Tabletop and TTRPG creators get paid by pricing the things fans already ask for between sessions: homebrew statblocks and one-shot outlines, quick rules and encounter-balance answers, in-character shoutouts, and campaign funding goals. FanBell puts those offers on one link, with no follower minimum, no monthly fee, and a 12% platform fee charged only when a fan pays.
FanBell is free to start with no monthly fee and applies a 12% platform fee only when a fan pays (pricing).
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 of 85 million D&D fans 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.
One product boundary shapes every FanBell offer available to a tabletop creator: FanBell does not book or schedule live sessions, and no scheduling calendar is part of the product (how it works). FanBell prices the asynchronous work around the table — prep, answers, custom assets, funding — not the four-hour Saturday game itself.
What can TTRPG creators sell besides running games?
Tabletop creators can sell six distinct things on FanBell: 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 offer carries its own price and maps to a request tabletop creators already receive unpriced in Discord.
| Fan request | FanBell offer | What the creator sets | Media allowed |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Can you stat this monster for my campaign?" | Creator Services | Price and turnaround | Fan attaches files; creator delivers text, files, links, audio, or video |
| "How should I handle a player who keeps splitting the party?" | Paid Private Questions | Price and reply time | Fan sends text only; creator replies by text or voice |
| "Record a birthday message as my party's favorite NPC" | Personalized Shoutouts | Price and turnaround | Fan attaches files; creator delivers a recorded video |
| "I want to help fund your setting book" | Wishlist / Project Support | The funding goal | Cash toward the goal, shown on a progress bar |
| "That finale wrecked me — take my money" | Tips | Suggested amounts | No reply or delivery required |
| "Our dice company wants to sponsor the show" | Brand Collaboration Inquiries | The form fields | Routed to a separate brand inbox |
FanBell's media rules differ by offer and are not creator-configurable. Paid Private Questions are text-in from the fan, and the creator replies by text or voice; no files move either direction. Creator Services and Personalized Shoutouts support full media on both sides.
Can a dungeon master sell homebrew through Creator Services?
Yes — a dungeon master can sell homebrew through FanBell Creator Services. Creator Services is the format for a defined homebrew deliverable: the fan describes the campaign and can attach files, the creator sets a fixed price and turnaround, and the finished statblock, map, or outline arrives as a document, image, link, or video.
Every FanBell Creator Service has a maximum delivery window of 120 hours, and creators can decline and refund a request they cannot complete. 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.
| Deliverable | What the fan sends / you deliver | Illustrative price* | Illustrative turnaround* |
|---|---|---|---|
| Custom NPC or monster statblock | Fan sends the brief; you deliver a formatted statblock | $15–40 | 48–72h |
| One-shot adventure outline | Fan sends party level and tone; you deliver a written outline | $40–120 | 72–120h |
| VTT-ready battle map | Fan sends a sketch or description; you deliver image files | $25–75 | 48–96h |
| Campaign-prep audit | Fan uploads session notes; you return written feedback | $25–60 | 48–72h |
| Character backstory tie-in | Fan uploads a backstory; you deliver plot hooks | $15–40 | 24–48h |
| Session-zero safety-tools document | You deliver a tailored table document | $20–50 | 48–72h |
*Every price and turnaround 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?
Paid rules questions work asynchronously and without a call: the fan types a question and pays, and the creator answers in a private thread by text or voice, with no calendar and no live session involved. Paid Private Questions let a tabletop creator configure exactly two things — the price and the reply time.
Paid Private Questions accept text only from the fan, 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?"
A campaign document or a filled character sheet belongs in a Creator Service instead, because attachments are not supported inside a Paid Private Question. 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 FanBell compare with a paid-GM marketplace?
FanBell and a paid-GM marketplace solve different problems and can run side by side. A paid-GM marketplace sells seats at scheduled live games and owns the calendar, reminders, and reviews attached to each booking. FanBell sells the asynchronous work around those games — prep, answers, shoutouts, funding goals — and never touches scheduling.
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 dated April 22, 2026
FanBell is not a seat-booking marketplace and has no scheduling system. FanBell is a link in a creator's bio for the asynchronous work: the statblock, the answer, the shoutout, the funding goal. FanBell is free to start with no monthly fee and applies a 12% platform fee only when a fan pays. 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.
| Decision point | Paid-GM booking marketplace (StartPlaying) | FanBell |
|---|---|---|
| Live scheduled sessions | Yes — a player books and pays for a seat | No booking or scheduling system |
| Platform fee when a fan pays | 15% deducted from the booking | 12% platform fee |
| Async homebrew, rules answers, shoutouts | Not what the seat-booking flow sells | The core of the product |
| Monthly fee to list | varies | None |
| Follower minimum | varies | None |
The 15% figure comes from the StartPlaying Help Center article "What Does the 15% Fee Cover?", dated April 22, 2026; the 12% figure comes from FanBell'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 FanBell link for everything sold between them.
