There was a guy a few years back offering a paid GMing position. I don't know how it went down—the pay was enough to drive a ways to, but not to relocate for (which would have been required for me).

~J

Well, I suppose that it would beat working at McDonalds, but being a paid GM sounds like crap job security.

I think it was related to that thread, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't you—I've got a strong memory of the person actually offering money being in the general vicinity of Kansas.

Ahah, found it: Looking to Hire a GM

(Edit: ok, I see your post towards the end of the thread. Misunderstood what you meant for a few minutes there)

~J

I remember the thread. I think he offered about $10/hr, he was going to see about getting the guy company benefits as he was owner and the group were all from work, and he wanted to be able to give input into the direction the game went.

That thread just got me to thinking about my cost to pursue gaming, which at that time was quite high. [Compared to gaming in your group which cost about $15 in gas and some munchies per session.] Back in the time of the gm for money thread, I netted about $300/day, so just attending the game was usually foregoing $300. If I passed up work that would not allow me to get to the game on time, the cost could be a few days worth of work or in the $1000 vicinity. It was not at all irregular for me to quit working a couple of days before the scheduled game session so I would be in the proper geography to attend. So last minute or no warning game session cancellations really aggravated me.

That was what got me to thinking about hiring a gm, or entire group, to game at my conceniance. Provided it cost in the $300 range or less, it made better business sense and would reduce my stress level. [It also made me look like a money crazed fool who had to pay a group to let him game with them.]

Tisoz is making me think about one the reasons that I came to prefer gaming over IRC to gaming in the flesh. When you game in the flesh you must set aside specific time and go some place and furthermore spend specific munchy money. However, if you game on IRC you can always get some work done on your computer or do something else if the game sucks and you don't need to buy munchies. You can simply eat your dinner while gaming and thus save money and calories by not specifically getting an extra snack.

I used to set myself up with a 40 (Olde English, naturally) and a pizza. I'd munch away and drink while playing or GMing. Some others in the group would booze, too. One guy briefly called himself "GM of Beefeater Gin". Another guy, a really bright physics student, would simultaneously drink Guiness and crunch all the numbers really well.

...I tend to prefer the "in person" style.

For one I enjoy the more instantaneous nature and ability to play the character persona, the face to face style affords rather than just hammering out dialogue on a keyboard and waiting for a response.

Second, I don't have to pay XX.XX$ per month for connectivity to play.

The snacks & beer, well I would still buy those anyway so that isn't really a factor.

On the topic of paid GMing...

In one of my leisure pursuits (competitive sport/fighter kiting) I was offered the opportunity of a full sponsorship by my company. Yeah sounded so cool, in a sense, being paid to fly kites through having all equipment costs (& these things are expensive), entry fees, lodging, & travel all covered. However, then it would have just become an extension of my job and no longer enjoyable because I was no longer doing it for my own reasons.

Besides It would have also seriously impacted my SR involvement..

...we all have priorities.

Perhaps if your gamers were all hired you wouldn't have issues with people complaining about your administration of the game or with people being distracted with TV or whatever haflway through the game. They'd probably show up on time, too.

Hmm, paid gamers who smile and nod. The future of tabletop gaming!


The last time I tried to get creative with Tisoz he got pissed off at me, so hopefully he won't get pissed off again when I ask, Tisoz, was the beer you were giving them good beer? Because personally I'm not sure that I'd go and sit anywhere for ~5 hours if it were some watery crap beer like Budweiser. On the other hand, for a nice double IPA, or maybe some Shiner Bock, or even my underdog favorite Olde ENglish, I'd watch Oprah for 5 hours if I had to.

It was better beer than they were used to drinking, plus it was on a day when it was illegal to sell carry out beer in the state (Sunday) so beer was mostly unavailable.

In that case you are a true American hero.

If I don't do it, noone will, and I enjoy SR (role playing in general) too much to let that happen.

My inexperience GMing makes me apprehensive, but it's better than the alternative.

The first time you spend three or four sessions building up to something that your players never see coming...and that glorious moment when they figure it out...their jaws drop open...and then they start SCREAMING curses at you and throwing chips and dice at you while they laugh their heads off...

The second you have that moment, you'll completely understand why we do it.

The Abstruse One

Have you ever planned a party (like a birthday party or Halloween party)? Or hosted any sort of event? Maybe worked at a convention? It's very fulfilling compared to other forms of work not so much because you're getting paid (because either you aren't or it's a paltry sum). It's fulfilling because, unlike most day jobs, you get to see the results of your work.

You work your butt off planning, making arrangements, handling details...and when the event happens, you don't get to sit back and enjoy it. No, you're running around handling last-minute problems that always crop up. Maybe if you're lucky, you get to sit back toward the end, but until then you're working your tail off running around in a state of near panic.

But there are moments...small moments maybe as you're running from one place to another putting out fires (possibly literally) where you get to look around and see...all these people having fun, enjoying themselves...all because of you and your effort.

That's what it's like being a GM. The players just show up once a week and put a few hours of work into their characters. Then they leave and don't think about it until the next session and even if they do think of it, it's not plotting and planning but relishing in the time they jumped that chasm to save the kidnapped girl just before the bad guy slit her throat. But you're the GM. The session ended, but your work is just beginning. You get to spend the next week getting ready, plotting the next week's adventure, stating NPCs, drawing maps, creating hand-outs...

But then, the next session, when you're playing and you take a breath as the players are discussing amongst themselves which course of action to take...you get a little glow knowing that your hard work has paid off.

The Abstruse One

I was exaggerating, but generally, yes, that's what I was saying. Or, more accurately, it's a matter of necessity. A player can show up, play their 4-6 hours, then run off and get back to their lives and think about whatever. Or they can read sourcebooks and watch movies for inspiration or whatever other work they put into it. It's a matter of choice. A GM doesn't have that choice unless they're always running pre-made adventures and/or just don't put in the effort. I usually spent 2-3 times more into background and writing an adventure than I do actually playing it. I'm writing outlines and creating NPCs and drawing maps while the players don't have to do that.

Basically what I'm saying is that a player doesn't HAVE to put in the extra effort to improve the quality of the game. The GM does. But it's worth it.

The Abstruse One

It is very possible to wing pretty involved campaigns if you're sufficiently familiar with the setting. I've done it on a multiyear campaign--after about eight months I needed to take a few hours to make sure all of the hooks added up, but that's pretty much all the planning there was.

~J

...I've done that with individual segments of a detailed campaign. You have to be able to do that when the runners take that unexpected left turn. I do not think that I could keep it up over a long series of sessions though, and usually after the first such session is over, I write up a quick overview of what happened, then work out hooks & such for the next session based on what occurred in the previous.

I have turned to memorising the settings, scenario and key NPCs for a given session (I used to perform entire piano recitals from memory, couldn't deal with somebody leaning over the keyboard every couple of minutes to turn another page.). I still have the segment being played pulled up in Word on my notebook, but more for reference such as having the details for drawing out a location or when combat occurs. This way 1. the players are kept more in the dark when I'm not stopping to page down to where they are & 2. I feel I can better roll with the situation if the team takes that unexpected turn for I'm not bound totally to the words on the screen

If PDFs weren't such memory hogs I could see streamlining the process by setting up bookmarks for the various"chapters" on my notebook.

The problem may be more with your PDF display program than with the format itself. I regularly end up with 5+ of the sourcebooks released in PDF open at a time.

~J

Hmm. If I were the ultimate GM I would sleep on a mattress stuffed with the crumpled up character sheets of slain characters.

If anyone would like to hire me to GM your games and you're in the Austin area, my rates are very reasonable

The Abstruse One