Sell Custom D&D Adventure Writing From Your Bio

Sell custom D&D adventure writing by listing it as a priced custom request: define the system, party level, page count, and format up front, collect payment before you start writing, and deliver the finished document through a private link. Keep private commissions built on the open SRD rules rather than Wizards-owned setting IP, and no marketplace submission is required to get paid. 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.

A common ask lands as "Can you write us a custom one-shot for this weekend?" or "Can you build out act two of our homebrew campaign?" Instead of writing it for free between your own sessions, a Dungeon Master with writing chops can price that request as a defined deliverable. The legal ground for doing so is published: Wizards of the Coast's D&D Beyond System Reference Document page, states that both SRD 5.1 and SRD 5.2 are available under the Creative Commons CC-BY-4.0 license and lists SRD v5.2.1 as published on May 1, 2025 (D&D Beyond SRD).

What counts as "custom D&D adventure writing" as a paid offer?

Custom D&D adventure writing is a written deliverable sold to one follower: a one-shot script, an adventure module, a campaign-arc outline, an encounter set, or an NPC and lore packet, built to that follower's system, party level, and theme, then handed over as a document. Custom adventure writing is not live game-mastering, session hosting, or open-ended worldbuilding advice.

A written adventure moves as a file, so it belongs in Custom Work rather than Paid Questions. Brillay's Custom Work documentation states that delivery is "a written note plus up to 5 files (video, audio, images, PDF, Word, Excel, or PowerPoint), and/or a private link (Google Drive, Loom, Dropbox…) for anything larger," and that the follower "can also attach their own files when they order" (Custom Work). A follower who wants advice on their homebrew setting is not the same follower as one who wants a finished module tonight, and bundling both into one vague "D&D help" listing makes each harder to price.

Is it legal to sell content built on D&D's rules and setting?

Selling original adventure writing built on D&D's open rules is legal under Wizards of the Coast's Creative Commons release of the System Reference Document. Content using Wizards-owned setting IP, such as named Forgotten Realms locations or official non-SRD monsters, is licensed only through the Dungeon Masters Guild program — so a private, one-buyer commission should stay SRD-only.

Wizards' own SRD overview table marks "I want to print and sell 5e or 5.5e content on my own" as available under both SRD 5.1 and SRD 5.2 but not under DMsGuild, and marks "I want to publish content using the Forgotten Realms" as available only through DMsGuild (D&D Beyond SRD). Wizards describes the purpose of that document plainly:

"The purpose of the SRD is to provide a foundation of Dungeons & Dragons content on which third-party publishers can build their products. It allows creators to reference and use the base game rules of Dungeons & Dragons in their products without the need to pay a licensing fee to Wizards of the Coast." — Wizards of the Coast, D&D Beyond, "System Reference Document v5.2.1" (dndbeyond.com/srd)

Wizards' Creative Commons release of the SRD is not reversible. Wizards of the Coast's D&D Beyond SRD page answers "Can SRD 5.2 ever be revoked or changed?" with "No," adding that a document published under CC-BY-4.0 is "permanently available under those terms" and that "Wizards of the Coast cannot revoke or alter SRD 5.2 or remove it from Creative Commons". A DM pricing SRD-based commissions in 2026 is therefore building on a license that cannot be withdrawn from under the work later.

Rules themselves sit outside copyright in the United States, while the words you write about them do not. The U.S. Copyright Office states that "the idea for a game is not protected by copyright" and that "the name or title given to the game and the methods for playing it are not protected by copyright," while text describing the rules can be registered (U.S. Copyright Office, Games). That is why an original adventure written in your own prose is your copyrighted work even though it runs on someone else's system.

If a commission calls for official WotC setting IP, DMsGuild.com is the licensed route, and it pays through a public-sale royalty rather than a private fee:

"Once you activate your Dungeon Masters Guild title for public sale, your account will begin to accrue a 50% royalty every time your title sells." — DMsGuild Help Center, "Accounting, Charity, and Crowdfunding Information" (help.dmsguild.com)

The DMsGuild royalty accrues only on a title activated for public sale, which means the program offers no private, single-buyer path for Wizards-owned IP. SRD-based work is the opposite case: original monsters, NPCs, and locations built on the CC-BY-4.0 rules can be written for one buyer and sold from your own link with the required attribution. If a buyer asks for Waterdeep, Strahd, or a monster that is not in the SRD, treat it as a DMsGuild project rather than a private commission, and read the Community Content Agreement linked from the DMsGuild licensing pages first. This is general information for creators, not legal advice.

