Independent GM Agreement

1. Acceptance of this Agreement

This Independent GM Agreement ("Agreement") is a contract between you ("GM," "you") and Adventure Foundry ("we," "us," "our"). It governs your use of the Adventure Foundry platform as an Independent Game Master and is in addition to our general Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

By checking the agreement box on the Independent GM signup form, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by this Agreement. If you do not agree, do not enable Independent GM features on your account.

2. Eligibility

To act as an Independent GM on Adventure Foundry you must meet all of the following requirements:

• You are at least 18 years of age and have the legal capacity to enter into this Agreement in your jurisdiction.
• You will complete Stripe Connect onboarding, including identity verification, before receiving payment for any paid event.
• You are not currently banned or suspended from the platform and are not on any sanctions list that prohibits you from receiving payments through Stripe.
• The information you provide during signup and in your GM profile is accurate and kept up to date.

3. Independent Contractor Status

You acknowledge that you operate as an independent contractor. Nothing in this Agreement creates an employment, partnership, joint venture, or agency relationship between you and Adventure Foundry.

You are solely responsible for how you run your sessions, including scheduling, pricing, preparation, and communication with players. Adventure Foundry provides the listing, booking, messaging, and payment infrastructure but does not direct or control your gameplay.

4. Your Responsibilities as a GM

When you list an event, players trust you to deliver the experience you advertised. You agree to:

• Run every session you have listed on the platform at the time, date, and location (or virtual venue) stated, unless the event is lawfully cancelled.
• Communicate clearly and promptly with booked players before and after each session, including any information they need to participate (required materials, access instructions, system rules, safety tools in use).
• Arrive prepared and on time. Late arrival without advance notice may result in reputation penalties and refund obligations.
• Run sessions in good faith and at the experience level represented in your profile and event listing.
• Respect the agreed duration, capacity, and age rating of your event.

5. Code of Conduct & Content Standards

Adventure Foundry is committed to safe, inclusive, and welcoming tables. As an Independent GM you are a visible representative of this community and, when running sessions at a partner venue, of that venue as well. You agree to uphold the following standards at all times while using the platform and running sessions booked through it:

• Treat every player, observer, fellow GM, venue staff member, and member of the public with respect and courtesy. Harassment, discrimination, hate speech, slurs, threats, or intimidation on the basis of race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, or any other protected characteristic will result in immediate action up to and including permanent removal from the platform.
• Maintain a professional demeanour before, during, and after your sessions. Arrive on time and prepared, keep your communications courteous, and resolve disagreements calmly.
• Do not run sessions while impaired by alcohol or other substances to the extent that it affects your ability to GM safely and professionally, and respect any zero-tolerance substance policies in place at the venue where you are running.
• Use appropriate safety tools (such as Session Zero discussions, lines and veils, the X-card, or equivalents), clearly communicate them to players at the start of each session, and honour any request to pause, adjust, or end content that becomes unsafe.
• Never include sexually explicit, exploitative, or otherwise age-inappropriate content at sessions that are open to, or booked by, minors. Mature-themes events must be clearly age-gated in the listing and participant ages confirmed before the session begins.
• Never knowingly run content that glorifies real-world violence against identifiable groups, promotes illegal activity, sexualises minors, or infringes on the intellectual property rights of others.
• Comply with all applicable local, state, provincial, and federal laws, including laws relating to alcohol, gambling, controlled substances, and public gatherings at any in-person location where you run games.
• Do not solicit personal relationships, tips, donations, or business outside the platform from players you met through Adventure Foundry bookings in a way that circumvents the platform or exploits the trust of the booking.
• Report violations of this Code of Conduct by other community members through the in-app reporting tools or to the Adventure Foundry support team.

Violations of this Code of Conduct may result in warnings, temporary suspension, permanent removal of Independent GM privileges, withholding of pending payouts, and, for serious incidents, referral to law enforcement. Adventure Foundry may take action based on credible reports and its own investigation, in its reasonable discretion.

