How to Set Up a Booking Link for Paid D&D Sessions

Brillay has no live scheduling calendar, so a "booking link" for paid D&D sessions is really a priced custom request: you list the session, price, and turnaround window, the follower pays and submits their details through that one link, and you then confirm the actual date and time with them directly. 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.

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. Brillay pricing

Dungeon Masters running paid one-shots for people who already found them on creator communities, Discord, or Twitch usually don't need a discovery marketplace — they need one place to collect payment and session details without stitching together a payment app, a poll, and a calendar tool. That's a narrower problem than "how do I find paying players," and it has a narrower fix. A Brillay link works the same for a DM who hasn't crossed Twitch's follower thresholds yet as it does for one who has, and it keeps taking orders whether a session is live or not, so followers can pay as guests for a request or one-time support whenever they see it. One link that carries every offer, with nothing to moderate and no community to keep warm.

Does Brillay have a live scheduling calendar for D&D sessions?

No. Brillay Custom Work is for one-time, defined deliverables; dedicated booking tools and marketplaces are for live scheduling. What Dungeon Masters call a "booking link" on Brillay is a priced Custom Work page where followers pay upfront and submit details; the DM and the follower confirm the actual date directly, off-platform.

Brillay states the asynchronous model plainly in its own documentation: "There are no live video calls or appointments to schedule" (Brillay, How It Works — "Are Brillay interactions live calls?"). Calendly and marketplace booking calendars schedule live sessions; a Brillay custom request link collects payment and requirements for a defined deliverable.

Marketplaces built around live scheduling, like StartPlaying, exist instead to find new players and slot them into open calendar times. A Brillay link is for a DM with an existing audience who needs a clean way to get paid and gather intake details for a defined deliverable. For the wider landscape of how paid GMs get compensated across platforms, how do Dungeon Masters get paid breaks down royalty and marketplace models side by side.

How do you turn a one-shot request into a paid Brillay link?

Package what the link actually handles as Custom Work — the price, the scope, and the player brief — and keep the live table on the voice or VTT tool you already run it on. Followers pay upfront and submit requirements at checkout; the Dungeon Master confirms the date afterward.

The full setup, from dashboard to confirmed session:

1. Create the service. In the Custom Work section of your Brillay dashboard, add a new service and give it a title a player would recognize — "4-hour 5e one-shot, up to 5 players" beats "D&D session."
2. Set the price and the delivery time window. Brillay lets you set a delivery-time window of up to 5 days for Custom Work and Personalized Videos (Brillay Custom Work). For a booking link, treat that window as your deadline to confirm a date, not to run the game.
3. Write the scope. State the system, the seat count, the session length, the virtual tabletop or voice platform, and anything explicitly excluded.
4. Set the intake questions. Brillay's Custom Work documentation explains that a follower submits a brief and pays before you start, with the follower able to attach files, links, screenshots, or written context at checkout. Ask for preferred system, character level, timezone, and availability windows.
5. Publish and share the link. Put it where the request already arrives: a creator-community reply, a pinned Discord message, a Twitch panel, or a bio link.
6. Deliver or decline. With Custom Work, you deliver text plus files and/or a link once within your delivery time, or decline and refund a request that turns out to be out of scope.

Followers pay upfront as guests, and you deliver within the window you set.

Paying before the date is set inverts the live-marketplace default. StartPlaying's help center states that on StartPlaying "Players are automatically charged 1 hour after the session start time" (StartPlaying Help Center, "When are Players Charged?"); with a Brillay custom request, followers pay upfront, before any date is even set.

What should a paid D&D session listing include?

A paid D&D session listing should state the ruleset and edition, the format (one-shot, campaign session, or ongoing seat), the player cap, the session length, what prep the player must bring, what is excluded, and the delivery time window in which the Dungeon Master will confirm a date and time.

