Recruiting for three games that I absolutely love: Season of Ghosts, Sky King's Tomb, and Demon Queen Awakens. Two are long-term APs starting at level 1 with very different flavors, and Demon Queen Awakens is a 2-4 session mini campaign at level 15.
I'm an experienced PF2e GM who balances emotionally rich roleplay with crunchy, tactical combat. I use Foundry, Discord, and RPG safety tools to provide an immersive and inclusive experience for players of all skill levels.
Up to five seats available for each game, $20/session, weekly or biweekly depending on the game. I'm in the US Eastern timezone, and if you have a group who’s interested in one of the above games with a specific time you’re available, just let me know and I’d be happy to open another table!
Here's the link to the games on StartPlaying and my GM profile, where you can also read reviews by past players.
If you're new to StartPlaying, here's $10 off your first session (can be used for any game on the platform, not just mine).
Thanks for reading!
Community & Social Media Specialist
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Commenting on this just so it doesn't get flagged for spam again. This is not spam! This is a well reviewed professional GM advertising their Pay-to-Play sessions!
Just so you know, OP, when we have our new website, we'll have a whole section dedicated to Pay-to-Play, and we're hoping that clears things up with ads like this. ^^ Carry on!
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That is incredibly disappointing news. But I do appreciate the heads up as to Paizo’s plans to promote such ventures Maya.
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Community & Social Media Specialist
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That is incredibly disappointing news. But I do appreciate the heads up as to Paizo’s plans to promote such ventures Maya.
Simply put, some people are so fantastic at their GM'ing skills that they do it for their job beyond just the hobby, and we support those GM's too. StartPlaying is a website that does a great job putting players together who often struggle with it, and this GM in particular has a wonderful array of 5 star reviews.
IF OP was posting a link to a discredited website, had some sort of known negative reputation, or had been posting their sessions excessively, it would still be spam. But, one post from a talented GM who does it to make a living is very much still within our guidelines. We wish ChickyBisky well, and your sessions too, Oceanshieldwolf, however you go about finding them that doesn't hurt others. ^_^
I'm personally glad that Paizo wants there to be a way for PF DMs to offer services to players who'd like to hire a DM.
I won't drop a link here since it isn't PF related, but in addition to Pathfinder I really enjoy some of Magpie's Powered by the Apocalypse games (e.g. Avatar, Masks), and I've been VERY happy to get to play in a few of their curated play games.
As Maya notes, there are some splendid professional DMs out there!
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The commodification of an RPG experience whereby one person is paid for their participation and the rest are not completely changes what was a social contract between a group of people into a commercial contract between an entrepreneur and customers.
As a person who has been the forever DM in all the groups I have been in…forever (except PbP) I am entirely cognizant of the “work” that goes into running a game. And sure, if you are supplying VTT externalities etc then you will of course incur overheads. And I understand that there definitely are players that a) want games b) are prepared to pay for them and c) are happy to easily find them.
It still turns a hobby into a commercial exchange with all of the concomitant negative impacts that the exchange of capital entails. It promotes a financial burden that poorer players cannot afford; it changes the social contract of trust into something else entirely; it changes the value-proposition necessarily of those DMs who choose not to engage in Pay-to-Play; and it promotes “hustle culture” whereby society becomes a space for every hobby, every interest and every idea to be a shake down for cash. I find it distasteful, appalling and sad.
Clearly I’m in an extreme minority. I’m sure people play fantastic games with their paid-for GMs. But I can’t just sit here without tilting at the windmills of capitalism.
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Clearly I’m in an extreme minority.
I wouldn't be so sure about that. You may possibly be in a minority (and possibly are in the majority) but I've seen absolutely no data one way or the other. And I've heard enough people voice opinions similar to yours that I'm pretty sure that you are NOT in an "extreme minority", at least not as I'd define the term
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It still turns a hobby into a commercial exchange with all of the concomitant negative impacts that the exchange of capital entails. It promotes a financial burden that poorer players cannot afford; it changes the social contract of trust into something else entirely; it changes the value-proposition necessarily of those DMs who choose not to engage in Pay-to-Play; and it promotes “hustle culture” whereby society becomes a space for every hobby, every interest and every idea to be a shake down for cash. I find it distasteful, appalling and sad.
I shake my head at the financial burden comment because I know just how free and irresponsible gamers and the latest generation is with their cash. The number of people I see complaining about finances while paying for door dash is staggering.
Outside that, I think your argument on principle is entirely accurate. It threatens to change the very nature of the experience. Much like meta gaming and paid cosmetics has become the dominant experience in MMOs. The thought of the social contract between GM and players being changed to a financial one disgusts me.
Which I say as someone who primarily dms lately and spends money for software to do so.
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I think there are two questions getting meshed together here in a confusing way.
1) Should the default be DMs get paid for DMing? I suspect it's not at all contraversial to say NO. Both being a player and being a DM are lovely ways to spend time with friends (and make new ones) and I wouldn't think to charge my friends for DMing. Everything would change. Fair nuff!
Entirely separately:
2) Might paid RPGs be valuable for some people at some times? To this, I think the answer is empirically YES. For myself, for less than the price of a movie, I got to play a new game system that none of my friends knew how to play, and I got great joy from it. (As it happened, I first did it during lockdown, when it was particularly compelling...but it doesn't take much imagination to realize there are plenty of situations where offering paid games might improve others' lives.)
I think cooking is a reasonable analogy. Do I charge my family and friends money to eat the food I cook? No, and doing so would change the nature of something I like to give freely. Cooking's not my livelihood, and I don't plan for it to become so.
But am I also grateful that there are people who DO cook for money? You betcha! Otherwise I might never get to eat pizza! And if you're someone who never pays for food, that's fair...but what harm is there if you have neighbors who do?
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Community & Social Media Specialist
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This conversation is very valid, but I highly recommend making our own thread about it! I was giving a PSA for future community members so they don't keep marking this post as spam, but at this point, we are cluttering OPs post looking for players! This is however a very worth discussion, so let's take it elsewhere! I'm going to make a thread in the same location (Community / Forums / Online Campaigns / Recruitment), and I hope to see you all there with your thoughts about it!
EDIT: I have made the thread! It's here!