STARTPLAYING ALTERNATIVE
Summon vs StartPlaying, honestly.
StartPlaying opened this category and proved people will pay to game together — we're genuinely grateful for that. We just have a different vision of who the money should serve. On Summon, the Game Master keeps 100% of their price and 100% of their tips; players add one flat 7.77% on top — about a third of StartPlaying's combined take.
DO THE MATH
What you keep on a $30 seat
On Summon
$30.00
You keep every cent. The player adds 7.77% on top ($32.33).
On a 15% platform
$25.50
$4.50 comes out of your price before it reaches you — every seat, every session. Players pay a service fee too.
Run a few tables a week and that gap adds up over a year — and on Summon, it stays yours. Numbers are from each platform's own published pricing.
SIDE BY SIDE
The whole picture
Every line is a fact from each platform's own pricing or product. Where a Summon feature is still on the way, we say so — no pretending.
Sources: StartPlaying's published GM fee (15%), its player service fee, and its public product. Summon's fee is a flat 7.77% paid by players; the GM keeps 100% of price and tips.
IN FAIRNESS
Where StartPlaying is ahead
We're not going to pretend we're the obvious pick for everyone today. StartPlaying has a real head start: thousands of Game Masters already listed, years of reviews, and a catalog of online games you can book right now. If what you want is the largest existing library of online GMs this minute, that 's them, and it isn't close yet.
Summon is new. We're bootstrapped, launching Birmingham first, our in-person venues are still coming online, and the Party Finder isn't live yet. We won't tell you there 's a crowd already waiting — there isn't. We're building it.
What we can promise is the part in your control: the Game Master keeps everything, players pay a fraction of the combined take, and we only make money when a table actually books. If those are the things you care about, that's where we're different — on purpose.
SAME CATEGORY · DIFFERENT VISION
We support the Game Master. Every dollar, every tip.
Beta opens soon, Birmingham first. Get in before the doors swing open — as a player, a Game Master, or a game store.