GMs Charging for RPGs = Best Idea Evers
Walt Ceichanowski over at Gnomestew.com wrote up an interesting article about a fairly controversial issue that I didn’t know exsisted: GMs charging to host. Well, not to host exactly, but asking for some money from his players to buy materials for play, such as books, dice, miniatures, or other necessary ingredients to a successful game. Of the two groups I run, one has the entire party arriving with materials at the ready and the other had to be forced to buy dice. Ceichanowski’s question boiled down to:
Under what circumstances would you deem it okay to charge money to run a regular gaming group? Do you currently charge (or pay to play) and, if so, what are your circumstances?
I think it completely depends on the people playing, and the enviornment surrounding it. If the players are new and aren’t sure what to expect I wouldn’t think it to be fair to demand dues, especially when they aren’t even sure if they will be sticking with it for long. However, if your players want to try a new game that might set their GM back a few bills I would expect some controbution. I haven’t ever really run into a problem with this, have any of you?
FemJesse says:
I think sharing of resources makes sense, I like to have a lot of dice in case a set is being grumpy with me, but also so that I can share them with people who forgot theirs.
I collect the books for their art and lore, as well as the game content, so in the last edition people would often borrow my books to thumb through. I lent my Complete Arcane to someone for an entire campaign.
This all being said, I might draw the line at paying for DM unless I knew specifically what I was getting, if i’d be allowed to keep it, etc. (like in the case of minis that you could get attached to) whereas if the DM just wants a new set of dice, that should be on him.
I have a friend who consistently rolls well when using my dice. She may be perma-borrowing them =P
June 30th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Reverence says:
I have a friend who lends me her dice on site. Its kind of a perma-borrowing type thing, with the exception that I do not take them home. When/if the time comes when I have to bring my own dice, I’ll gladly put down the money for them. As long as I have a means of playing DnD, I don’t have issues with supporting myself when it comes to books and stuff in the future. But like femjesse said, If a person isn’t so sure if they’re going to stick with the game, then others should be willing to share so the newbie can get a decent taste of what to expect.
July 1st, 2008 at 6:43 pm