How Tabletop and TTRPG Creators Get Paid for Follower Requests

Tabletop and TTRPG creators get paid by pricing the things followers already ask for between sessions: homebrew statblocks and one-shot outlines, quick rules and encounter-balance answers, in-character Personalized Videos, and campaign goals. Brillay puts those offers on one link, with no follower minimum, no monthly fee, and an 8% platform fee when a follower pays for work, 5% on tips and goals platform fee charged only when a follower pays. Custom Work lets you offer clearly scoped commissions and services: you set the price, the scope and the delivery time, and followers submit a brief and pay before you start.

Followers can check out by card without an account. Followers pay upfront; you reply in writing on your own time within the window you set, and you can decline a request. Brillay has no monthly fee and supports creator payouts in 41 countries.

Wizards of the Coast's September 25, 2024 press release for the 2024 Player's Handbook claims "more than 85 million D&D fans worldwide and more than 18 million registered D&D Beyond users" (Wizards of the Coast press release). An audience that size does not arrive looking only for paid seats at a scheduled table: the same audience arrives with single rules questions and one-off requests for campaigns already in progress.

Brillay is for the work around the table — no live call, no scheduling (how it works). Brillay gives the people already asking you a way to pay for prep, written answers, custom assets, and funding between sessions.

What can TTRPG creators sell besides running games?

Tabletop creators can sell six distinct things on Brillay: custom homebrew deliverables, private rules and prep answers, in-character recorded videos, cash toward a campaign or publishing goal, no-strings tips, and sponsorship inquiries. Each paid option uses a price or amount you set, while Brand Collaboration Inquiries takes no payment; every option maps to a request tabletop creators already receive unpriced in Discord. One link that carries every offer, with nothing to moderate and no community to keep warm.

Each Brillay offer has its own media format. Paid Questions let a follower pay upfront to ask one private question, and you send one written reply on your own time — no live call or scheduling. Custom Work lets the follower attach files and lets the creator deliver text plus files and/or a link; Personalized Videos takes written instructions from the follower and delivers one video.

Can a dungeon master sell homebrew through Custom Work?

Yes — a dungeon master can sell homebrew through Brillay Custom Work. Custom Work is the format for a defined homebrew deliverable: the follower describes the campaign and can attach files, the creator sets a fixed price and delivery time, and the finished statblock, map, or outline arrives as a document, image, link, or video.

Each custom request is one defined delivery with a creator-set deadline of up to 5 days. Followers pay upfront, and you deliver on your own schedule. The 120-hour cap and the refund option matter for prep work, where a request sometimes turns out to be a campaign rewrite rather than one encounter.

*Every price and delivery time above is an illustrative editorial starting point, not a benchmark or a guaranteed rate. Set yours against your own prep time.

How do paid rules questions work without a live call?

For Paid Questions, you set the price and a reply time of 1–24 hours or 1–5 days. The follower pays upfront and types one question, and you answer it in writing between sessions, with no slot to find on anyone's calendar. You can also customize the card title and description followers see.

Paid Questions accept text only from the follower, so the format suits tabletop questions that can be written out rather than uploaded:

• "My level 5 party is about to fight a CR 9 monster. Is that a wipe?"
• "A player wants to multiclass out of the class the campaign was built around. What do I do?"
• "How do I run a mystery so the party can actually solve it?"
• "Two players keep talking over a quieter one. How do I fix that at session zero?"

For the wider set of income sources open to game masters, see how dungeon masters get paid.

Can you charge for the D&D homebrew you publish?

Whether a tabletop creator can charge for published D&D homebrew depends on the license covering the material. SRD 5.1 and SRD 5.2 are available under the Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license, which permits commercial use, while material made under the Fan Content Policy must stay free (D&D Beyond, System Reference Document).

D&D Beyond states that SRD 5.2.1 became available on May 1, 2025 and added 15 magic items that had been omitted from SRD 5.2.

Creative Commons states in its own CC BY 4.0 deed that the license lets anyone "copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially," provided appropriate credit is given (Creative Commons, CC BY 4.0 deed). Paid homebrew built on SRD 5.1 or SRD 5.2 has to carry CC BY 4.0 attribution to Wizards of the Coast.

