This is a companion post to “Why Pay to Play?”
TL; DR Because I was experiencing such a high rate of player turnover that I was unable to tell a story.
You may find it surprising to learn that I actually had to be talked into charging dues. I was not super keen on the idea at first.
I run an extensively detailed homebrew world that is the product of decades of work. Work completed almost singularly by myself. I have had a handful of brainstorming sessions with friends through the years but it is entirely my passion project since I was a young boy. My implied world began in 1989 and became Syseria sometime after. The first maps were drawn in the early 90s. Today my worldbook/bible is over 250 pages long. This is not a poorly unified, scattershot collection of notes and “it’s all in my head.” No, I get a little closer to a finished product every year.
I got on the forums to lament about my awful luck holding onto players for my free Roll20 games. Almost every week, I would have another player completely ghost me. Ghost meaning completely vanish with no explanation, warning, or any communication whatsoever. They didn’t even bother to make a lame excuse, or even remove themselves from the Discord group. I, and the players would be bewildered every at every week’s new absences.
This happened with players that were aloof as well as players that seemed enthusiastic up until the point that they ghosted. I wasn’t counting but in 9 months I probably had 20 or so players legit poof on me. And then there were many more players that left the game for their own reasons, life changes, job changes, etc.
In the past, I would not typically run a game with less than 50% attendance, so we would do something else. This general policy further exacerbated the downward spiral of attendance.
Is it just me? Is it the norm? I don’t know. Your experience may vary and I’m not trying to discount the validity of anyone else’s experience. But it was suggested to me that I should be charging if I want to hold onto players. The same suggested started to repeat as a theme, then a chorus, then a cacophony of voices all singing the same refrain.
After hearing this enough times, towards the end of the year I started thinking I should give it a try. So right around the new year I started my first paid game. The difference already has been night and day. Player absences have dropped from around 40-50% weekly to about 5%. The players stay on topic and show up well prepared and ready to play a role playing game.
So far my paid players have been more enthused, more professional, more prepared, less chaotic, and more reliable than the revolving door of channel-surfing flakes I had going when my games were free. My own enthusiasm for my storytelling and worldbuilding has increased as a result. Paying players are better about staying focused and on topic. I am not charging to turn a profit at all, in fact so far my spending has outstripped the income generated from this venture.
Another situation that occurred in my free game, last summer I was doing my usual recruitment dance (it was getting to be the norm at this point), and I invited a certain player to join the discord channel and check it out. Without thinking about it, I went to take a nap. He immediately started getting toxic and crazy with my existing players to the point that they all started walking out of the group. I am not going to claim that charging eliminates these players, but so far I have not met any--and it’s more likely that the group cohesion wouldn’t be so fragile that they would immediately walk the moment some troll crashes the party and starts causing trouble.
Charging dues has enabled me to upgrade my investment from a plus account to pro, purchase numerous compendiums, get multiple art and token sets, and provide API script functionality for my games. If a player needs a token, character option, or piece of equipment I can usually get it for them now. I will do my best to write up anything that’s incomplete in my worldbook that a player is interested in playing. My own dedication and interest level to providing the highest quality experience of which I am capable has increased greatly--an imperfect situation and my own shortcoming to be sure but it’s just the honest truth.
I now have two pay to play games running, with 4 and 5 players respectively. Players that are, so far at least, regular. I am glad to be branching out and meeting more players around the globe. I am still running one free game too, because my motive is not profit. I’m not trying to be pretentious and imply that I’ll never profit from this venture, but Syseria is and always has been a passion project.
If a player were ever dissatisfied with their experience I would refund their money, though that has not happened yet. I would expect that providing the first session for free would alleviate most or all of that.
But what’s important to me is to have a group that is attentive and shows up after I’ve put hours of weekly prep work into providing an adventure and a story.
I can only say thank you to this community for talking me into trying it. It was a great idea.
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