6. Representing Venues

When you list or run an Independent GM session at any physical location, including Adventure Foundry partner venues (taverns, game stores, cafés, libraries, community spaces) and any private or public space you arrange, you are a guest of that location and, in the eyes of players and the public, a representative of it. You agree to:

• Obtain the venue's permission before listing a session at that location. You may not use a venue's name, brand, logo, address, or space without its knowledge and consent.
• Respect the venue's house rules, hours of operation, capacity limits, noise expectations, dress code, food and drink policies, alcohol and smoking rules, and any accessibility or safety procedures the venue has in place.
• Arrive in time to set up without disrupting the venue's other customers, keep your table tidy during play, and leave the space as clean as (or cleaner than) you found it.
• Never speak or act on behalf of a venue (including agreeing to refunds, discounts, partnerships, or promotions) unless the venue has authorised you to do so in writing.
• Communicate cancellations, schedule changes, and any incidents that occur on the venue's premises to the venue promptly, in addition to the affected players.
• Treat venue staff with the same respect you extend to players, and follow any reasonable instruction a staff member gives you relating to the use of their space.
• Carry any insurance, permits, or age-gating measures that the venue requires of you as a condition of using the space.
• Understand that the venue may, at its discretion, ask you to leave, end a session early, or decline to host you in the future, and that Adventure Foundry will generally defer to the venue's decision about who runs games in its space.

Misconduct at a partner venue, including misrepresenting your relationship with the venue or damaging its property, its reputation, or its relationship with its customers, is a serious violation of this Agreement and may result in immediate suspension or termination of your Independent GM privileges and liability for any resulting loss.

7. Hosting at a Private Residence

If you list any session with a Location Type of "Home or Private Residence" (technically `private_location`), you accept the additional obligations in this section. These obligations apply whether the residence is yours, a co-host's, a friend's, or any other private dwelling, and whether the address is shared before or after booking confirmation.

You agree to:

• Complete Stripe Identity verification (government ID + selfie match) before publishing any private-residence listing. Self-attested age is not sufficient for home hosting.
• Pay the one-time home-hosting verification fee charged by Adventure Foundry at the time you enable home hosting on your account. The fee is non-refundable once Stripe Identity has been initiated.
• Disclose, before publish, the house rules required by the platform: pets in the home, smoking and vaping policy, alcohol policy, accessibility (stairs, washroom access), other people present in the home during sessions (roommates, partner, household children), and minor-presence policy. The disclosure must be accurate at the time the session runs.
• Host only adult players. You will not knowingly host any participant under the age of 18 at a home-hosted session, even if (a) a player misrepresents their age, (b) a parent or guardian gives verbal or written permission, (c) the minor is the child of an adult player who is also at the table, or (d) the minor is your own child or a member of your household. There is no "parent at the table" exception. If you suspect a player is under 18, you must end the session and report the incident to Adventure Foundry.
• Confirm in person, before each session begins, that every participant — including anyone a player brings — is 18 years of age or older, and turn away anyone you cannot verify is an adult. Players confirm they are 18 or older when they book a home-hosted session; that self-attestation does not replace your in-person check at the door.
• Maintain the safety practices and code of conduct in this Agreement at the home location with at least the same care you would apply at a partner venue, including respecting the alcohol policy you disclosed in the listing.
• Understand that you are solely responsible for your own premises and for obtaining any homeowner's, renter's, personal-liability, or other insurance appropriate for hosting paying guests in your home, and for confirming that hosting paid sessions is permitted under your lease, condominium, homeowners' association, or local rules. Adventure Foundry does not provide insurance of any kind for home-hosted sessions, and the Platform Fee neither includes nor substitutes for such coverage.

Hosting a minor at a home-based session — knowingly or through wilful disregard of platform rules — is a material violation of this Agreement and will result in immediate, permanent removal from the platform, withholding of pending payouts, and, where appropriate, referral to law enforcement.

8. Payments, Platform Fee & Stripe

Paid events on Adventure Foundry are processed through Stripe Connect. You must complete Stripe onboarding, including identity verification, before you can list or receive payment for paid events. For most GMs, Adventure Foundry acts as the merchant of record: your payment is collected into an account controlled by Adventure Foundry, held, and settled to your connected Stripe account on the schedule described below and in Section 10. For certain direct-charge arrangements, funds are disbursed by Stripe directly to your connected account. Stripe performs the underlying money movement in both cases.

Adventure Foundry retains a platform fee equal to 8% of the gross ticket price of each paid event ("Platform Fee"). The Platform Fee is automatically deducted at the time of the player's purchase. Stripe's own payment processing fees are separate from, and additional to, the Platform Fee and are governed by your Stripe Connect agreement.

For paid events with platform-managed seat booking ("public bookings"), your share of each seat is held until the player completes check-in, at which point it is transferred to your connected Stripe account. Where Adventure Foundry is the merchant of record, the funds are held by Adventure Foundry; under direct-charge arrangements they are held by Stripe as an application-fee balance. This escrow protects players from no-show GMs and protects you from paid players who don't show up. The mechanics of release are described in Section 10.

