Need a few extra gold in your pouch? With consistency and a bit of work, anyone with initiative can make money with D&D. We’ve got plenty of passive income ideas to get you started below!
Disclaimer: All opinions expressed here are my own. This post may contain affiliate links. At no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission.
Passive Income Requires Work Up Front
Passive income requires work from you. Real work. Anyone who tells you differently is lying or creating click-bait articles to get quick and easy views.
Everything I am sharing with you below will work, but the amount of money you make is directly proportional to the amount of work you put in. This is especially true for when you’re starting. It’s hardest in the beginning when you aren’t seeing any rewards for your efforts, and these things take time to get going.
Working on building a passive income portfolio can be tiring, frustrating, and lonely. You need to understand that if you are dedicated to making this happen for yourself, you need to keep a positive attitude (easier said than done sometimes) and keep working towards your goals. I will share below what has worked for me so far and what I am still working on, to give you some perspective.
Beneath each section I’ll list tools that you’ll need to be successful. Let’s get started.
Create and Sell Digital Content
You can write and publish your own digital content related to tabletop gaming, including adventure modules, art assets, maps, character sheets, etc. Sell them online through websites like DriveThruRPG, DMsGuild or Patreon. Once you’ve created the content, your postings can continue to generate passive income for you over time as people purchase and download your amazing creations.
If you already have a social media following, you can simply point your followers to your shop for an added boost to your traffic and revenue.
Create Art Assets
You could create art assets specifically for types of Dungeons & Dragons or other tabletop role playing games (TTRPGs) if you have the artistic ability and creative mindset. There are a lot of people making really awesome things for tabletop RPGs these days. Some people are DMs just wanting something cool for their games, but some people are trying to monetize their work, too. Not everyone has the time or skillset to do everything required for this.
Creating artwork is time-consuming and nearly impossible to execute well for some people. If you have the ability here, you could profit from it. Think map elements, digital tokens, or decorative assets for published adventures. Take a look at Forgotten Adventures to see an example of a company that is killing it in this field. I paid for a subscription to them for many, many months.
I’d love to keep paying them, honestly, but I can’t justify it right now when I don’t have the time at this point in my life to make loads of custom maps. Maybe someday.
Create Maps
Take it one step further and make full maps. Both static an animated digital maps are really popular. I’d say there is less competition from what I’ve seen in the animated map space. There are several heavy hitters in the static map arena, including Crosshair and Tom Cartos.
Many, many people are making static maps on Patreon. You could join them if you feel you could outpace them in content, or if you have a niche art idea that hasn’t been addressed yet. You know what they say: “There’s riches in the niches.”
If you don’t want to compete with the likes of Tom, I’d suggest checking out making animated maps. You’ll need proficiency with digital video software which can have a steep learning curve, but if you’ve already tinkered with that, it may be an easier option for you. There is definitely less competition.
I have paid for Crosshair, Tom Cartos, and two different animated maps subscriptions for extended periods of time in the past just to have the assets for my games as a DM.
While on the subject of maps, make sure you check out our post on using Midjourney to create awesome map artwork for your games.
Passive Income Through Crafted One Shots
If you tend to write your own homebrew content anyway, why not publish it and make some money? You can set your content up on one of the TTRPG shopping portals (I’ll link them below), or you could set up a Patreon or Gumroad for yourself. DMDave has been very successful on Patreon with this model.
You’ll need to make it look nice, though. People don’t want to pay for a Google Docs link. Use software to make your content look polished and professional, and be ready to answer questions if anyone asks them. It’s really important to engage with your new fans.
If you’re not an artist, you’ll need to acquire some art assets, too. I’ll link my favorite resources for these below.
Adventure Modules
Similar to one shots, you can publish full adventures for a higher price. Amazon allows self-publishing, so you could set it up on there as well as on the pay-per-download sites like DMsGuild or DriveThruRPG.
Patreon is another great option here. Make sure you look at what other popular creators are doing so that you can be competitive; you don’t want to charge twice as much for half the content, for example.
If you feel lost in where to start, mimic someone popular in their business model until you feel more confident in what approach you’d like to take.
Fake it ’till you make it! I do have some experience with a previous project in Patreon, and the best advice I can give you is this: build a social following, advertise to said following but provide excellent content 90% of the time for free (this can be jokes, freebies, -isms, interactions, etc.) and be patient. In my first Patreon project it took me two months before I had my first Patron. It takes time.
Character Sheets
If you’re confident in your graphics design skills, why not make passive income through character sheet sales? I do this. I haven’t make a killing off them at this point, but my shop is still pretty new. Here are a few of mine, which I will shamelessly share with you here.
And if you like the black and white floral one, make sure to sign up for our newsletter! I’ll send you the printable black and white Wild Escapade character sheet for free as a thank you for hanging out with me.
