Collect Payment From Your D&D Table Upfront

Collect payment from a D&D table upfront by listing the session as a priced custom request with a set price and turnaround, so each player pays through your Brillay page before you send the Discord invite or VTT link. Payment lands first; the session details go out only after that checkout completes. 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.

Verification note: every external source cited below was opened and re-checked, and each citation includes the publisher, the article title, and a direct link so a reader can confirm the figure at its origin. Brillay's own mechanics are cited to Brillay's published pricing, how it works, and Purchases and Refunds policy pages, which are the authoritative statements of how the product behaves.

The audience for a paid table is large. D&D Beyond, the official Wizards of the Coast digital toolset, wrote in its December 20, 2024 year-end post that the D&D community had reached "85 million of you worldwide" (D&D Beyond, "Thanking Our Community for a Great 2024"). Dungeon Masters who move from a free home game to a paid table usually hit the same collection problem: one player pays right away, one pays a week later, and one forgets until the session is over. Collecting before the session removes the follow-up entirely, because the money is settled before anyone sits down to play.

Why collect from the whole table before you run the session?

Collect before the session because that is the only moment a Dungeon Master still holds something the player wants: the seat, the invite link, and the prep already done. Once the game has been run, the DM has no leverage left and only social pressure to work with. Upfront payment turns a favor into a completed transaction.

Money owed between friends is common and slow to clear. A LendingTree survey of U.S. adults published November 11, 2021 found that 31% of Americans said a friend or family member currently owed them money, with a median outstanding amount of $400 (LendingTree, "31% Say Friends Or Family Owe Them Money"). That LendingTree figure describes personal lending generally, not tabletop groups specifically: no published survey isolates unpaid D&D sessions, so treat it as a practical reason to move payment ahead of play rather than as a measurement of gaming tables.

Running a session for an unpaid seat costs the same preparation and the same hours at the table as a paid one. Take a five-person group where one player never pays: the Dungeon Master has effectively discounted the whole table by 20% with no clean way to collect afterward. Requiring payment before the invite goes out avoids that arithmetic, because the seat is not confirmed until it has been paid for.

How does Brillay handle payment before a live session?

Custom Work covers one defined deliverable: the follower describes what they need and pays upfront, you can decline the request, and you send a single completed delivery — a note, files, or links. The live game itself still runs entirely on your own tools; Brillay's part ends at that one deliverable, not the session.

Online play is where a large share of tabletop activity already happens. Roll20 reported in its Q4 2020 Orr Group Industry Report that "more than 100 million hours were played across Roll20" in Q3 2020, and that Q4 hours rose by more than 6% on top of that (Roll20 Blog). Roll20's Q2 2021 report added that D&D 5th Edition accounted for 53.7% of campaigns on the platform, up from 52.94% in Q1 2021 (Roll20 Blog). StartPlaying, a marketplace for paid Dungeon Masters, notes on its own blog that "many professional games are played online" (StartPlaying) — if your table already meets in Discord or on a virtual tabletop, the only missing layer is payment and confirmation in front of it. A Dungeon Master who streams the table on Kick rather than running it privately can point viewers to the same checkout by adding a payment link to a Kick profile. Brillay is one link that carries every offer, with nothing to moderate and no community to keep warm.

A custom request is defined by the creator: Brillay's feature page states that "you write the title and description, set a price and delivery time, and followers order it. Every service is defined entirely by you," and that "if a request is out of scope, you can decline and refund it" (Custom Work). You set the delivery time on Brillay yourself, anywhere from 1–24 hours to 1–5 days, so a custom request can promise a turnaround of up to five days. For Custom Work, delivery means sending the completed map, review, outline, guide, files, or links promised in the listing—not confirming a live-session seat.

What happens if a player doesn't pay before session time?

A player who has not completed checkout has not secured a seat at the table, so nothing obligates the Dungeon Master to prep for that player or share the join link. On Brillay, a custom request order is for one defined deliverable, and the follower receives that completed work in one delivery.

That rule also protects preparation time. A Dungeon Master who builds encounters, NPCs, and a session outline for five players but collects from only four has worked unpaid on the fifth seat. Tying final prep and the join link to confirmed payments keeps planning effort matched to paid seats, and it removes the ambiguous "I'll send it after the game" arrangement that lives in a side conversation rather than in an order record.

How do established paid-DM platforms handle upfront payment and no-shows?

Dedicated paid-tabletop marketplaces treat pre-session payment as the default, and their published policies are a useful benchmark for an independent Dungeon Master who never lists on one. Two details recur in StartPlaying's Help Center: the platform's commission is taken only when a player books, and a fixed pre-session cancellation window protects the game master from last-minute drops. With Brillay, you send the players you already have directly to your own page instead of placing your offer in a marketplace directory where rankings can put another Dungeon Master first.

StartPlaying states its fee timing plainly:

"You only pay the 15% when a player books a paid session with you." — StartPlaying Help Center, "What Does the 15% Fee Cover?"

StartPlaying also operates a 24-hour cancellation window: its Help Center states that a player cannot leave a campaign within 24 hours of a session, a policy it says exists "to protect GMs from last-minute cancellations" (StartPlaying Help Center, "I Can't Leave my Campaign and the Session is within 24 Hours"). On pricing, the same Help Center reports that the average price on StartPlaying is $15–$20 per session per player (StartPlaying Help Center, "Best Practices for Game Masters"). An independent Dungeon Master can state a comparable cutoff in a listing description without a marketplace enforcing it. If you are weighing whether to move bookings off a marketplace entirely, see take D&D bookings without StartPlaying's fees.

Should you charge each player separately or collect one table total?