Free events are not subject to the Platform Fee.

Payouts to your connected Stripe account follow the schedule and requirements set by Stripe, which may depend on your jurisdiction, account standing, and verification status. Adventure Foundry does not control or accelerate Stripe's payout timing.

You agree that pricing shown to players is the price you are charging, inclusive of the Platform Fee. You may not add undisclosed surcharges at the table.

9. Cancellations & Refunds

Players rely on GMs to show up. If you cancel an event, you are responsible for communicating the cancellation to every booked player as soon as possible through the platform and issuing refunds as follows:

• If you cancel a paid event for any reason, all booked players must receive a full refund of the amount they paid.
• If you cancel within 24 hours of the scheduled start time, or fail to appear ("no-show"), Adventure Foundry may apply reputation penalties to your GM profile, pause your ability to list new paid events, and, in repeated or egregious cases, suspend or terminate your Independent GM privileges.
• Players may request a refund under the circumstances stated in your event listing's refund policy. You agree to honour any refund policy you publish.
• Refunds are processed through Stripe. The Platform Fee is also refunded when a full refund is issued.

Adventure Foundry may process refunds directly on your behalf in cases of confirmed GM no-show, safety incidents, or violations of this Agreement.

10. Check-in & Session Close

Adventure Foundry uses a two-step check-in handshake to confirm attendance, both to protect players from incorrectly-charged sessions and to give GMs an objective record of who showed up. You agree to use the platform's check-in tools rather than marking attendance manually outside the system.

The handshake works as follows:

• A check-in window opens one (1) hour before your event's scheduled start time and closes twenty-four (24) hours after its scheduled end time. Check-in actions are only available inside this window.
• When a player arrives (in person or to the online room), you tap Check in on the player's row in the manage page. This sends a confirmation prompt to the player's device.
• The player must tap "I'm here" on their own device for the check-in to count. You may not, under this Agreement, mark a player present unilaterally. Asking a friend or co-GM to confirm on a player's behalf is a violation.
• For paid public bookings, the player's tap releases your share of that seat from the platform's escrow to your Stripe account. For free / non-escrowed events, the player's tap marks the registration as attended and qualifies it for the optional post-session feedback prompt.
• When the session wraps, you tap End Session in the manage page. This releases any seats whose handshake completed but whose Stripe transfer didn't fire, marks the session closed for the purposes of feedback prompts, and is available any time after the event's scheduled start (there is no upper time limit on End Session).
• If you forget to close the session, an automated sweep runs twenty-four (24) hours after the scheduled end time. The sweep releases stuck handshakes and fires feedback prompts on your behalf — so your earnings still flow even if you miss the close. This safety net does not relieve you of the responsibility to actually run the check-in handshake during the session.
• A registration that has a check-in request but no player confirmation by window close is recorded as a "no-show" — not as attended. No-show players do not earn bounty for you, do not trigger feedback prompts, and (for paid escrow seats) leave the escrow in place pending dispute resolution.

Venue events are an exception: when you list a session at a partner venue (Location Type "Venue / Location"), the venue's door staff handle attendance and the in-app handshake does not apply. You agree to follow the venue's check-in process at those events.

Post-session feedback. After a session closes, attended players receive an optional written-feedback prompt. Feedback is private between the player and you and is text-only (there are no star ratings or numeric scores on Adventure Foundry). Bounty Marks are a growth metric, never punitive: you earn a fixed amount for receiving feedback that is identical whether it is positive or negative, so the sentiment or content of a player's feedback never raises or lowers your bounty score. You agree to treat feedback as a growth tool: do not retaliate against players for honest feedback, and do not misuse aggregated feedback in any way that violates this Agreement or our Code of Conduct.

11. Taxes

You are solely responsible for determining, reporting, and paying any taxes owed on the income you earn through the platform, including income tax and self-employment tax. Adventure Foundry does not withhold or file those taxes on your behalf.

Sales taxes (such as GST/HST, PST, or VAT) on the tickets players buy are handled according to the payment model that applies to your events. Where Adventure Foundry acts as the merchant of record, Adventure Foundry calculates, collects, and remits those sales taxes using Stripe Tax. Under direct-charge arrangements, you are the merchant of record and are solely responsible for charging, collecting, and remitting any applicable sales taxes on your transactions. This paragraph addresses sales tax on ticket sales only; you remain responsible for your own income and business taxes as stated above.

