Why pay to play?

Many clamor to get into a free game online, but there aren't nearly enough experienced DMs to satisfy the demand. Most people endure disappointing experiences like this:

After spending your valuable time laboriously filling out applications, you get rejected more often than not due to the scores of people applying to play each free game. When you do get accepted, players don't show up or are unprepared. Sometimes the DM doesn't show up or is unprepared. It's a frustrating grind to go through time after time, especially when all you want to do is relax and have fun playing. Here are some of the reasons why professionally-run paid games provide a superior experience:

• Charging a modest per-person fee virtually eliminates player no-shows.
• The small fee also ensures that everyone in the group is committed to the session.
• The maturity level is higher in paid games.
• People don't abandon the group and quit the campaign when something doesn't go their way.
• The gaming experience provided by a professional DM is eminently more enjoyable than what you get in a free game.
• Expect material costs associated with running a top-shelf game to be covered. Roll20 charges fees for the token, map, and card collections associated with each module.
• Expect pro membership from the DM, ensuring that players have access to all of the extras, including D&D 5e Compendium integration, API scripts, dynamic lighting, and plenty of storage.
• Reasonable to expect custom-designed tokens for your characters if requested.
• Reasonable to expect extra help for beginners.
• Reasonable to expect an immersive experience that includes advanced role-play techniques, animated effects, and completely original game materials that aren't available anywhere else.
• Reasonable to expect some or most of the dues to be channeled back into the game you're playing in the form of assets, compendiums, and potentially even custom artwork or authoring.

In person games are different but this is the online D&D world of 2021.

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. The rate of players ghosting me has dropped from 40-50% to about 5%. My own enthusiasm for my storytelling and worldbuilding has increased as a result. I am not charging to turn a profit at all, in fact so far my spending has outstripped the income generated from this venture.