Thread: Questioning chirine ba kal - part II

General question to the thread.

I don't recall if this question has been asked before, but which of MAR Barker's novels is your favourite, and which is your least favourite?


Shemek

So, a friend of mine used to make $300/hr as a clown. That was his rate but there were expenses for expendables ranging from balloons and makeup to travel expenses and he was only getting maybe three to five hours a month. So, while it's nice when you can get it, that kind of paid service arrangement really isn't as lucrative as it sounds.

I'd suggest $500/hr to start plus travel expenses.

Folks seem to be missing my point.

If we are dealing with the sort of characters I think we are, it doesn't matter if you charge 150 bucks an hour, or 150 million bucks per hour. As soon as you mention real money and signing on the dotted line, they're gone.

Which is the whole point of it.

Fair enough, gamers are cheap. Not Warhammer gamers though. I often wonder if that's self selecting a customer base or just the base line of stupidity needed to get into Warhammer. I'm saying that as a guy who at one point had five Warhammer Fantasy Battle armies and two Warhammer 40k armies. I think I only ever played 40k maybe five times. But around here, if you wanted to play miniatures games that was the only game in town. But yeah, I've got a lot of a special kind of stupid.

That being said, most Warhammer gamers have no idea who Steve Jackson, Brian Ansel, and Rick Priestly are so they probably wouldn't pay to play with or listen to them.

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

Folks seem to be missing my point.

No I got it.

Originally Posted by Bren

No I got it.

Okay, good. At that point we then get to "at what point does the retired mercenary come out of retirement?"

If somebody were to seriously offer me $150 an hour, yeah, I'd at least listen to their pitch.

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

You need to type up a rate sheet. That way, when somebody says "You should..." you reply "Certainly. Here's my standard rates."

And if they respond with "You're a big meanie poo-poo head," you respond with "And damn good at it, too."

Agreed. I have an 'Events Guide' that I will be delighted to give to event organizers, which lists in mind-numbing detail the kind and type of games that I'll run and with what; it also gives my requirements. So far, it's worked a treat to separate the serious from the inane.

Originally Posted by Bren

And once you do, you should double or quadruple the rate and print out a new sheet. Many people undervalue what they are worth in these sorts of situations. Engaging my Internet mind reading ability, I'm going to go out on a limb and say you are one of those people.

Agreed; I used to be that 'nice old Chirine', who'd do stuff for people if they said thanks. People stopped saying thanks, so I stopped doing things for them.

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

Who, me or Chirine?

In either case, I think the answer will be the same; "Been there, done that, left the hobby for over a decade, which is why my rates START at $150/hour plus expenses."

In other words, "I don't want to do this, but if you're going to pay me a ridiculous amount of money, we'll talk."

Agreed. Back when I was doing show production professionally, we had The List of people that we didn't want to work for. We'd be very nice and polite, but we'd charge them twice what anyone else got for a quote. Worked like a charm.