At minimum, spell out:

• System and edition — 5th Edition, Pathfinder 2e, or whatever ruleset you run.
• Format — a one-shot, a single campaign session, or an ongoing seat.
• Player cap — solo session or a group booking one seat each.
• Prep required — pre-built character, a completed character sheet, or none.
• What's excluded — miniatures, VTT subscriptions, or session recordings, if those aren't included.
• Delivery time and confirmation window — the period in which you'll reply with a proposed date. Brillay lets you set a delivery-time window of up to 5 days.

Naming the edition is not cosmetic. Roll20's Orr Report for Q2 2021 recorded Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition at 53.7% of all campaigns on Roll20, up from 52.94% the previous quarter, which means a listing that says only "D&D" still leaves Pathfinder and older-edition players guessing. Vague listings create disputes later, so specificity in the listing description protects both the Dungeon Master and the player.

How does scheduling actually happen once a follower pays?

Use a dedicated booking tool or marketplace when a player needs to choose a time — a Brillay custom request link isn't built to pick a calendar slot.

If timezones or availability genuinely don't line up, the request can be declined and refunded rather than held: "If a request is out of scope, you can decline and refund it". Refund control matters more for a session sold as a live event than for most Custom Work, because a scheduling mismatch is a common failure mode for anything with a date attached.

Lead time is worth planning around. StartPlaying's help center tells game masters that "Around 50% of players book 10–13 days before a session", so a confirmation window measured in days — not weeks — is normally enough to land a date that works for a paying player.

How much should you charge, and what do live GM marketplaces take instead?

Price a paid one-shot by prep hours, session length, and seats sold, then subtract the platform cut before comparing options. Brillay charges 8% when a follower pays for work and 5% on tips and goals, with no monthly fee; StartPlaying, a marketplace built for booking paid games, deducts 15% from each booking. Card processing is separate from both.

StartPlaying's own help center states its cut directly:

"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?"

StartPlaying's 15% deduction is the tradeoff for built-in player discovery, automated scheduling, and dispute handling. A Brillay link skips the marketplace layer for DMs who already have players lined up, so the lower platform fee reflects a narrower job: payment collection and intake, not discovery.

Payout speed differs too. StartPlaying's help center lists payouts as 2–3 business days for US game masters and 7–11 business days for game masters outside the US (StartPlaying Help Center, "How Does Payment Work For Running Games On StartPlaying?"). Brillay uses Stripe to send money to your bank account, and Stripe says eligible US merchants can get faster ACH payments, reducing the time from 4 business days to 2 business days from payment creation (Stripe Docs, Receive payouts).

Price floors differ as well: StartPlaying's help center states that "StartPlaying requires a minimum charge of $5 per session to ensure payments are processed correctly through Stripe".

Card processing sits underneath every option. Stripe publishes its standard US rate as "2.9% + 30¢ per successful transaction" for domestic cards (Stripe pricing) — typical US online-card pricing, with international cards and currency conversion priced higher. For dollar-figure benchmarks before setting a price, how much to charge for a paid D&D one-shot works through prep time and per-seat math.

Is a Brillay link the same thing as a marketplace like StartPlaying?

No. StartPlaying is a marketplace that finds Dungeon Masters new players and books them through its own calendar for a 15% cut. A Brillay link collects payment and intake from followers who already know the DM, who then confirms timing directly with each follower.

The difference matters most for recurring tables. GeekWire, reporting on a Wizards of the Coast player-data presentation in 2023, wrote that 58% of D&D players play on a weekly basis; Wizards of the Coast has not published that figure in a standalone public report, so treat it as GeekWire's account of the presentation rather than a primary WotC statistic. A weekly-playing audience isn't shopping for a one-off stranger game — it's an existing table looking for a clean way to keep paying for seats it already holds.

The audience is large either way. Hasbro's own newsroom announced the game's 50th anniversary in 2024 and put the game's worldwide audience at more than 50 million people. Hasbro's investor newsroom announced its acquisition of D&D Beyond in April 2022 under the headline "Purchase of D&D Beyond to Add Nearly 10 Million Players to Digital Tabletop Ecosystem", a scale that explains why paid Dungeon Masters keep getting asked to run games. With Custom Work, followers pay upfront for a one-time, defined deliverable with the price, scope and delivery time written down.