Stripe may be required to issue tax forms (such as a 1099-K in the United States) based on your earnings. You are responsible for providing accurate tax information to Stripe when requested.

12. Intellectual Property

You retain ownership of the original content you create, including homebrew rules, adventures, artwork, and session recaps. By listing an event or posting content on the platform, you grant Adventure Foundry a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, display, reproduce, and distribute that content solely for the purpose of operating and promoting the platform and your listings.

You represent and warrant that you have the rights to any third-party content (including published game systems, modules, art, music, and trademarks) you reference in your listings or use during your sessions, or that your use qualifies as a permitted use (such as fair use or a licence granted by the rights holder).

13. Player Safety & Incident Reporting

You agree to promptly report any safety incident, harassment, injury, or other serious issue that occurs at or in connection with your sessions to Adventure Foundry through the in-app reporting tools — including the "Report a problem" tool on the affected booking — or at the contact address below. Reports flagged as a safety or injury incident are escalated to our team on an urgent basis. In a medical or other emergency, contact local emergency services first.

You will cooperate reasonably with any investigation Adventure Foundry conducts in response to a report. Adventure Foundry may, in its sole discretion, remove events, suspend accounts, or take other action pending the outcome of an investigation.

14. Player Data & Privacy

Through the platform you may have access to limited personal information about the players who book your events, such as names, contact details, and dietary or accessibility notes. You agree to:

• Use player information only for the purpose of running the events they have booked with you.
• Never share, sell, or disclose player information to any third party without the player's explicit consent.
• Comply with applicable data protection laws, including handling any personal information in accordance with Adventure Foundry's Privacy Policy.
• Delete or destroy player information once it is no longer needed for the purpose it was collected.

15. Termination

You may disable your Independent GM profile at any time from your account settings. Disabling your profile does not relieve you of obligations for events that are already booked; you must either run those sessions as scheduled or cancel them and refund the players.

Adventure Foundry may suspend or terminate your access to the Independent GM features, with or without notice, if we reasonably believe you have violated this Agreement, our Terms of Service, or applicable law, or if continuing to provide you with access poses a risk to players, other GMs, or the platform.

On termination, clauses that by their nature should survive (including intellectual property, indemnification, limitation of liability, tax responsibility, and dispute resolution) will continue to apply.

16. Disclaimers & Limitation of Liability

The platform is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Adventure Foundry disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

Adventure Foundry is not a party to the transaction between you and your players and is not responsible for the conduct of any GM or player, the quality of any session, or any dispute that arises between participants. You are solely responsible for the events you run.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Adventure Foundry's total aggregate liability to you arising out of or relating to this Agreement or your use of the Independent GM features will not exceed the limitation of liability set out in our Terms of Service (the greater of the amounts you paid to Adventure Foundry in the twelve (12) months preceding the claim, or one hundred Canadian dollars (CAD $100)). Where this Agreement and the Terms of Service both limit our liability for the same claim, the provision that results in the lower liability for Adventure Foundry controls, and nothing in this Agreement increases the limits set out in the Terms of Service.

17. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Adventure Foundry and its officers, directors, employees, and agents from and against any claim, liability, damage, loss, and expense (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or in any way connected with: (a) your sessions and conduct as a GM, (b) your violation of this Agreement or applicable law, or (c) your infringement of the rights of any third party.

18. Governing Law & Dispute Resolution

This Agreement is governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Province of Alberta and the federal laws of Canada applicable therein, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. The governing-law, exclusive-jurisdiction, informal dispute-resolution, and class-action-waiver provisions set out in the Adventure Foundry Terms of Service apply to this Agreement and are incorporated into it by reference.

Before starting any formal proceeding, you agree to first contact Adventure Foundry and attempt to resolve the dispute informally, as described in the Terms of Service. This Agreement supplements, and does not replace, our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy; if there is a direct conflict on a topic this Agreement specifically addresses, this Agreement controls for that topic.

19. Changes to this Agreement

Adventure Foundry may update this Agreement from time to time. If we make a material change, we will notify you through the platform and update the version and effective date at the top of this document. Continued use of the Independent GM features after a material update constitutes acceptance of the updated Agreement. If you do not agree, you must stop using the Independent GM features.

20. Contact

Questions about this Agreement can be directed to the Adventure Foundry support team through the in-app help centre. We will do our best to respond within a reasonable time.