How to Become a Game Master on Adventure Foundry (and Run Your Own Events)

If you can run a table, Adventure Foundry can fill it. Independent GM Events let any Game Master list sessions — free or paid, online or in person — with booking, payments, and attendance handled by the platform. Here is the whole path, from signup to your first payout.

Step 1: Enable Independent GM Events (it's free)

Signup lives in your profile settings, under Independent GM Events. You confirm you are 18 or older, read and accept the Independent GM Agreement, and add the basics of your GM profile — alias, bio, the systems you run, and your experience level. That's the whole gate: no application, no monthly fee, no trial clock. Enabling it takes you straight to your GM dashboard.

Step 2 (optional): connect Stripe if you want to charge

Payments run through Stripe Connect — your own connected account, with money flowing directly to you. Two things worth knowing before you start:

• Free events don't need this. You can skip payment setup entirely and still list free sessions. Connect Stripe whenever you're ready to charge.
• Paid events are currently available in Canada. International payment support is planned.

The economics are simple: $0 per month, and a flat 8% platform fee on paid ticket revenue. Free events carry no fee. Stripe's own card-processing fees are separate — and the event form shows you the exact breakdown (what the player pays, the platform fee, your share) while you set your price.

Step 3: create your first event

Events hang off a Game — your campaign or series — so recurring sessions inherit their details instead of you retyping them. From the dashboard, event creation is a five-step form:

• Basics: title, description, game system, session type, experience level, and seats (up to 20).
• Date & location: when it runs, and where — more on your four hosting options below.
• Details: what you provide, what players should bring, new-player-friendly and pre-generated-character flags, content rating and warnings, safety tools, and visibility (public, community, or private invite-only).
• Pricing: free, or a per-seat price in CAD with the live fee breakdown.
• Review: one summary page, then publish.

Free events let players register in one click; paid events send them through Stripe checkout and confirm the seat instantly. Either way, bookings, confirmations, and your attendee list are all in the dashboard — no spreadsheet juggling.

Where you can host

• Online — virtual tabletop or video call. You name the platform, and the meeting link is shared with booked players only.
• Public spaces — libraries, cafés, community centres.
• Venues on the platform — game stores and gaming taverns. You can book a venue's table right inside the event form; some venue tables are free, some are priced hourly, and some take the venue's own tokens. Running paid events at a venue needs that venue's approval — venues choose which GMs can sell tickets under their roof. See our guide to how venues work on Adventure Foundry.
• Your home — supported, with deliberate friction: government ID verification via Stripe Identity, a one-time $10 CAD fee, published house rules (pets, smoking, alcohol, accessibility), and strictly 18+ on both sides of the table. Players booking a home session must also be ID-verified adults with venue play history. It is the most safeguarded option on the platform, on purpose.

How you get paid

When a player books a paid seat, their payment is held by the platform rather than handed to you immediately. At the session, attendance is confirmed both ways — you check the player in, and they confirm they're there from their own device. Once the session is confirmed complete, your share is released to your Stripe account, and Stripe pays out to your bank on its normal schedule. Your earnings dashboard shows gross revenue, pending releases, and every payout's status.

The protection cuts both ways: players know a no-show GM doesn't keep their money — if you cancel a paid event, everyone is refunded in full — and you know a completed, confirmed session gets paid without chasing anyone.

Your Wanted Poster and Bounty Marks

Your public GM profile is a Wanted Poster, and the number on it is your Bounty Marks. Marks grow two ways: running sessions, and receiving player feedback. That's the entire formula — what the feedback says never moves the number, Marks never go down, and there are no star ratings or review scores anywhere on Adventure Foundry. Players read a big bounty the way it's meant: this GM runs a lot of games. Written feedback still reaches you, privately, as a growth tool. GMs who run games through venues also earn a Venue Verified badge on their poster.

Start smaller than you think

The GMs who build followings on the platform almost all start the same way: one free or cheap one-shot, listed publicly, marked new-player-friendly. It fills fast — players outnumber GMs everywhere — and every completed session grows your bounty and your repeat-player list. Enable Independent GM Events, list one session, and see who shows up.