I don't think it's actually a big deal aside from the fact that it's probably not often done so there's no qualitative gauge as to how much a game is worth and what exactly is expected out of it.  Gaming is a subjective form of entertainment, what's fun for one person may not be for another.  So there would be a lot of issues initially with figuring out how to communicate expectations both ways, and figure out expected and appropriate costs, etc.  But I don't think it would be insurmountable.

That said, I don't know that I'd be willing to get in on the ground floor of such a movement myself.

One of the gaming podcasts I listen/listened to (don't remember which it was so it might not be still going) actually discussed this concept as a group of people actually paid one of the hosts of the show to drive to them and run a few games for someone's (I think it was) birthday.  In that case I think it was more about travel expenses in addition to time spent prepping/running.  But in exchange the group got to experience some types of games none of them had any experience with by someone with a known track record of running them.

However, a lot of people actually engage in paying/being payed to play/run a game.  Most convention games employ this concept.  The players are usually paying to get in and possibly also to register for a game, and likewise the GMs are getting paid in free admission/other stuff to come and run.  Yes there are typically adders for both sides of the equation with access to vendors and panels and such, but remembering basic economics from a class years and years ago, all that stuff can be assigned a positive/negative cost if you want to get technical.

Wow, I never thought that I'd ever see someone make a sincere comparison between a Dungeons & Dragons module and 'gay for pay' prostitution.

My game group pay me for GMing our Call Of Cthulhu games by buying me beer. I would scoff at mere pizza. Maybe their logic is that if they get me drunk I'll be more likely to forget to call for Sanity Checks?

Should I take that as a compliment?

I think I will!

I'd pay for a GM if:

1) The game was very well prepared
2) The location is close by
3) The setting (ie. the GM's home) was clean, tidy and comfortable
4) The GM treats his group like customers (ie. no spending half the night throwing up in the toilet after too much cheap wine)
5) The players are a decent lot

The thing about GMing (for free) is that it's supposed to be fun - but if you're getting paid, your focus is on the customers, not on yourself. Which means it's no different from having a job/business, as opposed to the chamber of delights everyone seems to think it is  :)

As to reasonable cost, why not the same amount each participant would shell out for a movie ticket? And the GM could sell popcorn, candy and soda for an exorbitant markup to sweeten the deal.

I'd really really rather you didn't do it again though. Other analogies which are less inappropriate could be used.

Gaming is a hobby for me, and a diversion.  It's not the only one I have, of course, but paying someone to run the game for me would kill some of my enjoyment in it, because it would stop being something I did purely for fun, and start to become something where I was worried about whether or not I was getting my money's worth of enjoyment from.  It's one of the reasons I only play paintball once a year or so, now...because that one time a year is an annual event where I KNOW I will have a good time.  There's almost nowhere around here to play for free, anymore, and I have a hard time convincing myself it's worth paying the sometimes exorbitant field fees to play when I may find the field or the players or the management of the place lacking to such a degree that I feel ripped off.

So, nope.  I'm not THAT addicted to gaming.

If you're talking about paintball, technically its free if you wander into a nearby forest with your own gear...course, if somebody gets lost or falls off a cliff, it may cost a bit to call Search*Rescue.

Nah...around here, there's a shortage of convenient forests to wander into.  And the Forest Service tends to chase paintball players out, thanks to the ignorance and abuse of players in the past.

I'm one of those people who has a hard time talking myself into paying someone to get the right to do something that I used to be able to do for free.  So, I don't play anywhere near as much paintball.  I don't play laser tag very often (because it's too much like paintball, and there are even fewer places around here to play it).  And I can't ever envision myself enjoying a 'pay to play' RPG (I don't even do MMORPGs, much less the ones that charge a fee).

Something like RPOL, where donations are accepted, is different, to me...kicking something into the pot to keep the game running smoothly, here, is akin, in my mind, to bringing treats or soda (or the aforementioned pizza) to a table-top game...it's an expense born by individual players for the enjoyment of the group, rather than an obligation that's expected to be taken care of before play can commence.

How about in the city? Wear masks, and when the cops come charging down, well, paintballing should've given you decent enough sprinting/hiding skills to evade arrest  :)

But yeah, the big difference in roleplaying is that the GM is also having fun. To be honest, it's supply and demand - if GMing was unpleasant, boring and stressful (like a job!), nobody would do it for free, and people would charge for it.

Plus there's the whole, "I'm the GM.  I say you're dead."  "No, I paid you, that makes you my employee.  You're fired." scenario.  :p

Okay! can we e-mail you beer???? i have one sanity point left and I am saving that for the next family reunion....oh wait...you mean the character sanity rolls not mine.

As my loose knit groups only regular GM. pizza, fried chicken, and soda are usually part of the deal....I run they treat...not that I wouldn't run for a bag of corn chips and a warm Dr Pepper. But hey if the guy hosting the game can sweet talk his wife into cooking for us...before unleashing her sorceress to wreak havoc and mayhem...who am I to complain.

On several occasions I have put together various business plan feasibility studies on how to incorporate and get paid to be a Game Master. If it was even remotely possible to pull off, while still keeping a reasonable standard of living in the USA, and supporting a family, I would be doing it.