How do actual-play shows fund a season?
Actual-play shows fund a season on FanBell 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.
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.
Platform revenue shares also decide how much of a fan'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).
| Way a fan pays an actual-play show | What the platform keeps | Gate before the first payout |
|---|---|---|
| YouTube Supers (Super Chat / Super Stickers) | 30% — the creator receives 70% of confirmed Supers revenue | Expanded YPP: 500 subscribers, 3 uploads in 90 days, plus 3,000 watch hours or 3M Shorts views |
| Twitch subscriptions (Affiliate) | 50% under the standard 50/50 Affiliate split | Affiliate: 25 followers, 4 hours streamed, 4 stream days, 3 average viewers |
| FanBell Wishlist / Project Support and Tips | 12% platform fee, charged only when a fan pays | None — no follower or subscriber minimum |
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 12% fee to FanBell's own pricing page.
Wishlist / Project Support is built for the gap before YouTube or Twitch monetization opens. Fans send cash toward the stated goal and a progress bar shows the distance left. Wishlist / Project Support is cash toward a goal, not rewards-tier crowdfunding and not product shipping, so nothing has to be manufactured or shipped.
Tips cover the listeners who want to say something after an episode without requesting anything back. Tips require no reply and no delivery, and FanBell has no follower or subscriber minimum.
Where do Personalized Shoutouts fit for tabletop creators?
Personalized Shoutouts fit tabletop creators as recorded in-character video, because the voice a fan wants is usually a character rather than the creator. 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 turnaround the creator sets.
Personalized Shoutouts are enabled by default with a starter option when a creator joins FanBell, and the creator sets the price and the turnaround. A fan ordering a shoutout can attach a file carrying names, pronunciations, and campaign details.
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 FanBell page?
A tabletop creator sets FanBell 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 Private Questions. Creators who mostly receive "can you make me a…" publish one tightly scoped Creator Service with a turnaround that survives a bad week.
Which FanBell offer a tabletop creator should switch on first depends on what the inbox already asks for. Every offer in the decision table below is priced by the creator, and FanBell's 120-hour delivery cap applies to Creator Services and Personalized Shoutouts.
| If your inbox mostly says… | Turn on first | What you set |
|---|---|---|
| "Can you stat / map / write this for my campaign?" | Creator Services | Fixed price and turnaround, within the 120-hour cap |
| "Quick rules question for you" | Paid Private Questions | Price and reply time |
| "Can you record something for my friend?" | Personalized Shoutouts | Price and turnaround |
| "How do I support the show?" | Wishlist / Project Support plus Tips | One funding goal, and suggested tip amounts |
| "We'd like to sponsor an episode" | Brand Collaboration Inquiries | The form fields on the inquiry form |
Then put the same FanBell 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
Discord belongs at the top of a tabletop creator's distribution list on scale alone: Discord reports more than 90 million daily active users on its own About Discord page, sourced to Discord internal data as of Q4 2025.
FanBell requires no booking page, scheduling calendar, monthly subscription, or follower minimum, and payouts go to a connected Stripe account (how it works and pricing). Stripe's payouts documentation states that eligible US merchants receive faster ACH settlement that cuts settlement time from 4 business days to 2 business days from payment creation; schedules outside the US vary.
Frequently asked questions
Five questions come up most often from tabletop and TTRPG creators: whether a fan can attach files to a paid question, whether D&D material can be paywalled, whether FanBell replaces a booking platform, what happens when a homebrew request is too large to accept, and what a creator keeps from each payment.
Can a fan attach a character sheet to a Paid Private Question?
No. Paid Private Questions are text-in from the fan, and the creator replies by text or voice; files are not supported in either direction. Requests involving a character sheet, campaign document, or map file should be sold as a Creator Service, which supports fan 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 FanBell replace a paid-GM booking platform?
No. FanBell has no booking or scheduling system, so live scheduled tables still need a booking tool. FanBell covers the asynchronous side: homebrew deliverables, private questions, shoutouts, funding goals, and tips.
What happens if a homebrew request is too large to accept?
Creators can decline the request and refund it. Accepted Creator Services must otherwise be delivered inside the selected turnaround, which cannot exceed FanBell's 120-hour delivery cap.
What does a tabletop creator keep from a paid request?
FanBell is free to start with no monthly fee and takes a 12% platform fee only when a fan pays. Card processing is separate: Stripe publishes a US online-card rate of 2.9% + 30 cents per successful transaction, varying by card type and country.
Create your free FanBell page and put a price on the statblock, the rules ruling, and the NPC birthday video you're already making for free between sessions.