@tinuviel i am not sure we've ever rped so I dunno. Maybe i would offer you an evening of STing for free!!
But yeah I agree the other big issue is that many mushes are using other people's work so that's a no no for making money off them unless you have permission.
I would totally ts with almost anyone for $500 though.
Also to be blunt, there are certain freedoms inherent in a volunteer hobby that change once the mindset is "paid work."
A lot of times the "why don't we pay gamerunners and storytellers" comes up in the context of "so they will shut up about being volunteers" or "so that they will hurry up and get me what I want."
@thhppbbbt there are a few people in the community that you could offer me $500 to run a scene for and unless I had a bill to pay absolutely no way in fucking hell.
So really it depends.
Also when running "an evening of storytelling" at least for me would involve planning, ect. I would feel obligated to have timely follow up and highly personalized stuff for that, because I already feel that even when not being paid.
Is this a stand alone event? Integrated into the metaplot/game altering stuff? Ic or gear rewards at the end? Game wide recognition?
When you offer a paid service it is good to have boundaries and think ahead carefully.
Integrating paid stories into a mixed company mush (or limiting yourself to only taking on the number of people you can take on as customers which may be problematic as far as making the game big enough) is a lot different from tinysexing people via tells/chat on an mmo.
Well there is a business model ready for you to set up. A premium paid virtual sex work mush. Honestly why not.
Though I do think there is a different culture between muds and mushes which is why the paid mush projects i know of have failed.
@thhppbbbt more entitlement.
And also, not enough $$$ to make up for jacking up the entitlement.
@snackness not only player expectations but also depending on a lot of factors some tax/legal ones as well.
Given how people behave on free mushes, as well as the level of fairness paranoia, i would be very reticent to set up a way people could pay, and potentially have to deal with "I paid my $3, how dare you not give me x." Also, what happens when you need to ban someone? I could see certain creepers really putting pressure after spending a significant amount, because I have seen that happen in other orgs.
There have been a few failed attempts at doing this over the decades that I know about. But I would be leery about participating in one.
Unless the $$$ is enough for a runner and staff to not have day jobs, they would not have more time for the game, but then they'd have to deal with assholes who would say "I don't have to be patient, you're ripping me off. I paid you and I'm still not getting the timing/attention I deserve!!"
@greenflashlight none harm in trying.
Nice thing about 40s plus (or any age honestly) is that you can try on anything you like. And if other people don't like it oh well.
I was able to schedule a covid vax for my youngest (age 7) for this coming Saturday. I will admit I cried and probably his second vax day will be as emotional for me as mine was.
My son has asthma and a reactive airway that lands him in the ER and has almost hospitalized him several times each year when he contracts an upper respiratory virus, since he was a baby.
It is hard to describe the level of fear and stress and guilt I have been living with over the last two years (even though it's been suppressed so I can function) as I have had to work public facing and interactive jobs this whole time. Its pretty hard to feel worried day after day that you are going to kill your kid.
Knowing how much his complication rate will statistically go down even after the first shot makes me super emotional.
My derpy destructive but also ridiculously beautiful when he wants to be panther cat has racked up yet another destroyed thing to his tally. He is the most expensive pet I have ever owned. So far he has destroyed a large zojirushi rice cooker (getting caught trying to pull out the retractable cord, freaking out, and scrambling over the top of it and knocking it to the ground from the high shelf it was placed on), a wedding-gift tiffany vase (getting in a fight with his sister on top of the china cabinet and booty bumping it off even though it wasn't near the ledge), an antique snow globe (knocking it over while desperately trying to bite the corner of the mantle), a fondue pot and everything but the forks part of that set (freaking out at the clicking noise made when he bit and then tried to run away with the magnetic cord, and jumping into the pot and then knocking it to the ground in the pantry, scratching up the surface and bending the fork rest), almost everyone in the family's favorite coffee/tea mug (4 in total--all from opening up the cabinet we keep the drinkware in and inexplicably trying to squeeze himself onto the mug shelf. These were not done at once, but in 4 separate incidents), a dyson vaccum cleaner (chewing through the cord), and now my favorite duster length cozy sweater (going apeshit with biting, rabbit kicking, and generally being a hooligan after getting into some catnip). 
