mellenial gig economy views any and all effort as “work” and attempts to monetize it. If you have a real full time job one isn’t brought low but such niggardly behavior.

Imagine this instead. You play football. The other guy sounds the next hours massaging your testicles in between plays and gently whispering into your ear how amazing you are at football.

The after prostituting himself for four or more hours, he asks for the money you owe him.

...

If you are painting toy soldiers to pay your rent you have either excelled to the pinnacle of the skill and are working for GW making a whopping £30k per year salary or you are a utter failure at life and have managed to acquire no marketable skills or education.

>The after prostituting himself for four or more hours, he asks for the money you owe him.

If you consider GMing rubbing people’s balls and prostituing yourself out, id recommend getting out of the hobby. Your doing it way wrong.

Roll20 was a mistake.

Spoken like a true never dm.

I’ve been DMing since 1989 kid. Forever DM here.

I get sex for free. I know lots of people who get sex for free. Why should I pay for sex? It's a worthless service.

Stopping kissing your players ass and start running your world and your game. Because you are a spineless pussy that caters to your players every whims and fetishes don’t assume everyone else does too.

It's literally the GM's duty to make the game happen, from start to end.

Forever DM here to call you a retard.

Also, I have made it a regular thing to walk up to every group that a scummy GM tries to swindle and tell them that I'll do it for free and even teach whoever's willing how to GM.

Because fuck you.

And now it's literally the player's duty to pay for that service.

>DAM
what did he mean by this?

Can you teach me how to be a GM?

Doubtful. It isn't like you would have a significant effect on the market anyways

I will.

For money.

That's fine. If you don't want to play, you just don't play.

I’m ok with some beer and snack money changing hands but literally being paid to run a game is the antithesis of a GMs role in my eyes.

I run these games for my friends as a labor of love. Everyone I’ve gamed with over the years has become a friend, except for Earl, I had to throw him out for being a Rules lawyering asshole that created inner party conflicts for fun.

I’m been gaming a long time. The unfortunate trend I see is youngster normies can’t be bothered to learn the rules because that requires a modicum of effort. They just want to play and be spoon fed when and what dice to role.

Viewing the games as an impossibly complex and arcane nigh unlearnable code that requires a expert to “teach you” (tip: they don’t want to be taught, just continued spoonfeedings) this attitude has created the market for these parasitical “professional GMs” to exist.

>the market
There is no "market", my sweet anonymoose.
A bunch of assholes wanting to sell you shit you can get for free is a bunch of retarded scammers. Here is the question: Why should you get money for something others can do as well or even better for free?

>>Also, I have made it a regular thing to walk up to every group that a scummy GM tries to swindle and tell them that I'll do it for free and even teach whoever's willing how to GM.

Because fuck you.

Forever GM here I join you in this Pledge. I love DMing for new players esp kids. I run a weekly all ages DCC game at the library at teen game night.

The host has to provide space, some electricity (laptops, cooking utensils) and clean up afterwards. OK.

But the others have to pay to get there and back home, sometimes to a different city. It's not like the host is uniquely burdened.

As for food, my group is always buying ingredients for a few pizzas and we split the costs (pic related). Delivery is far too expensive anyway. Snacks are also bought individually.

The issue I have with most of these places is their idea of snacks and drinks are all junk food. I have yet to find an FLGS with, for instance, prepack salads in their fridge. Why?? Isn't there anyone who wants to eat things that won't make them feel ill later?

>hurr durr just find a free GM
People want to play these games, not literally work for free in the GM's seat. They're willing to pay so that the obligation to provide entertainment doesn't fall on them. Being a GM is pretty evidently an extremely niche appeal judging by how hard it is to find one.

The market is there. Just because you're poor doesn't mean that everybody else is. Just because you don't value your time doesn't mean that nobody else does. Just because you're greedy and feel entitled doesn't mean that everybody else is. You just have to deal with these facts.

Because people's are willing to pay me to come in person and do it, something they actually can't get better. Why should restaurants charge for food when there are charities that just give it away?

Here's a better question. Why should I do something for free that takes a lot of work and is essentially a part time service job when I can and do get paid for it?

There are dudes who will fix a car for free, why the hell would anyone ever pay for that? Idiot neckfag cockjockeys.

Here is a crazy fucking my idea run it yourself. The GM is not obligated to provide entertainment. It is a colborative storytelling (not necesssrily narrvatist) experience.

