Was I wrong asking my players to pay?

Money, get away.

I resisted this idea for a very long time.

To me, part of the appeal of most TTRPGs is how inexpensive it can be to get started. Many games offer free rules or quick start guides, if you play online most platforms offer a basic, free membership, if you play in person you can create whole worlds with just pencil and paper.

In fact I suspect the comments section of this article will have at least a few suggestions on how to keep your game cheap or free.

Of course if you have deeper pockets, there's lots of ways to burn your pay check as a table top fan. Beautifully sculpted minis, terrain and battle maps, and as ever, those tantalisingly shiny dice.

You can go without these things of course, but here’s what most people don't realise: you can also buy convenience.

Let's take a simple example: Battle maps.

If I want to keep things free, I can spend my time and effort on a website like Dungeonscrawl, crafting the exact dimensions of the map I had in mind. If I'm willing to part with a little cash, I can make a one off purchase for a slightly higher end product like Dungeondraft and build a more beautiful version of my vision.

I used both of these options for years - in fact, I regularly still do. But now, more often than not, I just pay the patreon to a service like Cze Peku and pick a map that is close enough to my vision and use that instead.

Those maps are beautiful, and they often inspire me to take my encounters in new directions, but what I'm really buying is convenience. My $5 patreon fee bought me a few hours of my life back to prepare something else for my game, or even time enjoying another hobby.

Which is great, if you can afford to shell out the money. Because things quickly add up if you take this path and suddenly you are in the hole for hundreds of pounds/dollars/euros just to keep your hobby going. This is especially true for DMs.

What changed for me was a suggestion from two of my players, perhaps unsurprisingly my brothers: charging subs for our D&D game.

I think it was imposter syndrome that made me push back on this for quite a while. Would my players still want to take part if we attached a cost to their “free” hobby. Was our game worth playing for?

Eventually I relented (I think it was suggested on my behalf) and I was very surprised to discover that not only did all my players agree it was a good idea, many were happy to pay more than the £5 a month we suggested. Before I knew it, I had set up a D&D bank account, the subs were rolling in and I was upgrading my Roll20 and using dynamic lighting in our game.

Seriously, that £30 a month goes a long way. It covers my various subscriptions, random map packs and other other one-off expenses for our regular game. When my group gets to play in person, it pays for our minis, maps and any other props. Last year, it paid for nearly half the accommodation fees when we went on our D&D weekend. I’m struggling to remember why I ever pushed back on the idea.

Ironically, I now run sessions at my local gamestore where every player pays £6 for a night of D&D. This week was fully booked with four tables running. Clearly people are willing to part with a few coins for a quality game.

Still, I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on this:

🤔 Is it okay to collect subs for a home game?

💡 Is there a better way to cover your costs?

💸 How does your group keep your finances fair?