[Idea] Roll20 To Benefit Charities...?

Call me crazy, but I personally feel that whenever 500k highly creative people get together to have fun, a charity or two should benefit. I move that Roll20 begins hosting charity fundraising! I already sat down and worked out how the whole shebang might possibly be organized, but I leave that to the Devs and the Community, should they choose to support this. I didn't think of anything that 500k heads put together won't come up with like *snaps fingers* that...

You could always run games for charity (depending upon the ToU), run a raffle and a drawing for 6 people lucky enough to win a seat at the table for a one-shot or short campaign. Or you could develop something for the Marketplace and donate all the earnings to some lucky charity.

Simon S. said: ... I fully intend to. I plan to start a Group called "Tourneys w/Prizes" very shortly, once I get approval from the Devs. {I don't want to get my n00b @$$ Banned for trying to be charitable and creative.} Tourneys w/Prizes will Host different GMs who have a good, quick-play Module to offer. Donations/Entry Fees will go into "escrow" and be broken into up to 5 %ages: 5% for whoever handles the $(fees and responsibility), 5-10% for the GMs(they can always choose to Donate it to the Charity or the Prize Pool), 15-30% to a Charity(predetermined by the GMs or a Community Vote), 50% into the Prize Pool and a % for Roll20(if they want it). Of course, GMs can always lay out their own %age breakdowns in their Tourney Proposals... But I much prefer to make the whole thing Official. That way Roll can get a 5-10% cut for Hosting and handling the $ directly, and the Community could expect new Features geared specifically toward the Charity Tourneys. I'm all for anything that makes everything easier...

Mathew L. said I move that Roll20 begins hosting charity fundraising! I move that you do it! :) Seriously though, businesses are hard to run, hard to grow, and fragile in their infancy. I'm sure that as and when they can afford to do it without impinging on the business model the Orr Group will help a charity here and there, but let them do it under their own steam and in their own time. Right now they probably move from month to month ensuring that bills and wages get paid, and work incredible hours for relatively little. That's the nature of a small business making it's (pretty incredible) mark on the world. If you want to use the platform they have built using their own time and money, and made available to you... FOR FREE... to raise money for charity, you knock yourself out! I don't meant that with even a hint of sarcasm either (this being the internet, snark can be habitually read into things), I seriously mean go for it and I hope you raise a bundle of cash for a good cause. Just like my advice on your idea for running the prize winning tournaments though, I'm going to reiterate my sentiment: Do it yourself. The Orr Group are doing something they're passionate about, and more than 500,000 people beat a path to their door. Don't vote someone else to do it. Roll up your sleeves and do it yourself. Do what you're passionate about. Do what you believe in. If you do good, others will join in of their own accord.

I agree with Alan H., the first year or so these guys have donated all of their time to build this. If you want a GM with 30 years experience to run one shots for your charity, PM me and I will be glad to do that. You need to set up a way to monetize this and have a structure to provide the money raised to a registered charity. If you intend to profit from it personally, I am not interested. I have set up some things in the past and there is more work involved than you probably realize. If you want advice on setting it up, try a big company with deep pockets first, W.O.C./Hasbro have the deepest pockets in the RPG world, if you could someone like that involved you might have a shot at getting something going. The money you could raise by this would be miniscule without a backer, a movie costs about $15, that would be more than you could get for an RPG session in my opinion, multiplied by 5 players you are looking at $75 for a session, less than a doctor visit in most areas of the U.S.

al e. said: ...If you intend to profit from it personally, I am not interested... ...I have set up some things in the past and there is more work involved than you probably realize... ...The money you could raise by this would be miniscule without a backer, a movie costs about $15, that would be more than you could get for an RPG session in my opinion, multiplied by 5 players you are looking at $75 for a session... a) *shrugs* That's completely up to you, of course. But I think that sentiment implies that hours and hours of mind-numbing paperwork aren't worth a dime in return. Which is disproved by CPAs. If the Roll20 Team officially took on a Tournament Coord./Director, you can bet your tail-feathers they would pay her/him... b) I often guestimate how long things will take. Not very smart, I know. But then I double whatever figure of time I ended up with, so I can be pleasantly surprised when something takes less time than I originally thought. I'm guessing that everything associated with organizing and running a continuous series of Tourneys would start at 20-30 hours per week. Factor growing attendance and participation into a filling schedule and I'm guessing it would become a matter of 50+ hours easily and 75+ would not surprise me. It could quickly become a career for someone... c) So you're saying 'every little bit doesn't help'? Some charities claim that you can feed a child in another country for less than a few bucks a day... And I'm looking to push the limits of the Roll20 system with 20+ players per round. That's something I need to find out...What is the limit on the number of Players per Round?

As far as I'm aware, there is no hard limit on the number of people who can be in a game. I believe the built-in voice/video changes the network topology it's using at 10 concurrent users.