Running two 4 hour sessions a day out of your home, your wife cooking for each game group, 6 players on average per session, and putting 1 hour of preparation into each game on Saturday, you would have an ~55 hour work week. As a soul income provider, with a home big enough to have a largish extra room dedicated only to gaming, I can not see charging less than $15 per session, per person.

The question is, can you find 60 people willing to do that and show up almost every week. 2nd, could you resolve all the scheduling conflicts necessary to have them all game on weekdays evenings?

And the people who would pay 15$ each would want such intense, detailed adventures and interactions that nearly any GM would quickly get burned out.
It would be a horrible thing for one of us to get sick of roleplaying games.

90% of a game is the OOC banter in my group. In our last session we arrived at 5 got character sheets out at half 7 began playing at 8. Thats 3 hours. We finished at 11 but probbably only got 2 hours of gaming in. But we all still had fun.

If this were translated over to a payed game we would have payed for 6 hours and got around 30% OF what we paid for. No one would be happy and the entire experiance would change. We like the banter and chatter, Gaming as well and that causes more banter and chatter. when money comes in Things become serious and you no longer have people stopping half way through a game to discuss whatever. So i would never pay for a game.

As an Example I have to pay to LARP, when i go there things are serious and we get some good intense RP done, but the OOC banter isnt there. I would never ant my LARp to turn into a tabletop just as i would never want to turn my Tabletop into a LARP, (LARP Safe dice would be needed for a start).

I have no problem with people making money from these things but the way to do it is either to publish an adventure or run a festival of some sort. As in the End payinhg to RP is what larpers do all the time but most tabletop groups dont take it as seriosly in my experiance.

Paying someone also causes expectations to rise. If I pay 15 bucks for something I expect more than from something I get for free. I can imagine disputes at the table being loaded with "I paid for this, rule for me", either openly stated or discretely assumed.

Not for an online game. However, I used to run a game where I charged for 'advanced' players. My personal profit wasn't very high; most of it went to pay for robes, temple time, advanced spell components, and materials for summoning Satan. I got out of that though when I had kids; just didn't have the time.

Chick wants his tract back...

The more serious answer ... sure! As it stands, I expect to drive 30-40 minutes each way to get to the game, plus babysitter, plus take-out food, plus fuel. That means my "free" game probably costs about $20-$40, and an hour of commute. If I could pay a GM who is close to my home, who will provide food and child space, that seems like an excellent trade-off.

I have also accepted payment as a GM. I've set up space and provided food, and charged people for the cost of that. Normally they chip in enough that there's a slight profit. I've served as a GM at conventions and got paid (and paid to attend other games).

In the end, I would argue the natural price of GMing services is $0, however lack of availability or other factors may shift the market such that it favors payment. If it is worth that much to you, it's a good buy and you should make it. If it's not ... don't. The market will adapt.

Back in the day I "charged" my players $1.00 per session with the proceeds going towards new books for the game.  Players who were not paid up were not allowed to level.  It did not add up to much but it did help offset the cost of some expensive gaming supplies.

In my current group everyone (well except for one player) throws in for snacks, and the GM is exempt.

I don't GM tabletop games, but I do play in others' games. Usually the players in our games would bring general snacks for sharing, and would leave some of what's left over at the end of the game. If anyone, including the GM, orders dinner, they pay for it themselves. Usually we game at the GM's place. That can mean 2 to 3 hours travelling, round-trip for me.

One thing we have (though we don't really use it anymore) is a pun box.  If anyone comes out with particularly lame puns (especially if it's repeatedly), they put coins in the box.  So far the pun box has funded an L5R box set and pizza for the group. There's currently enough in there to buy one pizza, perhaps.

I don't think it's really possible to earn a living GMing, but writing books, etc is another matter. I think GMing all day, every day for money would sap the creativity from it.

It kinda depends.  I don't think I'd mind paying for somebody to GM at a convention, unless they're there doing a game demo.  I mean.... that person may have had to travel a fair distance, and probably had to pay admission to the con, just to run a game for my enjoyment.  I don't mind kicking in a few bucks to help defray that cost.  If the person is demoing a game though, far as I'm concerned, the game company should pay them because that person is trying to sell the game companies products to me.

How I usually do it is that when somebody volunteers to GM the game that we're playing, we usually play for long days.  Eight or nine hours sometimes.  When we play, we usually order dinner and the GM eats free.
This message was last edited by the user at 14:32, Thu 06 Oct 2011.

Under no circumstances would I pay for someone to GM, nor would I ever GM for pay.

This is a game, and a social gathering. IRL, I do this both because it's fun, and because it's a great way to spend some time with my friends. Here, it's just fun, and I can make new friends. :)

Money would make it less of a game and more of work. There's enough of that out in the Real World, why would I want to make my fun be work?

I was invited to a be part of a large D&D group (10+ players).  The GM for that game charged everyone a buck a session, but it was more like club dues than payment to the GM.  This was before cheap PCs and cheap printers and it was to cover his costs for copying and providing materials, plus a few snacks.  I have no idea if he ended up making or losing money on the deal, but it seemed reasonable for a large group.

Outside of cons and one-off celebrity type things, the only things I'd consider are food and materials costs. If I'm desperate for game X, it seems pretty fair to buy the books (or at least arrange for the loan of the books).

As does food, etc.