The Tools You Need to Make Passive Income This Way
- Design software
- I use Adobe Creative Cloud, but it is not cheap. There are free alternatives such as Gimp, Inkscape, Canva, and Google Docs. It may be a little challenging at times to get your formatting just right with the free alternatives, but it’s certainly possible, and a much more economical option.
- Premade Art Assets (for the artistically disinclined, welcome)
- Creative Fabrica, Vexels
- Places to sell digital art assets:
- Patreon
- Creative Fabrica
- Shutterstock
- Envato
- Creative Market
Make Money With a YouTube Channel, Podcast or Blog
If you enjoy creating videos, podcasts, or writing articles, you could create content focused on D&D or your TTRPG of choice. By building an audience and monetizing your content through platforms like YouTube, Patreon, or Twitch, you could earn passive income from advertising revenue, sponsorships, or listener support.
For a blog, monetization comes through affiliate links and ad revenue. I will warn you that this is a particularly challenging route.
Though you will eventually be rewarded for your efforts, understand that it is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It takes months or even YEARS to make money this way, so it needs to be something you enjoy and can continue doing for the long-haul.
The Tools You Need to Make Money This Way
- For a video or podcast setup:
- A decent camera, such as this value-priced offering from Logitech. In my experience, every single thing I’ve ever gotten from Logitech has been excellent.
- A good microphone. I linked the same microphone that I personally own here. It’s a reasonably priced, good-looking microphone that has lasted years for me and performs consistently well.
- Microphone accessories, depending on your setup. You don’t want your mic to pick up on buzzing from your desk or your every breath when speaking, so grabbing a couple of additional things can easily improve your recording quality. I linked the exact setup that I have and use. I’ve had it for years. It’s not the fanciest, but it works!
- Video editing software and know-how, for something like Adobe Premiere Pro or much more affordable HitFilm
- For a blog:
- A website builder, such as WordPress. WordPress is free and makes up about 80% of the internet.
- A hosting service. I currently use Nixihost and couldn’t be happier with the support, speed, and overall service. They’re chat channel made the transfer from my previous host completely seamless.
- UPDATE: I previously used BlueHost, but can no longer recommend their service. They signed me up (without my consent or knowledge) for a malicious “spyware scanning service” which is infamous for actually planting malware on sites. They also charged me for another year’s service well after I cancelled everything with them. Just not a great experience, overall.
- Stock images, such as from Shutterstock, Envato, or Dreamstime. I use all three.
- There are a world of other services you can buy into here, including plugins for SEO management, social sharing, security, and about a thousand other things. Understand that if you’re going into blogging thinking it will just be a few easy articles a week, you are in for a big surprise. I’d say writing the articles is only about 15% of the work I do for this site, and you can’t expect AI to do any writing for you (though they make great DM assistants). Creating and maintaining a blog is a serious commitment. But it’s also fun and quite rewarding!
Passive Income Via Print-on-Demand (POD) Merchandise
This is a saturated market. In order to be successful, you will need MANY clever, interesting, and unique designs available, and frequently update your offerings.
Try to find a niche that isn’t as overflowing with already-available designs, if you can.
Copyright infringement is a big no-no! If you are caught, in most markets your account will be banned. You should be working to come up with original content to enrich the market, instead of ripping off other people or companies. Anything you make on Canva is allowed to be used for commercial purposes, and I’ve linked a few other resources for you to check out below.
I have made some money with this method, but it hasn’t been my primary focus. Some people claim to make ridiculous figures with this. Some people claim to make nothing after months of “hard work.” (Very subjective.)
Everyone will have a different story to tell, and I am no seer, but one truth is if you have a decent social media following, you can make money by sharing your designs with your followers to trigger additional interest. Otherwise you are leaning into organic traffic and luck.
The Tools You Need to Make Money This Way
- Digital resources to create designs
- Creative Fabrica
- Vexels
- Canva
- Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator
- A storefront, like Etsy or Amazon Merch on Demand, or your own website (the latter takes a LOT more time)
Write and Sell Fiction, Two Ways
Write and sell fiction: If you enjoy creative writing, you could write and publish fiction that’s inspired by the D&D universe, or whichever setting you love. Once your work is available, passive income occurs through readership or sales.
I strongly suggest staying away from actually using any terms found in the Dungeons & Dragons or other published source books, as many of the concepts and descriptions are copyrighted material owned by Wizards of the Coast or other companies. Without explicit permission from them, you could find yourself with a cease and desist order or worse.
Once you decide how to approach writing, you can publish your work. I’ve made a little bit of money with this method, but I don’t enjoy creative writing enough to make it something I want to constantly be doing.
You might be one of those beautiful souls like Brandon Sanderson who can just churn out an unreasonable amount of excellent prose, though. Is it a gift or a curse? Please tell me in the comments.
Two Monetization Options for Passive Income
Option 1: Use platforms like Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing or sell it through a traditional publisher. This latter option is very challenging and not nearly as lucrative as it should be, in my opinion.
