A small percentage pay. People will pay for homebrew if it is good enough as an experience to pay for. People with above average incomes from around the world pay upwards of 2000.00 for a flight and return, plus direct money for entertainment in Thailand. For the experience. For a few days to a month. Single guys, couples on a honeymoon. Older women that want to treat themselves to pampered self-care, and exotic experiences. What is the most anyone will pay? Varies based on your skill, experience, and confidence in asking, and the throwaway money they have. You won't get many dollars by targeting people without money, or with surplus time. They run their own. You'd want people that are richer- not a lot of time, that could commit to a schedule. Bored executives that are tired of the paperwork, decisions, and responsibilities. "You got an enemy? Pull your blade, screw consequences. Be a pirate. Save the Kingdom. Thanks, DM that was a great session!" Is it worth it? You are not going to pay rent with paid Dming, unless you live in a developing nation. I live in Thailand, but I do not want to tie myself to a group's schedule, ongoing. Once you are on that treadmill you have to keep producing on time on a schedule. I write genre sci fi and fantasy books instead. How good are you? Are you 5$ an hour per person good? That is 20$ an hour for a group of 4. Are you 25$ an hour per person good? Most people aren't, because at that point you're in the class of stand up comedy tickets- except you're doing stand-up fantasy storytelling. Why does Tom Cruise make multi-million dollars a picture? He made an active decision to become an actor and then built himself up through good choices long difficult experience and hard work. It didn't hurt that he had a Talent and what people generally agree to be good looks even though he is much shorter height than average. Is he worth that much? How hard does he work? Think about it. I think you need more confidence in yourself because you're selling yourself as "semi marketable." If you're going to do this you better be marketable. Confident. You better know who you're selling to- how much you're worth- and what product you're bringing. Can you do maps? Can you design characters? Can you come up with a plot on the Fly? Do you have voice acting skills? Can you develop these skills? If you have time, you could build a following. But it is a cottage industry. Meaning your only scalability is in multiple players, 4-6, then groups of players above that. Plus the time involved for prep for each session, plus the time of actually running it. Plus the advertising and marketing of yourself Plus outlay for modules, or software. You are limited physically in time by the amount of groups you can run. But you could stream via twitch, youtube or some other format and get passive income that way, if you are Matt Mercer quality, and the like. You could write a book about how to do it but it's a very small niche sub-market, of a very smaller niche market Matt Mercer, He is good. He has developed this gig for years. He makes mistakes, but his fans love him, his fans want to be him. There are others out there not so well-known, what you might want to do is Fork up some cash and join one of the groups that is currently running and then see how they do what they're doing. This is like a stand-up comedian going to see someone else's act and what works and what doesn't for a few dollars and then they go out and they write their own Act. I can say confidently that if you turn this into a 60 hour a week job you can pay the rent if you lived in a developing Nation, if you can find the players, if you had the time but this is not something you're going to get rich on that you should quit your day job over. Again I chose writing because I can write one book and sell it to 10,000 people, at $3 a book every few months.. Or do ghost writing. This is on top of my military retirement.... and I live in Thailand where my rent is $150 a month, for a 3-bedroom house. How I would do it if I were you is: take a month to pay to join three different paid DM groups. see how they do it and you'll learn faster than you would by just asking here like you've done... Because you'd be seeing someone else do it. Then copy whatever techniques you can use. Design your own campaign and put your placard up and start selling it. And if you can find the right people who are bored Executives with a pile of cash who used to play D&D back in the day but don't have time or energy to run a game, you are set... until that Gig ends. Develop your skills and keep going and do it again and again and again. I'll be your potential first customer, what are you going to charge me and what are you bringing to the table? What do you have to show me that says that you're worth the money that I'm forking out? I live in Thailand and so I'm 12 hours ahead of West Coast USA... whenever it's 10 in the morning here it's 8 p.m. there? You going to run a game at 8 p.m.? 2 a.m.? I've done it. Are you going to do it? How much will you charge? Things to think about. You're approaching this as an outsider. You got to think like the person that's already doing this. What do you need to make this happen? Focus and drive. Showcase your talents and skills- otherwise you're just toying with the idea. Other people here are doing this, get with them and see what they're doing. Good luck.
