THIS is how to make money as a DM online FAST: Professional DM Guide - Episode 1
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- Опубліковано 10 вер 2024
- Welcome to Holistic Dungeon Master (HDM), your ultimate destination for mastering the art of being a professional Dungeon Master. In this first video of our Professional Dungeon Master's Guide series, join me on a journey as I share my personal story of how I turned my passion for D&D into a lucrative online career.
Discover the secrets to making money as an online DM and learn the essential first step you need to take on your path to becoming a sought-after Dungeon Master. We'll explore the world of Startplaying.games, a platform that will become your launchpad to success.
With the explosive rise of tabletop role-playing games, the demand for professional DMs is skyrocketing. Whether you're looking to turn your hobby into a side hustle or pursue it as a full-time profession, this series will provide you with the knowledge, strategies, and tips you need to excel in the industry.
Join me on this exciting adventure where creativity meets prosperity. Don't miss out on the opportunity to make money doing what you love - playing and running tabletop games. Subscribe to HDM and stay tuned for the next video in the series, where we'll delve into crafting an alluring GM Profile on Startplaying that will entice players to join your epic quests!
Remember to like, comment, and share your thoughts below. I'd love to hear about your journey to becoming a professional DM and answer any questions you may have. Together, let's unlock your true potential and thrive as Dungeon Masters in the online realm.
"I think I can run the game better." The last words of any player before becoming the forever dm.
Some say he's still out there runnin 'em 'til this very day!
I'd like to start a professional DM side gig. I love public speaking, reading, writing, doing various accents for a laugh, and so on. I was reading at a college level in 7th grade and then during high school i just read the books i wanted to read and didnt study. Did great in college though; I loved debating the professors regarding history, psychology, finance, writing, art, you name it.
I've already got so much work done related to DMing, so I will definitely try it your way and see what the other paid services are like. I was playing Call of Cthulhu and D&D with my high school friends recently. I had compiled a lot of research and published modules for those campaign settings, so this is a great way to turn my passion into a career. I'm just so glad that the timing is right!
So cool that you've published some adventures! I'd love to get into that some day once I have a few more resources and experience in homebrew.
Good luck on your Pro DM journey!
Entertainment is an industry
It's great to stumble across this series of videos. I've been trying to get started on running paid games to alleviate some financial hardship I'm facing but so far it's only gotten me one serious inquiry and a few timewasters hoping to play in my free oneshot that I offered as a sort of test run for prospective players.
This first episode is a small light that helps guide the way
I'm glad you found it.
The hardest part is the advertising but if you're consistent with your forum/reddit posts as well as changing up your ad thumbnails and ad copy every week or two if no one shows interest then you'll have a full table sooner than you might think!
And yes, you might nab a player or two running a one shot but, for the most part, it seems like people who join free games want to keep getting strangers online to run games for them for free. Totally understandable but not really great for us Pro DMs.
I run a bunch of home games, and have for years. I'm in a really dire situation in life... Honestly turning Dming into a job is something I've never considered because I don't know if I'm good enough, but I think the investment of finding out like you've recommended, and the story you've told with the things I've done in my own games for players really motivated me. I'm going to try it.
YES!
Get at it! You have literally nothing to lose by giving this a try. Just make sure to try it as a side hustle, build up that rep and player base over a year or two and if you're good at advertising and finding players and getting good reviews then you could even make this a full time career. There are plenty of people who do.
Solid intro there, but one note, you seem to imply that there is a single difference between paid and free games. As a fellow professional GM, I actually ask each prospective client over the past 6 ish years, what their expectations are for the differences between paid, and free games. There is definitely more than one common answer. I'm very curious what your answer is to this question.
Should I gather my answers into a spreadsheet?
That's a great question and I think I may have misspoken if I gave the impression that there's only one major difference. I feel that the biggest one is the fact that the balance of enjoyment shifts dramatically towards the players as you're rendering a service. Even though you absolutely run a better game if you're engaged and enjoying yourself, I think the mindset has to shift to one of providing the best service possible to your players by tailoring the experience to their needs as opposed to yours and give them the game they're entitled to by paying you.
