I earn up to $ 125 an hour as a Dungeons & Dragons dungeon master

• Todd Carlstrom is an independent Dungeons & Dragons “Dungeon Master” based in Brooklyn, New York.
• Since 2019 he has been working full time on Dungeons & Dragons games for adults and children.
• Here’s what her work looks like, told to freelance writer Rose Maura Lorre.

I am obsessed with fantasy and have been playing Dungeons & Dragons since I was a child. After college, I moved to New York in 1995 to become an actress. Over the years I have worked in restaurants, performed in a few groups, and created a few theater companies.

Todd Carlström

Fast forward many years, I got married and continued to work in restaurants and take all the acting jobs I could.

One day in 2013, I was talking with a colleague about fantasy novels and I mentioned Dungeons and Dragons.

My coworker said he always wanted to play, and in five minutes I had my first adult D&D table – aka group of players – tinkered with. It was a huge success, and a version of this table still exists every Monday night.

Dungeons & Dragons is an improvised shared storytelling game where major decisions can be made on the dice.

Todd Carlström

You start out as a person and earn experience points by completing quests, like killing creatures, which grant you more powers. You never win the game. You continue to live in his world and you need your friends throughout the journey to complement each other’s strengths.

Most importantly for me and my livelihood, all games should be run by one player, called the Dungeon Master.

In 2016, I started working with a local artist teaching company for children.

We went to schools in New York City and did social and emotional training through drama exercises.

In 2018, during an after-school program in Brooklyn, I noticed that some of the kids were discussing D&D. One day the other teacher I was working with didn’t show up, so I said, “OK guys, today we’re going to do D&D,” and I started a game there.

The kids were so excited about the game that for the rest of the year we just played D&D. In the fall of 2019, I decided to stop working with the education company and the school offered to let me run my own after-school D&D program. I’ve been there ever since.

Through word of mouth, I got enough interested students to start 10 regular kids games online, with players from New York City as well as New Jersey, Florida, Pennsylvania and California. The parents of these students pay me in advance on a monthly or weekly basis.

I’m not taking any money to start this game that I started with my restaurant colleagues; this is my unpaid labor of love. But all of the other adult games I make get paid, just like one-off games and birthday parties.

I charge between $ 75 and $ 125 an hour, depending on the amount of prep work.

Todd Carlström

For a single game, I will charge more. For a campaign where you play for the long term (usually weekly), I charge less, because it guarantees a more regular income.

For a pre-published D&D adventure (aka “module”) that I have already read and know the material, I charge $ 75 per hour. If clients want to pay a little more, I’ll create a specific story based on where they want their characters to be – it’s almost like being a low-key novelist. If someone wants me to prepare a whole new storyline for their game every week, it takes hours, so my rate would be around $ 125 an hour.

I work with adults, but I find children’s games a lot more hilarious.

Todd Carlström

Children are deadlier and more likely to stab themselves in the back. Children also play more the role of powerful and magical characters. They want to get the most out of each member of the group, while adults are more likely to solve problems together. The other difference with adult games is that the comedy will be looser and inevitably the sizzling will happen.

My oldest paid games are three years old at this point, and I’ve never seen anyone quit a game except for a student who had to quit the game because he went to boarding school. I stay on top of what people want from the game so that they don’t get bored and regularly ask what I can improve or change. Overall, the feedback I receive is overwhelmingly positive.

To be a D&D dungeon master, you need to be patient and flexible.

I never had to hit anyone from a table, but I approached because people will try to push you. D&D rule # 1 is that ultimately it’s the dungeon master who decides. So all the rules fall below that in priority.