Once your work is published, it may generate passive income through sales. You’ll want a snazzy cover to attract readers and you’ll need to market your work to stand out. There are tons and tons of books and short stories available, but there are also tons and tons of readers who want new content.
We are voracious.
Option 2: You could also use Patreon for a pay-as-you-read model, where Patrons pay a monthly installment to receive the next part of your story.
You’d probably want to set up an automated email drip campaign to avoid the manual logistics of keeping track of which subscribers are on which part of your story, and set up a forum for discussions based on which part of the story your readers are currently on to avoid spoilers.
If I were doing it I’d write the entire first installment before even launching my Patreon, and then start working on season two as I start to get new readers in season one.
For your email campaign, I can suggest Brevo, formerly Sendinblue. It’s what I use and not only can you start for free, but they have a very user-focused interface and tutorials to help you get started, even if you’ve never considered an email campaign before.
The Tools You Need to Make Money This Way
- A word processor, like Google Docs, Scrivener, the Hemingway app, or this adorable writing platform, 4theWords.
- An active Amazon account in good standing for self-publishing, if you choose to go that route
- A way to design your own covers, or you can hire someone on Fivrr
- If you want to design your own covers, you’ll need digital design software, such as Adobe Photoshop. It is not cheap. There are free alternatives such as Gimp, Inkscape, and Canva that you can use.
- You’ll also likely need some stock imagery. Check out Pixabay, Unsplash, and the free options from Adobe Stock if you want to keep it as low cost as possible. If you want to pay for stock, I suggest and use Envato, Shutterstock, and Dreamstime, usually. Envato is the cheapest and offers the most content, as they have an unlimited download of images, stock video, graphics, and addons like actions and presets for Adobe Creative Cloud once you’re a member. The stock imagery is not as good as what you’ll find on Shutterstock or Dreamstime, though.
- Midjourney or other AI image generators can also be a great way to make your own artwork. If you pay for a license with Midjourney, you are free to use the images you create commercially (though you do not own them)
Offer Your Skillz to Make Money
Offer Dungeons & Dragons DM coaching, courses or consulting services as a pre-recorded course. If you’re an experienced DM, you could offer these services to help other players improve their skills or create engaging campaigns.
Earn a passive income by creating these modules that customers can purchase and download. Make sure you’re including a lot of value so that people want your course instead of just scrolling through YouTube for free. You could throw in some printables, guides, or other freebies to entice your potential students.
The Tools You Need to Make a Passive Income This Way
These are the same audio and video suggestions as listed above for YouTube or podcasting work.
- A decent camera, such as this value-priced offering from Logitech. In my experience, every single thing I’ve ever gotten from Logitech has been excellent.
- A good microphone. I linked the same microphone that I have here. It’s a reasonably priced, good-looking microphone that has lasted years for me and performs consistently well.
- Microphone accessories, depending on your setup. You don’t want your mic to pick up on buzzing from your desk or your every breath when speaking, so grabbing a couple of additional things can easily improve your recording quality. I linked the exact setup that I have and use. I’ve had it for years.
- Video editing software and know-how, for something like Adobe Premiere Pro or much more affordable HitFilm
- An account with a course-hosting site such as Teachable, Thinkific, or your own site (much more time consuming)
Closing Thoughts (and a Reality Check on Passive Income)
There are lots of options to make a passive income with the tools and resources we have available to us today. If you have the grit and are able to be consistent with your efforts, you will be paid, in time, for your work.
It is important that you start your new venture with the right attitude and expectations. It’s not just a cheesy school poster: Attitude IS everything. It will not take you a week or two of work to make a living income. If that were the case, everyone would do it. It’s going to take months, plural. This is just reality.
Sites that try to sell you something and promise you overnight, life-changing income are lying to you. I’m sorry if that’s not what you want to hear, but here’s the good news: Time is going to pass either way. Wouldn’t it be nice if in a few months you started seeing the start of something new?
What Has Helped Me
I have a super supportive partner that is constantly cheering in my corner. I have family and friends who give me feedback (not always positive) on the things I am making. I get ideas from people outside my little circle for a fresh perspective. And while I do not have a crystal ball to tell the future, I know that hard work and consistency will position me best to help me achieve my dreams.
I have days where it’s soul-crushingly hard. I have been fortunate with the success in my ventures so far, but I’m still really far from my goals. That can be a tough road sometimes.
In these harder days especially, it’s important to remember that doubt and negativity are below you. They do not serve you, and they only keep you further from achieving your goals. This is so much easier said than done some days. And on those days, I box. The exercise helps a lot.
Tomorrow Never Comes
Start today (not tomorrow) and work when you can. Make it a real priority because it’s what you want, and what you deserve for yourself.
Treat it like a business. If you do this consistently, then you can and will be successful. Just look around at the popular brands and businesses you know and love. They all started with one person wanting to make something. You can do it, too. I know you can!
Do you have ideas for passive income you’re excited to work on? I’d love to hear about your projects and plans in the comments below.
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