Paying for a GM to entertain you changes the very fabric of the game and not for the better. In fact it stops being a game all together and just becomes a magic realm, wish fulfillment story where you always give your paying customers what they want.

False equalivancy.

I can listen to plenty of (actually legal) free music, why would I ever pay for songs?

That's still a false equivalency. Do you think DMing is a job?

I'd love a location that is central in my city, comfortable, has a locker so I can leave my books and dice and stuff, and has semi-private tables for running roleplaying games. I'd expect to pay for it, so a pub or cafe could fit this role, or a dedicated games shop maybe. if I could get it for free, great, but how the hell would that work? it's unlikely isn't it.

So be happy if you have a good thing and don't have to pay for it. Be aware that not everyone has that option though. Some people have a free GM who is shit, some are paying for something passable, some are paying for something great.

No. Because as you just demonstrated, what the customer wants isn't necessarily wish fulfillment. Sometimes they want challenging tactical combats. Intrigue. Survival simulation. Erp. Whatever. Sometimes they want to have a power fantasy and sometimes they want the gm to challenge the shit out of them.

There is nothing wrong with giving people what they want, and it doesn't result in the same game everytime because people are different.

>Here is a crazy fucking my idea run it yourself.
But I don't want to. I'll just pay some guy to do it for me.

>False equalivancy.
A perfectly cromulent word.

>Here's a better question. Why should I do something for free that takes a lot of work and is essentially a part time service job when I can and do get paid for it?

lol your doing it wrong. If your running rail road Story games that essentially require the GM to write a fantasy novel then yes much work.

The origin of the hobby was procedurally generated story elements: environment, characters, monsters mixed together created emergent game play. This requires little prep and is more fun for players and GMs as you are literally discovering what happens next at the same time.

Then you're morally wrong and will be the first to be executed on the day of the player revolution.

The joke is that people actually agree with this. WTF

What happened to playing with friends?

Because I do it for free and for fun and therefore I can and will run you off the road. And it's not like I'm only a single person, because there are a lot of people that don't have their heads so far up their asses trying to monetize whatever can count as "effort." I'd call you cancer to the hobby, but really you are like an annoying zit that once it bursts, everything will be okay again. For now, enjoy exploiting the friendless and retarded, we're all so proud of you.

>what's this? an argument I don't agree with?
>oh I know!
>hurr durr an argument I don't agree with
Goodman.

None of your lazy friends wanted to Dm.

Well apparently you think music has to be.

If there was a GM for every group that needed one, this wouldn't even be a thread. People like you don't actually affect anything.

>implying the sort that would ask money to run games have friends

You haven't run me off the road so far, so I'll just consider this post to be the equivalent of "yeah well I'm gonna come to your house and beat you up".

I still serve other gamers. You serve no one. Just sit in your coffin and rot.

I'd imagine it's actually the reverse.

>prostitutes are wrong. Some women give it away for free so all women should.

>not just DMing for friends
if DM is your friend then
>charging friends for indulging in a game for fun

Why are so many players incapable of picking up the DM hat? It is just laziness from kids brought up on vidya rpgs. This was never an issue in the 80s. If you needed a DM someone did it. With the best guys floating to the top. In fact we would all throw in a few bucks for published modules and just run one right after the other. Hardly requires some elite DM skills.

There's a reason "hooker" is an insult, user.

That's the same retarded argument five others already made. Just because your dad taught you to drive doesn't mean that driving lessons are free. If you got that for free, and he was actually any good, great for you. If he taught you for shit, that's not so great. if someone else paid for shit lessons, that's pretty bad. If someone paid for good lessons, super!

You can't go and run a game for everyone that wants one, so your 'I do it for free' line is just bullshit. Can your dad teach the whole world to drive? No, so it's irrelevant. GM for free if you like, Do it for shitty strangers if you like. Do it for your friends if you like. Do what you like! So will the rest of us.

Holy fuck having sex for money = running tabletop rpgs for money ?

The same reason that people in this thread are offended that people they don't even know want money for work.

Millennial entitlement. Ironically, people become less charitable the more they insist on charity.

>holy fuck, [doing something] for money = [doing something] for money?
Yes, retard.

DMing isn’t work to my grey bearded ass anymore than playing is. Both are enjoyable.

You believe all work is equal. Because the free market says it isn’t. Retard.

As a [] your job is to help a bunch of neckbeards with no social skills feel good about themselves for a few hours, and achieve the release that they need. You are looked down upon by all levels of society except your clientele.