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Last Call - Hiring DM at $60/Session. Pathfinder only. Saturdays only. Applications accepted through Wednesday

Hi there, A long-time friend and I now live on opposite coasts of the U.S. now, but seek to continue gaming through Pathfinder roleplaying sessions using Roll20. We are looking for applicants who would like to be our GM. Here are the game details: 1. Pathfinder, limited to Paizo published material and Rules-as-Written 2. Roll20 3. Skype 4. Paypal. Payment will be $10/hour/session, typically around $60/session. 5. Weekly sessions each Saturday, typically from 5 PM to 11 PM Eastern (2 PM to 8 PM Pacific) 6. Just the two of us as players 7. Characters to be taken from low level (perhaps 1st to 4th) through high level (perhaps 16th to 20th) 8. Adventure to be drawn from either a single Adventure Path or a series of modules that can be strung together. We are not strictly adverse to 3rd party products or original content but believe most of the Paizo products tend to be well-written and will decrease the workload on the GM. That said, feel free to alter things and make the adventure your own. 9. Since most Paizo products are for groups of 4 to 6 players, the two of us will need to be significantly more powerful than standard characters. To this end, we wish to play Mythic characters who advance at about 1 tier per 2 character levels, in addition to have 20-point character builds and up to 40-point race builds. Yes, this will make for very power characters at low levels, but with only 2 in the group (not 4 to 6) situations should get increasingly challenging as levels increase. We want the characters to be overpowered and generally kick butt. The theme is that the characters win. That said, we also expect character deaths to occur when appropriate, which may necessitate a mechanic by which to insert new characters into the ongoing storyline. 10. Low-magic would be nice but not required. No gunpowder, spaceships, androids, time-travel, steam-punk and other things that for some reason have gotten worked into what should be a classic high-fantasy medieval setting. Think Lord of the Rings or Forgotten Realms, but set in Golarion. In this setting people run away from dragons (not towards them), fire magic does horrible things to targets, and even weak undead are excessively disturbing to fight. All of the said, a lot comedy and light-hearted fun will be had, although much of it may be out-of-character, especially if the characters themselves are having a tough day. Here is what we are looking for in a GM: 1. Someone who shows up on time and is prepared 2. A nice person to hang out with 3. A good actor and adjudicator: someone who is both confident playing various NPCs and confident in laying down the law. 4. Someone who thoroughly knows Pathfinder rules and will play Rules-as-Written ("RAW") 5. A person who thoroughly knows Roll20.net 6. Someone who understands the characters are meant to be overpowered and to win on a regular basis (for months at a time), but someone who is also not afraid to let an appropriate character deaths occur. In other words, a fan of the PCs who doesn't make each session a "GM versus the players" experience. Someone who looks for ways to help the PCs survive and win, but still lets them die if they screw up bad enough or there is no reasonable way out of a particular situation. How to apply? 1. DON'T POST HERE. Instead, send me a message directly 2. Seriously, see step 1 above 3. Tell us about yourself: various RP experience, experience with Pathfinder, experience with being a GM, where you are in life, how you plan to make this fun for yourself (it's very important that you are pumped-up about this campaign and make it your own), and what your thoughts are on the type of game you would like to run (location, characters, theme, alignments, whatever...). If you are really inspired but don't like all the game parameters posted above, bring your own ideas to the discussion. 4. Be prepared so impress us with your knowledge of the game and a demonstration of skills with Roll20. We will be asking questions and may request you set up some specific on-the-fly encounters. Speed, fluidity, and good narrative are more important to us than polish. Show us you can keep a story moving even if you are just using verbal descriptions along with free-style scribbles on the screen. Of course, polish impresses if you can pull that off as well. 5. Applications will be accepted through Wednesday May the 5th. 6. Interviews will be conducted in time slots during the normal hours of play, Saturday afternoon/evening, specifically on Saturday the 7th. 7. Don't be afraid to apply if you don't meet all the criteria. You may be the best we get and sometimes enthusiasm makes up for a lot! 8. If you can't meet various game criteria, but know a good GM who would like to make $10/hour for hanging out and having fun, please pass an invite on to that person. We appreciate it. Message me directly with any comments or questions. Thanks and take care. -Chris
Hello, This is your second or third post that I have seen, and I was wondering whether no one measured up to your standards, or if you had tried someone and they didn't work out?  If no one is meeting your expectations, where are people falling short?  If they didn't work out, would you mind saying where they failed? Thanks, Dan p.s.  I am not applying, not yet at least.  I am asking here because others are probably curious about the same things I am and would like more info before "trying out".
Hi Daniel, We've had 4 GMs since October. To oversimplify things: the first two graduated college and got real jobs, the third didn't want to voice characters or narrate scenes, and the fourth insisted on using interfaces and house rules that didn't work for us. My friend and I are actually very flexible in what we are looking for (despite all the criteria above). The criteria is there to steer people in the right direction. We would much rather have 3 applicants who are happy with the above criteria than 10 or 20 who may have critical issues that lead to another misfire. Our goal is to find a long-term GM to hang out and be friends with. It's been a bit frustrating so far. -Chris
Have you thought about just finding a GM as a friendly endeavor as opposed to a business venture? Also, just a thought, you may get more GM's interested if your rate was higher. $10/hr is below minimum wage in a lot of places and it doesn't even account for the huge amount of time it takes to prep a game away from the table. 
Ansgar...  $10 an hour seems pretty reasonable for a hobby that is mostly low cost.  If I didn't already have two games on Saturday, I would be interested at that price, since that is enough to pay for a lot of game materials and such that the GM has to pay for normally out of his own pocket.  I have GM'd at a lot of conventions, up to and including GenCon, where GMs get a lot of swag, but don't get paid.  Amounts to the same thing, it is nice to be recognized and rewarded for your work, even if it isn't that much compared to a "regular" job. Chris...  What you are saying makes a lot of sense.  I have been willing to pay for games in the past, but finding a group to pay together, is pretty hard, so none of the games have made.  I wish you luck in your search, you seem like a very reasonable guy and you are definitely offering a nice amount for what most of us do as a labor of love.  One thing I might make note of, it is a lot harder to RP with a small group than a larger group, in my experience.  Have you thought about letting other people "buy-in" to the game?  Not that money would be the main reason, there is just usually a better group dynamic with 5 or 6 players; which takes a big load off the GM for keeping the party moving and the conversation going.  You could even audition the additional players if you wanted and take the ones that seem the most interesting, whether they committed financially or not.  Best of luck,  Dan
Hi Ansgar and Daniel, I suppose we could offer more. $10/hour is what we are comfortable with and is meant to be a show of appreciation rather than a vocation. Between the out-of-session work and in-session work, I feel we would have to be paying more around $20/hour to really make it seem like a job, and I'm just not sure we are willing to do that. $10/hour is meant to be more of a versatile "thank you" than anything else. Daniel, I see your point on group size. It is something we may wish to consider. We enjoy our time in the spotlight with only 2 players. A 3rd player may be OK, but at 4 to 6 players, that cuts individual RP time from 50% down to 25% to 17%, which is a considerable drop. I may be able to talk my friend into having a 3rd player, but I think that would be the extent of it. We really like the idea of a storyline based on two people (business partners, lovers, siblings, the last 2 of their race, parent/child, or whatever else as a lead to bind them together). I wouldn't mind a 3rd person, but it almost creates a "3rd wheel" situation, and then to get beyond that we would back into a standard group and potentially lost in the crowd. -Chris