Question on the validity of DM'ing DnD 5E Premades for food.

Hello Roll20 zealots! Arcanvore here, I am in love with this website. I currently play in a weekly game and DM another weekly game. I have been playing DnD on and off for about 20 years. At this point in my career I have put on the mantle as a DM not because its my favorite thing on earth, but because I have been flaked on by too many DM's to keep suffering through it. As such I want to uplift the community by putting my passion for the game into providing a game for others. Rather than focusing inward on the most bad ass character build and developing characters of my own to Role Play I have found putting said extra time and effort into a game world provides me a sense of accomplishment and I find happiness in providing players a fun game to play in. Perpetuating at least one stable game into the multiverse for a few lucky players makes me feel pretty good. To that end I wanted to ask a few questions as to the validity of DM'ing for food. By food I mean mana, and by mana, I mean source material in the form of campaign books. I am self dubbed Arcanavore for good reasons. I am a libravore when it comes RPG rulebooks and consume them as frequently and as much as possible. I will DM through to the end of my current game as long as the players manage to maintain attendance. Once finished, I would like to continue to offer my services as a "just and noble dungeon master" to a new group of lucky players. The only compensation I would ask for is that a group would come together and purchase the premade adventure book so that I don't have to spend my own money in order to make the game happen. I have a hard time justifying this expense when I would not be able to play in the game myself. Especially when the given nature of flakey people saying they are going to play but end up not seeing things through to the end. Is this idea, illegal or a violation of policy? Is this morally uncouth within the roll20 community? Is this a scam? (Well I know it wouldn't be a scam as I have no intent on duping players for a $20-$50 with low resale value only to quit and tarnish my reputation as a DM) I am curious to know people opinions on this matter. Currently I have never tried doing this and typically get my books from a reputable vendor.

There have been a number of GMs on the site running games for compensation, although it's usually Pro subscription time or just straight-up money. I'm at the tail-end of a 4e campaign right now that's $5/player/session, and I've also seen $30/player/campaign. Requesting monetary compensation (or book compensation!) for your GM services is not against the rules, but Roll20 also isn't going to arbitrate for you if there's a problem getting a player to pay up.

To me, this seems an entirely fair offer, and I suspect you'll find ample takers.

Brian is spot on, the "official" stance from Roll20 on GMs for hire is that we are okay with it but we don't officially support it.

Until now, I had never thought about running games in exchange for players purchasing rule books, modules, or other accessories for the GM or DM. It's an interesting concept, and it might appeal to players who are not keen on monetary compensation but might see some practical value in buying adventures or materials for the campaign or feeding the GM/DM's creativity. As someone who loves to read many of these sources for inspiration and ideas, it would certainly serve a practical purpose for me. For example, I have not been all that interested in some of the recently published D&D 5E campaigns and adventures, but they usually contain new character classes, monsters, options, and ideas that might work well in other settings. I try to buy the ones I am most interested in, but it would be nice if players were willing to purchase them as a reward or gift for running sessions, particularly if they feel the GM/DM is doing a great job and they are having fun.

Thanks guys, my apprehension is officially squashed!