Charging for a D&D Campaign vs. a One-Shot

A one-shot is one self-contained session sold as a single purchase; a campaign is the same group buying that same session again, week after week. Price both per session at the same rate — the difference is commitment and drop-out risk, not tier — and start with the one-shot until a group asks you to continue.

FanBell is free to start with no monthly fee and applies a 12% platform fee only when a fan pays, with card-processing fees deducted separately from creator earnings (FanBell pricing).

Campaigns dominate the paid-GM market that this decision sits inside. StartPlaying's own blog states that an average of 70–80% of daily bookings on StartPlaying are campaigns and the other 20–30% are one-shots (StartPlaying, Should You Be Running One-Shots Or Campaigns?, company-reported data). StartPlaying's Help Center puts the average price on StartPlaying at $15–$20 per session per player and enforces a minimum charge of $5 per session (StartPlaying Help Center, Best Practices for Game Masters and How do I Edit a Player's Price in an Adventure?).

On FanBell, both formats use the same tool — a Creator Service with a set price and turnaround — so the decision isn't about which offer to turn on. The decision is about how you scope and repeat that one offer.

The published numbers behind this decision:

• StartPlaying's Help Center states that the average price on StartPlaying is $15–$20 per session per player.
• StartPlaying's Help Center states that StartPlaying requires a minimum charge of $5 per session so payments process correctly.
• StartPlaying's blog reports that 70–80% of daily bookings on StartPlaying are campaigns and 20–30% are one-shots.
• D&D Beyond, Wizards of the Coast's official D&D site, states that each Adventurers League session "is structured as a one-shot that lasts between two to four hours," while some recurring campaigns are multi-session games.
• FanBell's pricing page states a 12% platform fee charged only when a fan pays, with no monthly fee.
• Stripe's pricing page lists 2.9% + 30¢ per successful card transaction, plus 1.5% for international transactions (Stripe pricing).

What's the actual difference between a campaign and a one-shot?

A one-shot is a single finished session that ends when the night ends; a campaign is a connected series of sessions with the same characters, paid one session at a time. The gap is continuity and repeat attendance, not price: both formats bill per session at whatever rate the game master sets.

StartPlaying's Help Center states that most one-shots run 2–4 hours, while campaigns "vary widely from a handful of sessions to many months of weekly play" (StartPlaying Help Center, What is a One-Shot? What is a Campaign?). StartPlaying's Help Center further states that campaign sessions typically run weekly or bi-weekly, which is the cadence a paid campaign has to sustain.

"One-shots are D&D adventures that can be finished in one 3-4 hour session." — D&D Beyond (Wizards of the Coast), One-Shot Adventures: What They Are, Why We Love Them, and Recommendations

Wizards of the Coast's official D&D site describes the same split inside its own organized-play program: D&D Beyond states that each Adventurers League session "is structured as a one-shot that lasts between two to four hours, but some recurring campaigns can be multi-session games".

A one-shot needs no continuity: no notes to carry forward, no NPCs to track, no ongoing plot. That absence of continuity is what makes a one-shot sellable to a group of strangers who found you today. A campaign is the opposite — a campaign depends on the same players showing up again, so a campaign only works as a paid offer once a group has already shown, by playing together at least once, that they want to keep going.

When does charging for a full campaign make more sense?

Charge for a campaign once a specific group has already played with you and asked to continue. A campaign converts one sale into repeat sales from buyers you never have to find again, and it justifies worldbuilding you could not justify for a single night. The risk is concentration: your income depends on one group staying intact.

The market leans that way. StartPlaying's blog reports that 70–80% of games booked on StartPlaying are campaigns versus 20–30% one-shots. A campaign also carries a scheduling obligation that a one-shot does not: StartPlaying's Help Center recommends keeping 3–5 sessions scheduled for any active campaign for the best booking rate. A campaign's dependence on a stable roster is enforced in software on marketplaces: StartPlaying's Help Center states that a game that has not reached its minimum player count stays in Pending status and no sessions can be scheduled, and StartPlaying's Help Center states that removing a player removes all of that player's seats, not just one. Because a campaign is priced and paid session by session on FanBell rather than as a subscription, you also keep the option to raise your price, add a player, or step away between sessions without cancelling anything (FanBell how it works, FanBell's own published product mechanics).

When does charging for a single one-shot make more sense?

Sell a one-shot when you are testing an unfamiliar group, running a convention-style drop-in, or converting a "will you run something for us?" request into paid work without asking anyone to commit beyond one night. A one-shot caps prep and financial risk for both sides at a single evening's play.

D&D Beyond, run by Wizards of the Coast, defines a one-shot as a D&D adventure "that can be finished in one 3-4 hour session", and StartPlaying's Help Center gives a slightly wider 2–4 hours as the typical one-shot length on its own platform. Either way, the ceiling on your exposure is one evening.

