tl;dr: wanna live of dnd? her husband makes 90.000$ a year. In other
words: marry rich

I feel like this is a pretty poor example of money management. The whole
spouse with a hobby job thing has been going on for a long time, and
millennials are hardly the only ones that have been doing that.
I do find it interesting how the game is explained in the article though.

Source:
https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/business/money-report/36-year-old-makes-37000-a-year-leading-dungeons-dragons-games-if-youre-doing-it-anyway-you-might-as-well-get-paid/3294720/

36-year-old makes $37,000 a year leading Dungeons & Dragons games: If
‘you're doing it anyway, you might as well' get paid
By Mike Winters,CNBC and Raffi Paul,CNBC

This story is part of CNBC Make It's Millennial Money series, which
details how people around the world earn, spend and save their money.

People are surprised to learn that Mari Murdock, 36, is a professional
game master, a role in which she organizes and narrates tabletop
roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons.

"A lot of people don't see things like hobbies or artistic endeavors as
something that could generally make them money," she tells CNBC Make It.

Admittedly, she didn't expect running D&D games to turn into a paying
gig, either — at least at first: "It was just a hobby I did with my
friends in college."

Dungeons & Dragons is an open-ended tabletop game in which the narrative
is shaped by the players' choices, whether that's through combat,
puzzles or negotiation. A GM is the world-builder and narrator for the
players' actions, but they also enforce and explain the rules, kind of
like a mediator or referee.

Since random rolls of the dice can be the difference in whether a
player's character is swallowed by a gelatinous cube or crushed by a
herd of centaurs, a good GM will also be an adept improviser who can
keep the story moving based on the circumstances of the game.

In other words, it's not an easy gig. But as Murdock played tabletop
games through the 2010s, she grew more confident in the skills it takes
to run a good game. While not obvious at the time, it's what led to her
becoming a paid GM.

"I love teaching, I love writing and I love playing games — it's been an
interesting career path that's an amalgamation of all the things that I
want to do," she says.

Since 2021, Murdock's main source of income has been working as a GM for
Dungeon Master Direct, a Utah-based company that specializes in online
and in-person tabletop roleplaying game sessions that range from $375 to
$750.

She makes $24,000 as a dungeon master for the company, plus another
$13,000 teaching writing at nearby Westminster University in Salt Lake
City, where she lives with her husband, Scott. He makes $96,000 as a
communications director at a state agency.

Here's a look at how Murdock was able to turn her hobby into a career.
Becoming a tabletop gamer

The eldest of two siblings in a Latter-day Saints family, Murdock says
she was "willful" and "liked being my own boss" when she was growing up.

Most of her childhood took place in Michigan and in Utah, where she
spent her days "climbing trees, catching frogs, playing make believe."
At night, she would stay up reading books, pretty much "any type of
storytelling."

In 2007, Murdock's family moved to Hawaii after her father got a
teaching job at Brigham Young University-Hawaii. She studied literature
at the school, and while there, played her first tabletop role-playing
game at a friend's house and "loved it."

In 2010, she took time off from school to become a full-time missionary.
She was assigned to Japan, the country where her mother was born.

While in Japan, Murdock met her now-husband, Scott, who was also doing
missionary work in another part of the country.

Mari returned to Hawaii in 2012 and graduated from BYU-H with a
bachelor's degree in literature. She got a communications job on campus,
and was soon joined by Scott, who moved to Hawaii to be with her and
finish his degree.

They helped create a gaming club on campus, with Murdock acting as the
club's faculty advisor since she worked for the university.

The club was a hit, becoming the second-largest student group on campus.
Murdock got more involved with the club, running tabletop RPGs for
first-time players. In 2013, she entered and won an open audition to
write fiction for Legend of the Five Rings, a popular collectible card
game set in feudal Japan.

"That really opened the doors to networking for other types of work,
because when people were looking for a writer who could do fiction at a
professional level, my name would start coming up," says Murdock.
Getting hired as a professional Dungeon Master

Even if she didn't do it for a living, Murdock says she'd still be
planning D&D campaigns for friends, reading game books or writing fiction.

Since hobbies can become side hustles, "it's important to remember that
creative work is work," she says.

As a friend once said to her: "You're going to be doing it anyway, you
might as well find someone to pay you for it."

In 2016, Murdock moved to Salt Lake City with Scott, where she studied
for a master's degree in transatlantic literature. She also continued
freelance writing, mostly for Legend of the Five Rings.

"I got roped into writing anything that they needed me to," says
Murdock. This included novelizations of the game, as well as text that
explains game mechanics, character backstories or text that appears on
game cards. She was mostly paid in free products at first, but later got
paid in cash.