Fan Content is the second path, and Wizards of the Coast's Fan Content Policy is explicit that Fan Content cannot be sold:

"One word: F-R-E-E. You can use Wizards' IP … to make Fan Content that you share with the community for free. Free means FREE: You can't require payments, surveys, downloads, subscriptions, or email registration to access your Fan Content."

— Wizards of the Coast Fan Content Policy, last updated November 15, 2017

Wizards of the Coast's Fan Content Policy also states that Fan Content may still be subsidized by "sponsorships, ad revenue, and donations". The sponsorship-and-donations allowance is why a creator can accept Tips on an actual-play show while a paywalled adventure has to be built on SRD material or original work. Quotation and commentary sit under fair use, which the US Copyright Office describes as a four-factor analysis decided case by case. Licensing summaries on this page are general education, not legal advice.

How does Brillay compare with a paid-GM marketplace?

Brillay and a paid-GM marketplace solve different problems and can run side by side. A paid-GM marketplace is built around seats at scheduled live games; Brillay is built for the paid prep, answers, videos, and funding requests that happen between sessions. Followers who already know you can order from your own Brillay page instead of entering a marketplace directory where a ranking may show them another game master first.

The fee structures differ as well, and StartPlaying states its own plainly:

"You set your own session price. When a player books and pays, StartPlaying automatically deducts 15% before the remainder is paid out to you."

— StartPlaying Help Center, "What Does the 15% Fee Cover?", article

Brillay gives followers a way to pay for the statblock, the answer, the Personalized Video, or the goal from your link-in-bio. Card processing is separate: Stripe publishes a US online-card rate of 2.9% + 30 cents per successful transaction (Stripe, Pricing & Fees), varying by card type and country.

The 15% figure comes from the StartPlaying Help Center article "What Does the 15% Fee Cover?"; the 8% fee when a follower pays for work (5% on tips and goals) comes from Brillay's own pricing page.

A game master who runs weekly paid tables and also writes homebrew can use a booking marketplace for the sessions and a Brillay link for everything sold between them.

How do actual-play shows fund a season?

Actual-play shows fund a season on Brillay by naming one concrete goal — a second microphone, a season of commissioned art, a print run for the setting book — and collecting cash toward it on a progress bar, with tips covering listeners who simply want to say thanks. Neither offer carries a follower minimum.

Platform monetization programs usually open later than a first actual-play season needs the money. YouTube's expanded Partner Program grants fan funding access at 500 subscribers with 3 valid public uploads in the last 90 days plus either 3,000 qualified watch hours in 12 months or 3 million qualified Shorts views in 90 days (YouTube Help, expanded YPP). A first-season tabletop podcast may not clear the 500-subscriber and 3,000-hour bar. Brillay takes paid requests from those same viewers with no threshold to reach: a written answer, a custom video, a commission, a tip or a contribution toward a named goal.

Twitch sets a separate and lower bar: the Twitch Help Center lists four Affiliate requirements — reach 25 followers, stream for 4 hours, stream on 4 different days, and reach an average of 3 viewers (Twitch Help, Joining the Affiliate Program). Twitch further specifies that the 3-average-viewer requirement is measured over any 4 stream days in the last 30 days. Reaching the Twitch Affiliate bar can still take an actual-play show weeks of scheduled broadcasts, and neither platform program pays out before its own threshold is met. A panel link that works before Affiliate and off-stream: viewers pay as guests for a request or one-time support whenever they see it.

Platform revenue shares also decide how much of a follower's payment reaches an actual-play show. YouTube Help states that "Creators receive 70% of Supers revenue that is confirmed by Google," a share calculated after local sales tax and App Store fees on iOS are deducted (YouTube Help, Manage Super Chat & Super Stickers). The Twitch Affiliate Program FAQ states that the standard subscription revenue split for Affiliates is 50/50 between the creator and Twitch (Twitch Help, Twitch Affiliate Program FAQ).

Every figure in the table above is sourced: the 70% Supers share to YouTube Help, the 50/50 Affiliate split to the Twitch Affiliate Program FAQ, and the 5% fee to Brillay's own pricing page.

