Oy vey, if you don't want to pay to play then don't. Not everyone is you, in your situation. You whine "I wouldn't pay for a hobby"... hello? There's not a hobby that people don't put money into. I pay if I want to go to the gym, go swimming, take karate lessons, watch a play, watch a movie in a theatre, own a book, own a video game, rent a movie, video, own some music, have a pet, smoke some fine tobacco, drink some magnificent wine, chug some bubbly ale... watch Netflix... have any collections... gardening... knitting... owning a musical instrument, getting lessons, learning a language... there's not a thing I can think of that I've ever done, that anyone I've ever known has done for their hobby, that is 100% free all of the time for all aspects. Storytelling is something that yes, you can do for free with your friends! It's excitingly unique in that regards. You can and if you can you SHOULD play for free with your friends! Not everyone has that group of friends. Not everyone is you, ShadowDragon. You have your reasons, you have shared them, now back off and stop trying to force them into other people's consciousnesses. If they agree with you, they do for their reasons and that's fine. But there are also people who disagree, who do want to either charge or pay to play. All of my groups have fallen apart quite fast. I'd pay because I want to complete the module with the same party of committed players and putting in money means we're investing into crafting a higher quality campaign. That doesn't mean a non-paid campaign would be necessarily lower quality, but in my experience the free games I've played have had characters drop out quite a lot, and GMs who have difficulties and then the game dies. A paid DM is committed to seeing the game through... it's their job. I would also pay to play because I just want to do a fun one shot and I want it NOW and someone's charging to run a game NOW. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I am a mature adult. That does not mean wise adult, it just means that I have an established foothold in the world and with it, at least some anticipated income with which I can spend on disposable things. If I decide to invest $15 into a game session, that's on par with what I spend for a meal or a movie, and it is a reasonable expense I could do a couple times a month. I just spent $25 on sushi, so, why not spend less than that on average on allowing a GM to buy more resources? After all, I create paid resources, both in the marketplace here and in my own website where I take commissions for maps... which often go to DMs. If I expect to be respected as a professional I extend the same to them. I get the feeling that you're like... 16-20. Money is tight. You have no idea where it will come from in the future. You just want to play the damn game, and it's just making up things with your friends in your heads, so why should money ever come into the equation? And indeed, there are alternative ways of acquiring all of the resources you might want, apart from minis and fancy 3D dungeon gear, for free. If you hate the paid GMs, block them. If you're jealous of them, try dropping a $5 price tag on your next game, run a one-shot or something, and see if you can't scrape up $30 from it, and maybe you'll start to understand the other side of the equation, and have the money to pay a GM for that paid game you lust after but cannot afford. If you're just hella broke, why not join me and become a marketplace creator and sell a few asset packs? I certainly make enough from my Roll20 store that with that money alone, I could pay a GM for a weekly game. I also could trade, I know at least one paid GM who's willing to trade my skills for gametime. Yes, some GMs are annoying about their hustle. I'm sure we'll all agree there. But some people want to pay... I'd pay, if a one shot game pops up when I want to play. And if I ran a game, I'd run it free for my IRL friends, but I'd charge for random internet strangers... only after getting my skills up on my IRL friends (of whom I have like... 6-7 who want to play, so I got a party made if I start running it!)