One-shots are also the natural entry point for a new paid DM: a table that doesn't click costs one session's worth of frustration rather than months of it, and a table that does click can always be asked back. If you write a lot of custom one-shots or worldbuilding for hire, selling paid one-shots and lore as its own scoped Creator Service keeps that writing work separate from running the table live.

Campaign vs. one-shot: the pattern at a glance

A one-shot is one purchase with no continuity and repeated marketing effort; a campaign is the same listing purchased again before each session, with front-loaded marketing and carried-forward prep. The table below compares the two formats on what is purchased, prep burden, drop-out risk, and which DM each format suits first.

How does a campaign actually get paid without a subscription?

FanBell has no recurring billing, so a campaign does not auto-charge players on a cycle. The group buys the next session as a fresh purchase of the same Creator Service listing, and you confirm the date and join link afterward. Delivery windows on a FanBell Creator Service top out at 5 days, set by the creator.

FanBell's Creator Services documentation states that a creator sets both price and turnaround on each listing, with the delivery window capped at 5 days, and FanBell's pricing page states that FanBell runs no recurring billing and charges a 12% platform fee only when a fan pays.

Session-by-session payment is not a FanBell quirk. StartPlaying's Help Center states that campaign players "are automatically included in every session and charged per session they attend" (StartPlaying Help Center, How Do I Create and Schedule an Adventure?).

"If you join a campaign, the price you see is what you will pay each time your group meets, or plays a session." — StartPlaying Help Center, How Much Does it Cost to Play on StartPlaying?

Use a subscription-style product only if you are selling access to something that exists between sessions — a Discord tier, published lore, recorded recaps. Use per-session payment when the thing being bought is the session itself, the model both FanBell and StartPlaying use. A "campaign" on FanBell is therefore a one-shot listing sold to the same buyers on a repeating cadence, not a different product. The mechanics of setting that cadence up are covered in turning a one-off request into a recurring paid game.

What does a $20 campaign seat actually net you?

At a $20 seat with five players, a session grosses $100, and whether that arrives as five seat payments or one flat table payment changes the net, because card fees are charged per payment. A $20 seat sits at the top of the going rate: StartPlaying's Help Center puts the average price for games on its platform at $15–20 a session.

StartPlaying's Help Center states that the average price for games on StartPlaying is $15–20 a session. On FanBell the creator absorbs both the platform fee and the card-processing fee, because the fan is only ever charged the displayed price:

"The fan pays only the displayed price. FanBell charges a 12% platform fee, and payment-processing fees are deducted separately from creator earnings. Creator earnings = fan payment − platform fee − processing fee." — FanBell, pricing page (FanBell's own published fee schedule)

The worked example below uses two published rates. FanBell's pricing page states a 12% platform fee charged only when a fan pays, and Stripe's pricing page lists 2.9% + 30¢ per successful transaction for cards, plus 1.5% for international transactions. StartPlaying's Help Center states that StartPlaying charges game masters a 15% booking fee, with no upfront costs, subscription fees, or sign-up charges, payable only when a session is booked and completed, and adds a separate service fee to the player at checkout (StartPlaying Help Center, What Does the 15% Fee Cover?).

Both FanBell rows assume US domestic card rates and FanBell's published creator-side fee flow, in which the 12% platform fee and the processing fee both come out of creator earnings; an international card adds Stripe's published 1.5% to the processing line, not to the 12% platform fee. Two decision rules fall out of that $100-session comparison. First, collecting one flat table payment instead of five seat payments saves $1.20 a session at these rates, because the 30¢ fixed fee is paid once instead of five times — across a 20-session campaign that is $24.00. Second, net revenue per seat is close across platforms at a $20 price point, so the real choice is not the fee percentage but who brings the players and who absorbs card processing. The structural tradeoffs of the two collection styles are broken down in per-player vs. per-table pricing for paid D&D.

How do cancellations and no-shows change the campaign math?

A campaign carries drop-out risk that a one-shot does not, so payment timing matters more the longer a game runs. Marketplaces solve it with a notice window and a post-session charge; FanBell solves it by taking payment before the session is confirmed at all, which removes the no-show timing question entirely.

StartPlaying's Help Center states that a player who is signed up for a session and does not skip it in advance is charged 1 hour after the session start time, regardless of whether they attend (StartPlaying Help Center, When are Players Charged?). StartPlaying's Help Center also states that StartPlaying lets a player skip a session or leave a campaign up to 24 hours before the next session's start time (StartPlaying Help Center, Can I Skip a Session for My Player?), and StartPlaying's published refund guidance states that if a player contacts the game master more than 24 hours before a session to skip it or leave a campaign, the game master must ensure that player is not charged. StartPlaying's Refund Policy gives game masters up to 14 days after a session has run to issue a refund, and StartPlaying issues those refunds as site credit.

StartPlaying's Help Center lists exactly three options for a game master facing a no-show player: issue a refund, set that player's price to zero for the session, or skip the session on their behalf. Cash-flow timing differs too: StartPlaying's Help Center states that payouts take 2–3 business days for most U.S. game masters and 7–11 business days for game masters outside the U.S..