In 2020, Dax Levine — an old friend from Murdock's university gaming
club — founded Dungeon Master Direct, a professional dungeon master
service. The timing was fortuitous, as tabletop gaming became more
popular during the pandemic.

The company was successful enough that in May 2021 Levine was able to
hire Murdock as a game master, commonly called a dungeon master when
playing Dungeons & Dragons.

"I run about three games a week on a busy week," says Murdock. Each
ongoing game, including prep, takes about four to five hours a week of
her time.

She also helps run company events, like the largest game of Dungeons &
Dragons ever played, according to Guinness World Records. The game was
held at a mall in Provo, Utah, and culminated in all 1,227 participants
defeating an evil wizard named Vecna in the final attack.
Mari Murdock running a gaming session.
Graham Merwin | CNBC Make It
Mari Murdock running a gaming session.

Despite the fantastical elements of Dungeons & Dragons, Murdock says her
interest in gaming has not been discouraged by her church. In fact, "a
lot of members of the LDS church gravitate toward fantasy games," she says.

Attitudes have change since the "satanic panic" of the 1980s, where
people had "this stereotype that kids in their basements were actually
summoning these demons and things like that," she says.

For Murdock, gaming allows you to immerse yourself in "a pretend
situation where you are imagining that you are someone else. I think
that really develops creativity. It creates problem solving and a lot of
empathy."

What Mari and Scott spend in a month

Here's how Mari and Scott spent their money in February 2024:

Debt repayment: $2,450 for student loans, credit card debt, PayPal
Credit, personal loan
Mortgage: $2,147
Food: $1,390 on groceries and dining out
Discretionary: $832 for home goods, a Kickstarter contribution,
hair salon
Utilities: $452 for Wi-Fi, heat, water and electricity
Savings: $400
Subscriptions and memberships: $235 on Hulu, Spotify, Amazon Prime,
Midjourney, Patreon, Nebula, Max
Insurance: $161 for health, dental, vision, car and home
Phones: $140
Gas: $71

In June 2023, Mari and Scott purchased a detached two-bedroom home in
downtown Salt Lake City for $535,000, with a down payment of $40,000. To
afford the home, they took on a personal loan within their family, which
works out to $777 in monthly payments in addition to their mortgage.

As part of the move, they did what Murdock calls a "financial reset,"
with the goal of paying down the roughly $15,000 in credit card debt
they accumulated during the pandemic. For that reason, debt repayment is
the biggest monthly expense for the couple, with nearly $1,400 put
toward credit card payments alone.

They also have student loan debt of about $25,000 each. Scott hopes to
qualify for public service loan forgiveness in a couple of years, since
he works for a government agency.
Mari Murdock and her husband Scott celebrate their 10th anniversary.
Courtesy of Mari Murdock
Mari Murdock and her husband Scott celebrate their 10th anniversary.

Prior to the move, the couple had consistently paid a tithe to their
church totaling one tenth of their income. However, they have paused
their monthly contributions until they can pay down their credit card debt.

On 4/25/2024 10:49 AM, Kyonshi wrote:
>

tl;dr: wanna live of dnd? her husband makes 90.000$ a year. In other
words: marry rich

My wife makes that, I made 70k last year, but where we live to get that
is expensive, we're in a tiny 70's house (about 1000 sq ft.) that's
falling apart, needs probably 150k, maybe more in deferred maintenance
from the previous owners, and 2 kids in a just so-so neighborhood &
school.

Source:
https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/business/money-report/36-year-old-makes-37000-a-year-leading-dungeons-dragons-games-if-youre-doing-it-anyway-you-might-as-well-get-paid/3294720/

36-year-old makes $37,000 a year leading Dungeons & Dragons games: If
‘you're doing it anyway, you might as well' get paid
By Mike Winters,CNBC and Raffi Paul,CNBC...

....in-person tabletop roleplaying game sessions that range from $375 to
$750...

Is that per person? Probably not, if not that's about $15 per hour
minimum for players assuming 5 person games. If her games take 15
hours (as is said later) between prep and play she should be getting
about $25 an hour.

....She makes $24,000 as a dungeon master for the company, plus another
$13,000 teaching writing at nearby Westminster University in Salt Lake
City, where she lives with her husband, Scott. He makes $96,000 as a
communications director at a state agency.

A little discrepancy there. She really makes $24k from DMing... for
another company. Sounds like she's getting screwed on pay.

"That really opened the doors to networking for other types of work,
because when people were looking for a writer who could do fiction at a
professional level, my name would start coming up," says Murdock.
Getting hired as a professional Dungeon Master

$24k isn't really opening the doors for anything.

Even if she didn't do it for a living, Murdock says she'd still be
planning D&D campaigns for friends, reading game books or writing fiction.