Charge each player separately when per-seat visibility matters, and collect one table total only when a single organizer is genuinely reliable. Per-player charging confirms each seat the moment that player pays, so a half-filled table is visible immediately. One flat total is simpler to invoice but moves the "did everyone pay their share" problem onto the organizer.

Weigh how much tracking effort you're willing to take on before choosing one — that trade-off, more than table size, is what decides which model actually reduces admin load on an ongoing campaign.

How do you set up an upfront-payment listing for your table?

Create one custom request for each defined deliverable you can complete on your own time, such as an encounter review, character-sheet audit, custom map, or written session-zero guide, with a fixed price, scope, and delivery time. State the game system, exactly what the follower receives, what you need from them, what is excluded, and when you will deliver it.

For a D&D deliverable you complete on your own time, use a structure like this:

• Title: "One-Shot D&D Session (Up to 4 Hours)" or "Weekly Campaign Seat."
• Price: Set per seat or per table. For an external reference point, StartPlaying's Help Center reports an average of $15–$20 per session per player on its marketplace (StartPlaying Help Center, "Best Practices for Game Masters").
• Delivery time: The window in which the finished map, review, or guide will arrive; the longest you can set is five days.
• Delivery notes: State exactly what the one delivery contains — file format and resolution for a map, or length and format for a written review — so the follower knows what arrives.
• Cancellation terms: State your own cutoff, for example "no refund inside 24 hours of the session," in the listing description, because Brillay's published policy assigns that decision to the creator rather than setting a platform-wide deadline.

For a defined custom request, send followers your Brillay link instead of chasing Venmo requests; they can pay without an account, and you send one completed delivery later.

What if a player cancels after they've already paid?

A creator can issue a refund, subject to the terms shown to the follower and applicable law. Brillay's published Purchases, Support and Refunds policy places that decision with the creator rather than imposing one platform-wide rule.

"Ordinary refunds are decided and initiated by the creator." — Brillay, Purchases and Refunds policy

Two caveats matter before a Dungeon Master relies on a "non-refundable" line in a listing. First, a listing term is not automatically legally enforceable: consumer-protection and distance-selling rules vary by country and by state, so a stated no-refund cutoff is a business policy rather than legal advice, and a Dungeon Master selling to players in another jurisdiction should confirm local rules. Second, a stated policy does not stop a card dispute. Brillay's Contact page explains that a creator's payment disputes, verification, and payouts are handled through Stripe inside the creator's own connected Payments & payouts account — Brillay does not decide the outcome. The same policy states that "refund timing is controlled by Stripe, the customer's bank, and the payment method" and that on an approved full refund Brillay reverses its platform fee while "Stripe's original processing fee may remain the creator's responsibility". Marketplaces bound refunds in time for the same reason: StartPlaying's Help Center states that "Game Masters can issue refunds up to 14 days after a charge" (StartPlaying Help Center, "Everything You Need to Know about Refunds").

Each purchase on Brillay is a single completed no-account checkout on the creator's page. A replacement player pays separately through the same listing. Stating cancellation terms in the listing description before anyone pays — rather than deciding case by case afterward — is what prevents the awkward conversation, because the player saw those terms at checkout.

What else can a paid D&D table sell alongside session access?

A session seat does not have to be the only paid item on a Dungeon Master's Brillay page. One Brillay link can show Paid Questions, Custom Work, Tips, and Goals side by side, so followers can choose the specific one-time offer they want.

• Paid Questions: A player asks a quick rules or lore question by text and the Dungeon Master replies asynchronously, with no live call required.
• Custom Work: Defined deliverables such as custom maps, encounter reviews, adventure outlines, or written session-zero character guides.
• Tips: A way for players or viewers to support the table between paid sessions, with no delivery obligation attached — see how to collect donations without Streamlabs fees if the table also streams.
• Goals: Funding toward a stated goal, such as a virtual-tabletop subscription or map-making tools, shown as a progress bar rather than a purchase.

Keep the paid-session listing focused on seat access, so players know exactly what a payment buys before they check out.

Frequently asked questions

Does Brillay book or schedule the actual D&D session?

No. Custom Work is for small, defined deliverables such as a custom map, encounter review, or written adventure outline.

Can I require the whole table to pay before I send the invite?

Yes. Each seat is its own custom request purchase, so a Dungeon Master can treat "payment shows as completed in the private message" as the rule for sending the session link and hold the invite for anyone who has not paid.

What if only some players in a group pay?

The Dungeon Master decides how to handle a partially paid table: run with fewer players, hold the session until the rest pay, or fill the open seat with someone else. Charging per player rather than one flat table total makes it obvious which seats are confirmed.

Does Brillay charge more for group or table bookings?

No. Brillay's fee stays the same with any group size: 8% when a follower pays for work and 5% on tips and goals, whether that payment is from one player or from a full table checking out individually.

What card-processing fees apply on top of Brillay's platform fee?

Stripe is the processor behind every Brillay payment, and Brillay's pricing page states that "the follower pays only the displayed price. Creator earnings = follower payment − platform fee − processing fee". For a US-registered Stripe account, Stripe's published US standard rate is 2.9% + $0.30 per successful domestic card charge, with an additional 1.5% for international cards and 1% when currency conversion is required (Stripe, "Pricing: Free to Start, Pay Only When You Get Paid"). Rates differ by country, so a Dungeon Master outside the United States should check Stripe's pricing page for their own market.

Do I need a business account to collect payment for D&D sessions?

Not necessarily. Whether a separate business bank account is needed depends on your own payout setup and local rules rather than on anything Brillay itself requires.

Create your free Brillay page to set the price, scope, and delivery time for your table's next session, and send the invite once the payment shows as completed.