On FanBell the sequence is different: each session is bought before you confirm it, so a player who no-shows has already paid, and a creator can decline and refund a purchase directly if a session has to be called off. A practical rule for a five-seat campaign: publish a notice window in the listing description — for example, "tell me 24 hours ahead and you can skip a session," the same 24-hour window StartPlaying's Help Center enforces — and treat any seat that goes unclaimed inside that window as sold, because the money is already in.

How do other tabletop platforms price recurring games?

Marketplace booking sites take a cut on top of whatever a game master charges per seat, and in exchange they run the discovery that fills the table. StartPlaying charges game masters 15% of bookings; FanBell charges 12% and sends no strangers to your table. That percentage gap is the price of discovery, and it is the whole tradeoff.

StartPlaying's Help Center states that StartPlaying takes a 15% cut of any game bookings, payable only when a session is booked and completed, with a separate service fee added to the player at checkout. StartPlaying's Help Center attributes 99% of bookings to Game Search rather than to a game master's own profile page, which is what the 15% actually buys. StartPlaying's blog reports that game masters on StartPlaying have earned more than $3 million in revenue since the platform launched.

FanBell's platform fee is 12%, charged only when a fan pays, with no listing fee and no monthly fee — and no marketplace search sending strangers to your table. The tradeoff is direct: a lower percentage in exchange for bringing your own players, whether those players are one-shot strangers from your Discord or a standing campaign group.

Can a one-shot turn into a paid campaign later?

Yes — selling a one-shot locks you out of nothing. If a one-shot group clicks, list the next session as the same Creator Service and sell it to that group again. There is no product step that converts a listing from one-shot to campaign on FanBell, because the price, turnaround, and payment flow are identical either way.

Official D&D organized play works the same way: D&D Beyond states that each Adventurers League session "is structured as a one-shot that lasts between two to four hours, but some recurring campaigns can be multi-session games", so the same 2–4 hour block is the unit whether it stands alone or repeats. FanBell's Creator Services documentation describes one listing type with a creator-set price and turnaround, capped at a 5-day delivery window, used for any scoped deliverable, so the only thing that changes between a one-shot and a campaign is whether that listing is sold once or sold repeatedly to the same buyers — the recurring-cadence approach covered in turning a one-off request into a recurring paid game.

Which format should a first-time paid DM start with?

Start with a one-shot. A one-shot proves you can deliver a good session, produces real pricing feedback at a market-typical price point, and caps your downside at a single night if the table doesn't click. A campaign is easier to price and schedule once you already know a specific group wants to keep coming back.

Price that first one-shot against published market rates rather than instinct: StartPlaying's Help Center puts the average at $15–$20 per session per player and requires a minimum of $5 per session on its own platform (StartPlaying Help Center, Best Practices for Game Masters and How do I Edit a Player's Price in an Adventure?). If you're unsure which FanBell offer to use for questions that come up around the table — a quick rules ruling versus the session itself versus a player who just wants to tip you — which FanBell offer a paid Dungeon Master should use breaks down Creator Services, Paid Private Questions, and Tips by use case.

Frequently asked questions

Short answers to the questions paid dungeon masters ask most about running both formats on one page: you can sell one-shots and campaign sessions side by side, FanBell never auto-bills a group, the 12% platform fee is identical for both formats, and a shrinking table simply buys fewer seats that week.

Do I have to pick only one format?

No. A creator can list a one-shot Creator Service for new groups and separately repeat a campaign session listing for an established group — both can live on the same FanBell page at once, because FanBell's Creator Services are creator-defined listings with a set price and turnaround.

Does FanBell bill my campaign group automatically every week?

No. FanBell is not a subscription platform, so there is no recurring auto-billing to configure. Each session is a new purchase of the same listing, paid upfront before you confirm the details.

Is running a campaign more expensive on FanBell than running a one-shot?

No. FanBell's 12% platform fee applies the same way to every payment regardless of format, so a campaign session and a one-shot cost the creator the same percentage.

What if some players in a campaign can't pay for a given session?

Since each session is its own purchase, a smaller group simply pays for a smaller seat count that session; there is no group subscription to adjust or cancel. A creator can also decline and refund an individual purchase if a session needs to be called off.

Should I charge per player or one flat price for the table?

Both work, and the tradeoff is mostly fees and fairness rather than format. On a $100 session, one flat table payment nets a creator $84.80 versus $83.60 for five separate $20 seat payments, using FanBell's published 12% platform fee and Stripe's published card rate of 2.9% + 30¢ per successful transaction, because the 30¢ per-transaction fee is charged once instead of five times and both fees come out of creator earnings.

How long should a paid campaign session be, and how often should it run?

StartPlaying's Help Center states that most sessions on its platform run 2–4 hours and that campaign sessions typically run weekly or bi-weekly. StartPlaying's Help Center also recommends keeping 3–5 sessions scheduled for any active campaign for the best booking rate.

Create your free FanBell page and decide, session by session, whether tonight is a one-shot or the start of something longer.