Since hobbies can become side hustles, "it's important to remember that
creative work is work," she says.

As a friend once said to her: "You're going to be doing it anyway, you
might as well find someone to pay you for it."

And that's how you turn your hobby into a chore.

"I run about three games a week on a busy week," says Murdock. Each
ongoing game, including prep, takes about four to five hours a week of
her time.

24k for 15 hrs a week, assuming a couple weeks off a year she's making
$3.20 an hour?!? Maybe there's some overhead like venue, scheduling
done by someone else or something, but she's really getting screwed at
that rate!

In June 2023, Mari and Scott purchased a detached two-bedroom home in
downtown Salt Lake City for $535,000, with a down payment of $40,000. To
afford the home, they took on a personal loan within their family, which
works out to $777 in monthly payments in addition to their mortgage.

So they got a 60 year loan with no interest from family. They should be
paying ~$3,300 a month with a bank loan. Must be nice.

--
-Justisaur

ø-ø
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'

On 4/25/2024 11:32 PM, Justisaur wrote:
> On 4/25/2024 10:49 AM, Kyonshi wrote:
>>
>
> tl;dr: wanna live of dnd? her husband makes 90.000$ a year. In other
> words: marry rich
>
> My wife makes that, I made 70k last year, but where we live to get that
> is expensive, we're in a tiny 70's house (about 1000 sq ft.) that's
> falling apart, needs probably 150k, maybe more in deferred maintenance
> from the previous owners, and 2 kids in a just so-so neighborhood & school.
>
>
>
> Source:
> https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/business/money-report/36-year-old-makes-37000-a-year-leading-dungeons-dragons-games-if-youre-doing-it-anyway-you-might-as-well-get-paid/3294720/
>
> 36-year-old makes $37,000 a year leading Dungeons & Dragons games: If
> ‘you're doing it anyway, you might as well' get paid
> By Mike Winters,CNBC and Raffi Paul,CNBC...
>
> ...in-person tabletop roleplaying game sessions that range from $375 to
> $750...
>
> Is that per person?  Probably not, if not that's about $15 per hour
> minimum for players assuming 5 person games.   If her games take 15
> hours (as is said later) between prep and play she should be getting
> about $25 an hour.
>
> ...She makes $24,000 as a dungeon master for the company, plus another
> $13,000 teaching writing at nearby Westminster University in Salt Lake
> City, where she lives with her husband, Scott. He makes $96,000 as a
> communications director at a state agency.
>
> A little discrepancy there.  She really makes $24k from DMing... for
> another company.  Sounds like she's getting screwed on pay.
>
> "That really opened the doors to networking for other types of work,
> because when people were looking for a writer who could do fiction at a
> professional level, my name would start coming up," says Murdock.
> Getting hired as a professional Dungeon Master
>
> $24k isn't really opening the doors for anything.
>
>
> Even if she didn't do it for a living, Murdock says she'd still be
> planning D&D campaigns for friends, reading game books or writing fiction.
>
> Since hobbies can become side hustles, "it's important to remember that
> creative work is work," she says.
>
> As a friend once said to her: "You're going to be doing it anyway, you
> might as well find someone to pay you for it."
>
> And that's how you turn your hobby into a chore.
>
> "I run about three games a week on a busy week," says Murdock. Each
> ongoing game, including prep, takes about four to five hours a week of
> her time.
>
> 24k for 15 hrs a week, assuming a couple weeks off a year she's making
> $3.20 an hour?!?  Maybe there's some overhead like venue, scheduling
> done by someone else or something, but she's really getting screwed at
> that rate!
>
> In June 2023, Mari and Scott purchased a detached two-bedroom home in
> downtown Salt Lake City for $535,000, with a down payment of $40,000. To
> afford the home, they took on a personal loan within their family, which
> works out to $777 in monthly payments in addition to their mortgage.
>
> So they got a 60 year loan with no interest from family. They should be
> paying ~$3,300 a month with a bank loan.  Must be nice.
>

I mean, I have absolutely nothing against her doing it like that. But
this article is supposedly about how millenials use their money, and
frankly, this is someone having a small side hustle while her husband
earns the money, and they are getting a no-interest loan from her
family. That's all... great for them, but what about people who don't
have a spouse that can support them doing their hobbies or have a family
that can support them?

And yeah, it's not a good use of her time if earning money is her goal.

It's one of those typical articles about how well millenials have it in
a lot of ways.

Anyway, the old maxim about making your hobby your job is that then you
won't have a free day for the rest of your life...

--
microblog: https://dice.camp/@kyonshi
macroblog: https://gmkeros.wordpress.com
pictures: https://portfolio.pixelfed.de/kyonshi