How much should a custom adventure or one-shot cost?

Custom D&D adventure writing commonly starts near $10–$35 for a single encounter, $40–$150 for a full one-shot, $100–$350 for a two-to-three-session module, and $200–$600 or more for a campaign outline. Those four ranges are example starting prices, not observed market data: no published survey reports what D&D commission writing sells for. Price scales with word count, prep complexity, and system.

The Editorial Freelancers Association's 2026 Rate Chart reports a median work-for-hire rate of 8.0–10.0 cents per word for short-story writing and 13.5–20.0 cents per word for full-length fiction (EFA Editorial Rates). The EFA's 2026 Rate Chart is built from a survey of more than 1,100 EFA members — over a third of its membership — collected from November 2025 through mid-January 2026 and covering rates charged during the 2025 calendar year (EFA Editorial Rates). At the EFA's 8–10 cents-per-word short-story median, a 3,000-word one-shot script would bill at roughly $240–$300 as professional publishing work; the recommended ranges in the tier table sit under that benchmark deliberately, because the buyer is usually one home table rather than a publisher.

Every price in the tier table is a starting point to adjust rather than a quoted market rate, because the tiers are editorial recommendations and a DM's own audience, delivery time, and reputation move them in both directions. If your word count pushes past a few thousand words, price the job against the EFA per-word benchmark instead. If you also charge for running the table rather than just writing for it, pricing a live paid game differs by delivery format in ways that don't apply to a document commission.

For Custom Work, you choose the delivery time from a fixed picker, with a five-day maximum — up to 5 days for any single order (how it works and Custom Work). A full-campaign commission should therefore be scoped as an outline rather than a finished session-by-session manuscript. For a bigger project, selling a shorter, clearly bounded module first and adding a second commission later is more reliable than promising an open-ended campaign in one listing.

Should you sell through a marketplace, crowdfund it, or use your own link?

Sell through DMsGuild when the adventure uses official Wizards settings and will be listed publicly, crowdfund on Kickstarter when you are pre-selling a large finished book to a crowd, and use your own direct link when one named buyer wants one private commission. DMsGuild pays a 50% royalty per public sale; Kickstarter charges a 5% fee plus payment processing; a direct link carries no browsing audience at all. If the book is too big for one commission and you would rather fund it from followers you already have, a Goal on your own page takes one-time contributions that stay yours whether or not the target is reached.

Crowdfunding also carries a delivery obligation that a paid single commission does not. The Kickstarter Fulfillment Report states that 9% of Kickstarter projects fail to deliver rewards and that 8% of dollars pledged went to failed projects, with failure rates across all 15 creative categories clustering "within a narrow range around 9%" (Kickstarter Fulfillment Report). A one-buyer commission paid up front and delivered inside five days has no comparable multi-month fulfillment tail.

When a direct link is the wrong tool, say so to the buyer. Three cases are clear-cut: a Realms-set or non-SRD-monster commission belongs on DMsGuild under its Community Content Agreement rather than on any independent link; a finished book you intend to sell repeatedly to strangers is better served by a marketplace's discovery traffic or by a crowdfunding campaign; and a project too large for a five-day delivery time does not fit inside a single Custom Work order at all. DMsGuild also removes the gatekeeping question for public titles — its Help Center states that "there is no approval process for products released on DMsGuild, once you click 'Make Public' it will be available to customers" (DMsGuild Help Center).

For a one-off commission, the request, payment, and delivery happen on your own private Brillay order page. Recommending a direct link for one-off commissions is a positioning judgment about single-buyer work, not a claim that direct links out-earn marketplaces.

What should a custom adventure listing include?

A listing that leaves any of the items below open invites a scope argument after the writing is done.

• System and edition: Which ruleset (D&D 5e, another SRD-compatible system, etc.).
• Party details: Level range and party size the encounters are balanced for.
• Length: Page count or estimated session count.
• Format: Plain document, formatted PDF, or VTT-ready (Roll20/Foundry) export.
• Includes/excludes: Whether maps, handouts, and stat blocks are included, and whether running the session is included (it isn't — that's a separate offer).
• Delivery time: A delivery time you set within Brillay's five-day, 120-hour window.
• Changes after delivery: Anything outside the listed scope is a new paid request.

