Interest Check in GM On-Demand & Similar Services

I'm considering a mutually lucrative arrangement for my gaming endeavors. Largely 5E D&D, but I'm familiar enough with a few other systems such as Old World of Darkness (1st - 3rd), and some board & card games I can work into Roll20 without too much difficulty. I'd like to get a dialogue going or otherwise find out what kind of features & services people would be willing to pay for, & what can be reasonably expected for free. I'd also welcome feedback, as I'd like to provide a healthy balanced game that meets a compromise of my expectations & those of the players. I don't want to run a game no one wants to play.  Not particularly interested in terms involving prices, as it is a developing field & there is a decent spectrum to review already present in Roll20's listings, but that doesn't mean it is off-topic in the slightest. Prefer replies to this post, but I can be PM'd as well. I hope this garners some quality discussion. DM Z

I've largely seen listing going from 5 bucks a game to about 13 dollars per person for regular module games. Homebrew seems to be a harder sell, particularly if it's something as obscure as oWoD. This might not be the forum for this though, since it's more a general discussion on paid games. I saw one guy posting up for $25 a game but he was a skilled artist in his own right, doing custom tokens and had a pretty good idea on how to use the API interfaces. I've had some minor success with a "pay what you want" tipping model on Patreon though frankly I think I could probably do better if I had a bit of help in that department and if I wasn't under selling myself so hard. If your looking to get into Paid DMing then my suggestion is to be vague. People don't seem to enjoy reading large posts, or if you do indeed go big, make sure you look professional.

Those are all very good points to consider. Thank you.

I charged $15 per person per session with a homebrew game (5e DnD), with little problems attracting players. You have to really step up your game with production value, however. I created a trailer for the game in Adobe Premiere, for example. Do you have any specific questions? When people pay for a game, they are purchasing *all* the features and services you provide as GM, not just some of them. A free game is a free game, a paid game is a paid game, there is a marked difference between the two.

Teller said: I charged $15 per person per session with a homebrew game (5e DnD), with little problems attracting players. You have to really step up your game with production value, however. I created a trailer for the game in Adobe Premiere, for example. Do you have any specific questions? When people pay for a game, they are purchasing *all* the features and services you provide as GM, not just some of them. A free game is a free game, a paid game is a paid game, there is a marked difference between the two. I don't have any specific questions, but I'm building a series of queries to go over with players in an initial interview process of sorts for when I start taking on new players. Basic stuff like probing questions to determine what sort of a game people are after, and a checklist for a group to make sure everyone is on the same page mentally once things are set in place for a schedule & such.  Obviously, there is a gulf of separation to distinguish a transactional experience from a free session, and the margin in which the 2 concepts can share features is as narrow or wide as a Game Master has the capability to establish. The expectations of a player is a key factor in this equation, for me. I've been running free games since I started on Roll20, mostly to ascertain if/how it could be done for profit, and it seems to be a highly subjective undertaking with no 1 right or wrong way to go about making it happen.  You make another good point, mentioning production value. Having a paid membership & access to API scripting seems worth considering, depending on if it can serve my purposes, at the least.