His sister just lays around looking like the huge owl eyed fluffball that she is, farting, snoring, and occasionally attacking guests.
@betternow i got one of those 2 Thanksgiving ago when my oven broke two days before Thanksgiving and I was hosting! 
its still handy to have when cooking for a crowd!
@arkandel i loved being a teller, mostly because I really like office equipment (and working at a bank you get to play with a lot of equipment plus I had my own stamps and doing safe deposit boxes never got old) but honestly yeah, at least now when someone has a screaming, stomping, paper throwing tantrums (a weekly or more event at the bank) usually they're fine after a hug or I can help by giving them playdough or letting them hang out and be my special task buddy. Also they're a lot cuter, funnier, and they just wear their damn masks like they are supposed to. Yes, even the 3 year olds. (Since it is a montessori school the ages in my class range from almost 3 to 6)
If real firearms are allowed to be part of production (there's no reason for them to be) then bluntly i think it is every handlers responsibility to know basic gun safety and to at least do the final check themselves.
It is a hard way to learn that lesson, but if the choice is made to use firearms that should be the price of admission.
What happened was negligent. I dont think Baldwin is absolved of it, but I doubt he will be charged with anything more than minor slap on the wrist stuff (if he is at all).
I also wish that there were more universal and transparent rules around this but there's not. Sp this will happen again.
People negligently kill their children frequently with unattended/unsecured/improperly stored firearms and they're not usually charged with anything unless they meet certain qualifiers which none of the people involved in this incident meet.
I do think though that Baldwin and the company and that armorer are going to get the shit sued out of them in a civil court and I cannot say that I think that's bad.
This morning at work one of the 5 year olds told me his favorite movie was Titanic. Specifically the part where they run into the iceberg and "everyone dies." He did know enough about the basic plot beyond that that im pretty sure he's seen it or parts of it.
Then after recess in the afternoon one of the 4 year olds painted a big blob on her easel surrounded by MANY small blobs and took took me by the hand to show me. "Mietze look, I painted the earth! These are all the asteroids that are going to crash into it and make huge craters everywhere! Maybe we will see one tonight!!" I told her I wasn't sure if an asteroids would strike our area tonight, and she looked me in the eye and giggled and said "/You'll/ see!!"
So kind of an apocalypse/disaster sort of day in preschool today.
I had a fraud check cashing person literally take off running from my teller station once when I told her it would take a moment to validate the check, even left a flip flop behind, and as she bolted out the door she got run over by the bicycle cop who liked to cut through our parking lot.
Just feeling like a shitty everything tonight. Maybe the feeling will pass, maybe it won't. Maybe it's just the new state of being.
In less stressful news, I got my L&I income replacement check from the state. It's less than half, but better than nothing, and allowed me to at least make the health insurance payment, so there is that. I was shocked that it only took a couple of weeks.
@ganymede yep a fair amount of that too, which is part of why I think I'm flailing a bit at what seems like a busting down that probably wasn't intended to be that way. Usually I would just not log in so nobody has to deal with my worries/feelings but I feel like that would make this worse but now I'm having anxiety like whoa.
My eldest has gotten more accommodations more easily at a public university than at public k-12 though we fought hard all the way.
The barrier/standard for intervention is astronomically high in most districts. I did have more success actually battling the insurance provider to cover OT and other services outside of the school district and this is the way we are going about it for my youngest. (Though there's a large OT shortage in our area so I am relying on informal activities and equipment in the meantime).
I think one of the important things to be very intentional about is what you, as staff/gamerunner(s) are hoping to get out of "balancing".
Are you wanting to balance things so that you have minimal intervention responsibilities (you want to expect that players will largely create their own fun without much staff supported and enforced structure)?
Are you wanting have a more well rounded set of characters (and so need to make less flashy "types" appealing to play so that you don't have an all Aes Sedai and Their Warders game?
It's hard to know how to balance things when one doesn't know the real honest intent behind it. There's no right or wrong answer to that, but I think figuring that out and then structuring from there is more likely to be successful.