For example: “One-shot script for D&D 5e, for 3–5 level 3–5 characters, delivered as a formatted PDF with one map and full stat blocks. The commission includes one delivery. Running the session is not included.”

How do you scope a commission so it doesn't become unpaid work?

Scope a commission by writing the boundary into the listing and treating anything outside that boundary as a new priced request. That boundary-first approach applies to written commissions specifically, because "one more encounter" and "actually make it six sessions" arrive after the follower has already paid the original price.

Custom Work also gives you an exit for oversized requests — the Custom Work page states that "if a request is out of scope, you can decline it". So a six-session campaign submitted against a one-shot listing can be declined rather than absorbed for free, and stating the scope boundary up front keeps that conversation from happening only after the document is written.

What else can you sell alongside adventure writing?

Adventure writing works better as one offer among several, because different asks need different formats. A DM page can carry paid advice for people building their own campaigns, in-character Personalized Videos, tips from readers of your free homebrew, project funding toward a bigger book, and a separate intake path for publishers — each priced on its own terms.

• Paid Questions — paid GM advice and worldbuilding help: 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.
• Personalized Videos: Personalized Videos let a follower pay upfront for one personalized video for themselves or someone they care about: you set the price and the delivery time, then record it on your schedule.
• Tips: Tips let followers send a one-time thank-you, with nothing for you to deliver and no membership for them to join.
• Goals: A Goal is one named goal with a progress bar: followers make one-time contributions and every contribution is yours whether or not the goal is reached — no deadline unless you set one, and nothing to ship.
• Brand Collaboration Inquiries: Brand Collaboration Inquiries is a “Work with Me” form on your Brillay page that collects a brand’s budget, timeline, and deliverables into a separate brand inbox.

Keeping each of these as its own priced offer, rather than folding requests into one vague "D&D stuff" listing, makes it clearer to followers what they are actually paying for.

How do you get a custom-adventure-writing offer live?

Decide what you are selling — a single encounter, a full one-shot, or a multi-session outline — then write the price, format, and delivery time before you accept a 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.

Nothing to apply for and no DMsGuild account is required to offer Custom Work: followers pay upfront as guests, submit their system, party level, and theme, and you deliver the document on the private order page.

Create your free Brillay page and turn the next "can you write us a one-shot?" ask into a priced, scoped commission instead of a favor.

Frequently asked questions

These answers cover the questions DMs raise most often before listing adventure writing: credentials, the Wizards IP line, oversized requests, and which Brillay offer carries a file. Each answer cites the primary source it rests on — Wizards of the Coast for licensing, and Brillay's own product pages for platform mechanics.

Do I need to be a published game designer to sell custom adventures?

No. Nothing to apply for and no DMsGuild seller account is required to offer Custom Work. Represent your experience accurately and let a scoped sample or your existing homebrew speak for itself.

Can I use official Forgotten Realms characters or WotC settings in a commission I sell?

Not on a private link. Wizards' SRD overview table lists Forgotten Realms publishing as available only through DMsGuild, while "print and sell 5e or 5.5e content on my own" is available under SRD 5.1 and SRD 5.2 (D&D Beyond SRD). Original SRD-based content — your own monsters, NPCs, and locations built on the CC-BY-4.0 rules — can be sold directly with attribution; Realms-set work belongs on DMsGuild under its Community Content Agreement.

What if a request needs more work than the commission covers?

Decline a request that is materially larger than the listed scope, or point the follower to a bigger tier before you start writing. Brillay's Custom Work page states that "if a request is out of scope, you can decline it". State the delivery scope in the listing so the boundary is clear before the document is finished.

Can a follower request a custom adventure through a Paid Question instead?

No. A written adventure, module, or outline belongs in Custom Work, which accepts followers' files at order time and delivers a written note plus up to 5 files or a private link.

What does Brillay charge for adventure-writing commissions?

Custom Work carries the platform fee described above, plus card processing — typically 2.9% + $0.30 for US online cards. There is no follower minimum.