Goals is built for the gap before YouTube or Twitch monetization opens. Followers send cash toward the stated goal and a progress bar shows the distance left. Goals is one-time support toward one named goal, with no reward tiers and nothing to ship.

When listeners ask “how can I support the show?”, they can send one-time Tips from the same link as your paid requests, without joining a membership or expecting a reply. Because the support options live on the same Brillay link, you can make the ask a simple “support the show here” CTA instead of a one-by-one money conversation in Discord. Tips require no reply and no delivery.

Where do Personalized Videos fit for tabletop creators?

Personalized Videos let a follower pay for a custom in-character video that the creator records and delivers through Brillay. A dungeon master known for a recurring NPC records a birthday message or a first-session hype video in that voice, at a price and delivery time the creator sets.

Personalized Videos is one of the offers a tabletop creator switches on from the dashboard, and the creator sets the price and the delivery time. A follower ordering a Personalized Video sends the names, pronunciations, and campaign details as written instructions in the request form.

One licensing check applies before a tabletop creator records a paid shoutout: Wizards of the Coast's Fan Content Policy requires Fan Content built on Wizards' IP to stay free, so a paid in-character video is safest performed as the creator's own original NPC rather than as a Wizards-owned character.

Gaming creators field near-identical build and coaching requests, but the in-character shoutout is specific to tabletop.

How does a tabletop creator set up a Brillay page?

A tabletop creator sets Brillay up by switching on the one or two offers that match the inbox, then pasting a single link everywhere players already gather. Creators who mostly receive questions start with Paid Questions. Creators who mostly receive "can you make me a…" publish one tightly scoped custom request with a delivery time that survives a bad week.

Not sure followers will pay? Start with the request already repeated in your inbox, give it a small fixed scope and price, and share the same Brillay link without needing a follower minimum or monthly fee. You set the price for Paid Questions, Personalized Videos, and each custom request; Tips use suggested amounts, Goals collect contributions toward a target, and Brand Collaboration Inquiries take no payment.

Then put the same Brillay link where players already find you:

• Discord server rules or a pinned channel
• YouTube or Twitch channel description and panels
• Podcast show notes for every episode
• The bio on whichever platform your campaign clips live on

Put your Brillay link in the Discord server, show notes, and channel bios where players already ask for rules help, custom prep, and ways to support the show.

You do not need a booking page, scheduling calendar, membership, or follower minimum: publish the offers you want, connect payouts, and share one Brillay link. Payout timing varies by country and account status, so check the timing shown for your connected payout account.

Frequently asked questions

Tabletop creators also ask, “How much should I charge for a statblock, one-shot, or paid rules answer?” Start with a tightly defined deliverable, price the prep time it actually takes, and raise the price if your backlog grows.

Can a follower attach a character sheet to a Paid Question?

No. Paid Questions are text-in from the follower, and the creator replies in writing; files are not supported in either direction. Requests involving a character sheet, campaign document, or map file should be sold as a custom request, which supports follower attachments and file delivery.

Can a dungeon master sell an adventure that uses D&D content?

SRD 5.1 and SRD 5.2 are available under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 and can be built on (D&D Beyond), while material covered by the Fan Content Policy must stay free and cannot be paywalled (Wizards of the Coast Fan Content Policy). Licensing summaries on this page are general education, not legal advice.

Does Brillay replace a paid-GM booking platform?

No. Brillay has no booking or scheduling system, so live scheduled tables still need a booking tool. Brillay covers work between sessions: homebrew deliverables, private questions, Personalized Videos, goals, and tips.

What happens if a homebrew request is too large to accept?

You can decline it. A brief that has grown past what your listing covers does not have to be accepted; anything you do accept is delivered inside the delivery time you selected, which cannot exceed Brillay's 120-hour cap.

What does a tabletop creator keep from a paid request?

No monthly fee, you only pay a small platform fee when you get paid. 8% platform fee when a follower pays for work, 5% platform fee on tips and goals. Card processing is separate. What you keep is the displayed price minus the platform fee and Stripe’s processing fee.

Create your free Brillay page and put a price on the statblock, the rules ruling, and the NPC birthday video you're already making for free between sessions.