The Ethics of Professional Games Mastering.

Recently I engaged in discussion with various people about my hesitations about charging people to play Dungeons and Dragons. By my language us in that sentence, I'm sure you're able to read that I still hold some of these emotional reservations.

However, logically, rationally, I have none of them anymore. After speaking to a few people online, from those discussions, it has been shown that the main problem people have is the idea of some greedy skin-flint charging his friends, or even complete strangers, in order to enjoy a fun experience they would be having anyway.

This is a reasonable objection, but it assumes the intent is to make money from the misfortune of others, that misfortune being them finding it difficult to find a friend willing to do it for free.

And yet being a Dungeon Master is a skill and a mindset, something different from being a player. While being a player still can take some degree of skill depending on the game being played, running the game requires memorization of more things and likely involves hours of work outside of the game itself. This hasn't been my personal experience, with years of pouring over rulebooks during games and slowing things down immensely. I would read the rulebooks purely as a leisure exercise on bus journeys or in the evening, and rarely to prepare for the next session.

It's from years of this repetition and slow absorption, along with reflection, discussion and inter-disciplinary application of skills and knowledge outside of gaming that has lead to the ability I have to run an enjoyable game without looking at rulebooks during a session.

This is what I'm bringing to the table. Yes, others can give it a go, and they might be good at it, and yes, I'll provide the same service for free for my friends, but it's still something I shouldn't be ashamed to charge for if it's for strangers. A gardener has years of experience, a personal flourish and can perform the service for himself and yet has no social stigma attached to charging for his services which could just as easily, although perhaps with a less professional or artistic outcome, by the person buying the service. It takes little effort to pick up a trowel and to stab at the ground. Well done, you've gardened! However, if you find yourself without the time, inclination or skill to do it for yourself, in order for you and your friends to have fun during the summer with your garden parties you can pay a gardener, a professional that employs skills that superficially could be learned by everyone.

I struggle to see the difference. Paying for a DM is likely a service that I won't take advantage of myself anytime soon because that's the position I prefer when gaming; at least currently, while I'm getting a good mix of playing and running games. But it's something I'm slowly learning to respect, and something I'm feeling less and less concerned about offering as a service.

Cheers for hearing me out.