That's an incredible amount of data you've collected! A spreadsheet like that would be a wonderful resource I think.
Thank you for this. This is becoming a real thing huh
Hi! Very stoked by your videos. Looking into Becoming a part time paid DM. I went to go play some games on startplaying, but nothing I want to play or run has sessions on the site! MORK BORG, Warlock!, WFRP, OSE, Basic Fantasy, Star Wars d6 (West end games), Five torches Deep. So funny and sad. On the upside there may be folks who are underserved looking to try some off the wall or OSR influenced games who cannot find anyone to run a game. On the downside, there may be no interest in the pay to play model. I’m going to keep watching, as I’m learning quite a lot. thank you.
Omg I think you should definitely start advertising if you feel you can run those systems well. D&D is so saturated now and I think there will be people foaming at the mouth to experience something like Mork Borg, OSR systems and those other ones you mentioned. It's pretty niche so as long as you're advertising every day(and constantly trying to improve your ad copy every week or two if you get no responses) then you'll have a full table in no time at all. Go for it!
Thank you for your video series. I like your style! Having DMed for a few years now, and having a couple of months off work, I am ready to make my foray into starting a paid game. It is, as you say, the belief that I can do a better job than many of the games I see that prompts me to do this. (My forte is cinematic audio effects.) However, I may encounter difficulty in that I am a 51 year old woman soliciting business from a largely young, male demographic. I dunno. I hope I can make a go of it!
Thanks so much! I'm really glad you've been enjoying the series.
I would say that your worries are definitely valid BUT the hobby and its player base is absolutely changing. I've had many paying players that are outside of that typical demographic! Especially on platforms like startplaying.games, there are a lot of players from different demographics (Female, LGBTQ+, Old Players, Young Players and Anything and everything in between!) that are looking for a good roleplaying experience so I would say that you should definitely try it!
The key is to think about what kind of advertisements would attract your ideal player and write your ad copy/design your thumbnails/design your GM profile around those players and you will find a more suitable niche for sure!
I am really interested in your cinematic audio effects also, please tell me about them!
Thanks for making this video. I am nearing retirement and have been thinking of running some games to supplement my income. I have played/DMed a multitude of games in the past 40 years for my friends. What I need to do is become more familiar with a VTT to have confidence while running a session. Also, looking forward to the marketing aspects as well in future videos. So happy that you are making this series. :)
Pro DMing during retirement sounds like a great way to keep the mind sharp!
I'd recommend Roll20 as a starting VTT but keep an intention to move onto something better like FoundryVTT as it just allows you to give more value to players and potential paying customers know this.
If you're tech savvy then I might even recommend jumping right into FoundryVTT from the get go. I'm still trying to transition from Roll20 and I'm finding it difficult as I've invested so much time in that particular VTT!
Someone with your experience should have no problem running a great Pro game as long as you keep your customers enjoyment as a priority. That might sound like a bit of a bummer and somewhat of a sacrifice of our enjoyment of the game as GMs but I've found that, when doing this for money, it's absolutely painful and disheartening to run a pro game when the players aren't having fun/engaged so if you focus on that then you will actually end up enjoying the sessions more.
Good luck on your Pro DM journey and congrats on your upcoming retirement!
I am so happy for you getting there! Good work!
Hey there! The community discord is just live, here's the link as requested: discord.gg/gXdxXUcC 🎲
What a wonderful discovery. I would like to thank you up front for being so generous with your information. I've been playing d&d and running games since the '80s. I look forward to watching all these episodes but first I'm going to do the first assignment.
You're very welcome!
Getting the first ad up and finding your first table is the biggest hurdle but once you're over it, everything seems possible so good luck with it! Keep us all posted.
Hello! Thank you for making this video. I’ve been wanting to try this for so long but am lacking the courage to do so. I hope by watching the rest of your videos I can learn what I need to push forward with this new endeavor.
You can do it! I did it and I'm literally just some guy. I was only DMing for my friends for about a year when I started doing it professionally. (I paid for a game online and reckoned I could do a better job than my Pro DM)
As long as you prioritise your players enjoyment and honestly just want them to have a great time then you'll do great. Pro DMing as a pretty new DM is definitely a trial by fire though. It's tough, a bit stressful but if you rise to the challenge then you'll get a LOT better in a short space of time.