Do you need a business license to charge for paid D&D sessions?

Business licensing for paid D&D sessions depends on jurisdiction, and the guidance in this section is general information rather than legal advice. In the United States, an individual running paid games without forming an entity is taxed as a sole proprietor, and business-licensing rules are set by state, county, and city rather than nationally. Rules outside the US differ entirely.

The U.S. Small Business Administration is explicit that licensing is local, not uniform:

"Apply for licenses and permits. The requirements and fees vary based on your business activities, location, and government rules." — U.S. Small Business Administration, "Launch your business"

Three US federal figures are worth knowing before pricing sessions. The IRS states that "you have to file an income tax return if your net earnings from self-employment were $400 or more" (IRS, Self-employed individuals tax center). Separately, for tax year 2026 the IRS requires third-party settlement organizations to file a Form 1099-K only when gross payments to a payee exceed $20,000 across more than 200 transactions. The IRS also sets the self-employment tax rate at 15.3% — 12.4% for Social Security and 2.9% for Medicare (IRS, Self-employment tax (Social Security and Medicare taxes)) — which is why US Dungeon Masters should price sessions against net earnings rather than gross. Neither the $400 filing threshold nor the $20,000 Form 1099-K reporting threshold applies to Dungeon Masters outside the United States, who report under their own country's self-employment rules.

Local licensing, sales-tax treatment of services, and entity choice vary too much to generalize; do you need to be a registered business to run paid D&D games covers the question in full. Check your own state, county, and city — or a licensed professional — before you price sessions.

What if a scheduled session falls through?

Decline and refund the request. Brillay lets a creator decline any request and return the payment in full, so a Dungeon Master who cannot run the listed session — a time conflict, a dropped player, an out-of-scope ask — refunds rather than holding money for a game that will not happen.

Brillay documents the refund path in its own help content, under the question "What if I get a request I don't want to fulfill?".

Live marketplaces put clocks on the same problem. 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"), and StartPlaying's player guide describes "a 24-hour cancellation period through which players can skip a session before being charged". On Brillay, the Dungeon Master states the reschedule-and-refund rule in the listing description.

Frequently asked questions

Before selling a paid D&D session as Custom Work, most Dungeon Masters want the same handful of questions answered: How much should I charge? What exactly is included? Do followers pay upfront? When is the one-time delivery due? What happens if I decline? Custom Work means no live call, no scheduling.

Does a Brillay link replace Discord or Zoom for running the actual game?

No. Brillay handles payment and intake for a defined deliverable; the Dungeon Master runs live sessions on whatever tool they already use, such as Discord or a VTT.

Can a follower book a specific calendar slot inside Brillay?

A Brillay custom request is for a one-time, defined deliverable: no live call, no scheduling; use a dedicated booking tool or marketplace to choose a calendar slot. A follower pays upfront for a listed custom request, and the DM delivers the defined deliverable within the stated delivery time window.

What is the longest delivery time window a Brillay listing can promise?

You can set a delivery-time window of up to 5 days for Custom Work and Personalized Videos.

What does Brillay charge for a paid D&D session listing?

Two separate charges. Brillay's own cut is the platform fee shown on this page's pricing line: nothing monthly, and it only applies to a session a follower has actually paid for. Card processing is the other one — the typical US online-card rate of 2.9% + 30¢ is set by Stripe, not Brillay.

Do I need a coaching or business credential to charge for sessions?

You can set up a custom request on Brillay with no approval process. Business-registration and tax rules are a separate, jurisdiction-specific question, covered in do you need to be a registered business to run paid D&D games.

Can I sell a recurring campaign seat the same way as a one-shot?

Custom Work is for a single, one-time deliverable with the price, scope and delivery time written down.

Create your free Brillay page and turn the next "can I book a session with you?" message into a priced link instead of a scheduling headache.