Long-time lurker here, decided to share my story, figured people here might find it interesting. I'm not a native english speaker, so apologies for any mistakes.
For a long time I worked in several jobs related to journalism, usually with horrible schedules (waking up at 5am for years), bad pay, neurotic bosses, unhinged colleagues, and so many other things that I could make a separate post about it.
My interest in journalism came from my passion for storytelling. Before studying communication, I was always a big nerd and fantasy enthusiast. Since I discovered role-playing games, Dungeons and Dragons in particular, I found something I really enjoyed and was very good at, but it would never have occurred to me to turn it into something profitable, until a friend suggested to me that there were people who would pay for a good Dungeon Master.
For those who don't know about, Dungeons and Dragons (DnD) is a role-playing game, in which players play characters in a world of sword and sorcery. Each player voices their character and describes their actions, rolls dice to determine the outcome of their actions, fights monsters and explores dungeons. All this is guided by a person, the Dungeon Master (DM), who referees the game, describes the scenarios and situations and gives voice to the other characters who live in the world and interact with the player characters.
Now, the usual thing is to get together to play DnD with your friends. But I found that there were many people who didn't have friends interested in playing, or couldn't coordinate schedules, or didn't have the time to prepare the stories. With some skepticism on my part at first, I started offering paid DnD games, and to my surprise quickly got several players.
As time went on, word of my services spread, and I invested in supplies to improve the quality of my games. I kept this as a side job for several years, while continuing to work in journalism. Even during the pandemic, we continued to play virtually with many people.
Shortly after the end of the pandemic, I was laid off, almost without notice. I looked for work for months without success, burning through savings, until I decided to take a chance and go all in with my DnD games. I created a brand, advertised, and started actively looking for players, something I had never done before. At first it was a little slow, but eventually things progressed, and months later, I was running several new games, to the point that I had to set up a waiting list.
And to this current day, I'm still at it. I decided to give up journalism altogether and dedicate myself to being a full-time Dungeon Master. I don't have much money to spare, but I'm paying rent and bills doing something I love, at the hours I want, and generally making the same or even more money than I did working in journalism. My mental health has improved a lot, I have time for sports and the things I enjoy.
I don't know how long this will last. Maybe I can continue living from being a DM for the rest of my life, or not, the fact is that the future is uncertain. But at least I can say that I'm making a living from my passion, and it's something I'm proud of. And if I was able to “get off the grid” and dedicate myself to this, and not starve to death, well, maybe this story can inspire someone.
So if at some time you want to distract yourself a little bit rolling some dice, fighting dragons and looting dungeons, you know who to contact ;). If you made it to the end, thanks for reading, and I wish you the best.