The hardest thing is getting that first table up and running so take the leap and do it!
The content you are making is juts amazing! I wanna try it out, but im not a native speaker, i think that i will run some sessions for free to see if im good enough with the idiom. I have 15 years of DM experience, including online games, and my "problem" is too many people searching me to play, but never a paid game nor in english.
Yeah startplaying.games is a great platform but the games and GMs definitely overwhelmingly run in English.
However there is an option in your GM profile where you can set your language and that could help players who want to play in your language to find you. I imagine there are a lot of players that want to play but they aren't so confident playing a ttrpg in a language that isn't their native one so you could be the GM for those players!
I say give it a try!
It's great for struggling writers. Fantasy books aren't selling great nowadays because kids are absorbed entirely by video games, social media, and streaming services that lower their attention spans and a school system where you are forced to read books most kids find boring af.
I wish you would split up your post by category ie. this is tip A, tip B, etc. Bc you're a bit verbose and go off topic here and there (apologies if you find this offensive, I'm attempting to be frank and it is just my op), it's difficult to find where each section of your breakdown is and it would be nice to TL;DR the topics for review after I've already watched the vid (and having ADHD means reviewing can help me remember your advice!). Cheers and thanks for making these.
I hope you found it useful. I'll keep this in mind when making future tutorials.
Subscribed with both my accountd
Thanks! I hope you're finding the series useful so far. There's a bunch more to come.
wow! good video, this should get way more views((( thank you for sharing your expirience
im looking forward to become a paid too, hope ill make it
Thanks so much! You definitely can, just takes a little bit of persistence and when you get your first table up and running, it gets easier from that point on!
My first challenge I need to overcome is that I like to play with alot of house rules. I am very good at giving these out to players in ways they can understand. But people can be turned off, when things can be drastically different than standard 5e... even if those drastic differences make sword and board fighters and two weapon fighters far more interesting and appealing compare to GWF/Sharpshooters. So I've considered running one shots as 5E core to build a reputation. Or maybe I should not do that and just play how I've always ran things and entice players with unique concepts they can play in my game and no where else. That I will go out of my way to design subclasses, races, spells and feats for unique character concepts, I can have anything like that ready in a couple days.
Hmmm, honestly I think DMs who can offer something a bit different will find more dedicated players. Don't be too hesitant to advertise some of your great homebrew changes that your past players enjoyed.
When you build up a player base of paying customers that have enjoyed your games and stick around, then it's these people who will trust your DM style and you can start suggesting more homebrew mechanics and ideas. Usually they're happy to at least give them a try!
The most important thing though is that your players are having a good time and getting their money's worth so always foster a policy of open communication. If you've been running a homebrew rule for a while then just literally ask your group if they enjoy it or not. I've been getting into the habit of having mini session zeroes every 20 sessions or so, just to get a read on if things are working for my paying players!
@@holisticdm With my homegame my players have grown to love the house rules, even those players that are 10 years older than myself and started back in original D&D. SO I know that they are solid, brand new players have come into the group, and played my Psionicist class, which as you might imagine is fairly complicated just like a pure spellcaster, and had no problems. She just kept to a theme, Jedi with Flaming sword and was easy to follow.
But yeah trying to build that with paying customers would be hard. My house rules are extensive they are basically all or nothing, as I've gutted core mechanics of the game and rebuilt them. My Own CR system I change how saving throws are made and calculated, scrapped legendary resistance (players love the concept but might not like the method). Any player would be squeamish with that, And I only got away with dropping it on my players mid campaign when they time traveled back to Netheril before Karsus broke magic and thus magic worked different. It was a time I got to experiment with house rules.
The problem is that I'd have to mix my home game with paying customers and home game is not keen on that idea. Thus i have the trust of my players to back me up with any new players... its how its always been bringing new players into my group.
Or I try to get a completely separate paying group... and then what spend years building the trust with a new group all over again?
My question is, when you get players to pay $10 - $40, is it a monthly suscription? how long does a campaign should last for the price they pay? are they paying weekly? per session?
