Pro Gamemaster: The Dream Gig.

Mapping out the GM for hire journey

Hello gamer,

I travel a lot and often use Uber to get around the city I've traveled to. I often ask my driver: "Are you making money?"

I get a lot of yeahs, and a few I don't knows.
For the 'yeahs' I ask my follow-up and the real question... are you profitable? To those yes replies, I ask: How do you know?

I've been self-employed since 2006. A digital nomad, solopreneur, WFH Warrior —before those were 'things.' I'm pro-gig economy, but I want folks to be profitable —making money on their gigs. Many, many Uber drivers don't know if they are profitable; my big mom would call this short money. When you take $100 today, even if it costs you more over the week or month, you take the hit of the hidden costs because you need cash now. I’ve lived there, and many folks do.

There is no doubt folks are paying for GMs, DMs, MCs, etc, to run roleplaying games for us. From the Start Playing marketplace to publisher platforms like Magpie games, where they have trained, dedicated GMs running their catalog. But is it profitable? Is it profitable for us, not just the outliers running whale tables that we read about online?

The Recipe for the Grind

This is kind of easy to math out, like coffee-water ratios! In the world of brewing coffee, the wisdom is to start with a 1:16 ratio. 1g of coffee beans to 16g of water. This is the nice, safe cup of Joe. For us trying to figure out prices, let's say our wisdom is $15 per player per game session. Let's start there - because the IRL numbers are wild! The World's Greatest RPG is the Metric Ton Gorilla on Start Playing, so let's say we're running that game. I can comfortably run five players; I prefer three online. I sometimes see seven for some sessions. Five players, one night of D&D. $15 a ticket. We sell out at $75 for that session. Let's say that session + prep work is four hours for maths. If I'm doing the 40 hours-a-week thing, I'll run a $15 ticket table of five for ten sessions weekly.
$750 for the week.
$3000 for the month.
$36k for the year.

Is that a good income number? That will depend on your personal situation. It's not full gig-worthy for me. I've got kids, a car note, and two giant dogs. I'm diabetic, single -meaning not a two-income household. $36k is good side-hustle money for me, but I can't swing the extra 40 hours on top of my current workload.

We haven't even considered how much of a fee there is to run on these platforms we don't own. Both Start Playing, and Magpie take a cut of the ticket price. What other expenses are being ignored? This is what sneaks up on a lot of gig workers. The hidden expenses.

So like coffee brewing recipes, you'll have to mess with the variables of gig work time and ticket prices to get your desired taste.

Here's how I’d do it for me; you’ll have to tweak the recipe for you.