StartPlaying.Games - Dungeons & Dragons games run by professional DMs

On my bucket list is a plan to setup a D&D series, hiring a professional writer as a DM, and actors as the other players. I thought it was an outlandish, wild idea; and here you are, basically doing this. Amazing!

Such an amazing way to keep in touch with people in these uncertain times!

I just found these guys last week when our weekly game got cancelled and I thought there must be a place that lets us find a one-shot DM online. I haven't had a chance to book a game yet but I'm excited to do so. It's great to see this on ProductHunt, I hope it really helps get the word out.

I've been using Startplaying.Games for a couple of months and it's been a great experience. The developers listen to the users and implement features as they can. Using Startplaying.Games has allowed me to focus on running games while they send me players, it's a great relationship.

Been with these for a while, they have an awesome community and do an incredible job.

I use startplaying daily as a Professional Dungeon Master I have I find this is a wonderful tool. I can list my open games, or create listings for potential groups. It really has been a huge time saver and networking tool.

Had the best time playing a game run by Meghan Caves. The entire process, from searching for a DM, to booking, to planning and playing our session was seamless and easy. Meghan was professional and communicative and is a masterful storyteller. I'm looking forward to booking my next session with StartPlayingGames!!

Hi all! I’m Devon, one of the co-founders of StartPlaying. I've been a professional Dungeon Master for over five years. I was even featured in Bloomberg about it. Over time, people all over the country began to ask me to help run games for them, and, frankly, I could not handle the demand. When I did the research to try and refer players, I found that there was no real place to hire professional DMs to run games for people. That is why we built StartPlaying.Games - to solve a problem I personally saw. We have a large crew Game Masters who are running 100+ games a week. Anyone can join a game solo with others. You can book a game for you and a group of friends and family. We also offer the best team building events for our corporate customers! For those who don’t want to search through our site, we also offer a matchmaking service where we ask you a few questions, find your perfect Game Master, and then handle everything else. On the business side, we make money by taking a percentage of game bookings, including on a newly launched subscription option for players. Game Masters have been really excited about our platform, as it gives them more time to focus on planning and running games rather than building a website and business platform. Our players love us because they’re getting an amazing gaming experience without the hassle of setting it up themselves. Best of all, we're proud to boast our diverse user group that includes players of all kinds, including a group of 5th-graders who play every week, their mom and her friends who now do the same, and dads who don’t have time to be DMs and spend a night once a month playing together -- people who have never met each other forming friendships over adventures. What’s next? A lot! We’re working and partnering with game publishers, virtual tabletops, expanding into online conventions, and more. We'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback, along with any questions!

As a professional dungeon master, I know my services are a very niche product, so I've had to spend most of my business management time marketing my services. Gathering the skills, tools, and experience needed to be successful is difficult enough, so I can see how not being a marketer would make growing your business an uphill battle, especially with growing competition. StartPlaying.Games has that magic combination of being a good idea at just the right time. With the pandemic keeping everyone at home, hosted online role-playing games are more popular than ever, and there's a serious lack of experienced game masters to run game sessions. And once the COVID crisis abates, live tabletop sessions are going to explode, opening a whole other market for StartPlaying.Games.

I got into Startplaying.games early and have seen it grow really quickly to a very useful to as a Gamemaster. It has helped me connect with players of all types. The community is amazing and everyone seems very helpful. The creator Devon does a lot to make sure game asters are successful on this platform as well as always looking for ways to improve and move the site/service forward. There are services similar but nothing beats the community, leadership and quick growth they startplaying has.