That price is per player and per session. So if you had a table of 5 for 15 bucks starting out you'd be earning 75 per session. Not bad to start with but it will probably be around 10 bucks an hour with prep time and everything involved but after your first module you should most certainly up your prices by 2.50 or even 5 bucks per player per sesh. Especially if you've been running everything through startplaying.games and get a few reviews and verified games up on your profile.
Pro dming is creatively demanding and is much more skewed towards your players enjoyment than your own so your time is absolutely worth getting paid at least minimum wage per hour in your country but once you grow that reputation and your skill, charging more becomes possible!
The campaign lasts as long as you and your players are happy to contibure playing! I've had some players for years and weve ran through a few modules now together.
To take that monthly sub into account, if you got only 15 bucks per month for each player at your table, totalling at an average of 75 (15 bucks x 5 players) but you're running a game every week for them. That's about 6-8 hours of prep and session time a week, let's call it about 40 hours a month for 50 bucks? Just over a dollar an hour? Even for something you enjoy doing, no one deserves that little pay for their hard work, creativity and skill so don't sell yourself short if you start pro dming!
@@holisticdm thank you so much for the answer. So I can confirm I read correctly, that payment (per session) means if we are playing each day, they’re paying the $10, 15, etc. Everyday?
@@DukePipeGG The norm is that you'd be running a session for a group of players once a week so each player would be paying that much per week.
If you can find a group that wants to play more frequently than that then that would be great! More money for you and more D&D for them.
Do you know other platforms to find paid games that include other languages like spanish?
Hey so Startplaying.games let's you specify what language you run your games in and on your GM profile. For sure it's mostly games run in English but I bet there are a LOT of people that would rather play in their native language so give it a try on SPG.
Apart from that I'm unsure of any specifically Spanish speaking platform but you can definitely try to advertise in Spanish on any of the forums/platforms I've spoken about in the video.
You might have some luck posting in Spanish TTRPG facebook groups, if they allow that kind of advertising.
@@holisticdm thanks for the help, I'll try to use the other platforms as well, I was looking if there was an option in SPG to search using language tags but there was not.
But probably looking at the gm profiles is the best choice.
Genuine question, maybe this is just because of my own influence. What does it mean to have an LGBTQ friendly table? Are tables not all friendly towards LGBTQ+? Or does it mean that the table with have LGBTQ influences? I'm genuinely just not sure what the term means cuz I feel that all tables at least that I've been to are fairy inclusive.
I'm not LGBTQ+ myself but from the people int hat community that I do know, it's a good signal for games that are safe for them to play, not only for the DM that's advertising their games as such but also for the players that would be drawn to games advertised as LGBTQ+ friendly.
DMs who advertise this are usually quick to boot or reprimand players who don't respect this too.
It's amazing you've had inclusive experiences so far but many people have experienced a good deal of discrimination in the hobby unfortunately!
@@holisticdm wonderful! Thanks for the response!
Why do all the D&D UA-camrs sound like him with that British/Scottish/ you get the point I hope I think I am wasting my time ☹️
Thank you for this starting video, im looking to do some pro DMing and didnt know where to start! I've got my note pad at the ready im looking for games on startplay RIGHT NOW
Amazing,
Congrats on taking the first step on your Pro DM journey!
Ugh. I knew it. You have to do official modules. Fuck that.
Not necessarily! I may not have made that clear, sure there are a bunch of people who'd prefer to play in a published module but there are also a LOT of people who are very much willing to pay for good quality homebrew. It might be a little more difficult to find players but it's definitely a viable niche.
@@holisticdm
Bro, you disparaged homebrew as an opener. Don’t try walking it back.
What's so bad about official modules?
@@pedrolviloria
I just don’t like running them. Creativity is part of the fun for me. Also, I find wotc plots to be pretty simplistic
@@HalflingPaladin hey if you want to homebrew your own campaigns/adventures and don't mind gutting your income per hour go for it 😂 enjoy
Sadly for latam this id just a dream😅
Not at all, I am literally just some guy so if I can do it then anyone can! There are players out there for every DMs style.