TABLETOP DESIGN
Original quest, encounter, and settlement module designs for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, demonstrating game master experience, modular design, player agency, and module creation.
D&D 5th Edition
Quest, Encounter & Settlement Modules
Foundry VTT Integration
Integrating Custom Content Into Campaigns
The modules I design are built to drop into existing campaigns, whether you're running on Foundry VTT or around a physical table. Each module includes implementation notes for Foundry VTT with journal entries, scene setups, and macro suggestions. For paper and pen games, I provide clear stat blocks, location descriptions, and NPC notes that work without digital tools.
I've run these modules in my own campaigns, adapting them mid-session when players took unexpected paths. The content is modular by design: use the full quest, pull individual encounters, or mine NPCs and locations for your own stories. The Foundry VTT integration means you can have maps, tokens, and journal entries ready in minutes. For traditional play, everything you need is in the PDF.
The Merchant's Silence
A mystery and investigation quest set in Waterdeep's Dock Ward. Players investigate the disappearance of Captain Mira Pinty, uncovering a smuggling operation and murder. The quest features four distinct resolution paths: legal justice, vigilante justice, cover-up deal, or exposing everything to both sides. Each path has meaningful consequences that affect faction reputation, future quest hooks, and world state.
Quest Structure
- Non-linear investigation with multiple evidence paths
- Four resolution endings with distinct consequences
- Scalable encounters (3-6 players, levels 3-5)
- DC-calibrated skill checks (10-18 range)
- NPCs with secrets and multiple interaction paths
Technical Implementation
- Branching dialogue trees with skill checks
- Multiple quest completion states
- Faction reputation systems
- Evidence collection and investigation mechanics
- Scalable encounter balancing
Example Player Choice: Players can solve the mystery through investigation (finding Mira's body, bloodstains, smuggling ledgers), social interaction (persuading/intimidating witnesses), or combat. Each approach unlocks different resolution paths. The "Expose Everything" ending requires feeding information to both City Watch and Xanathar Guild, demonstrating complex branching narrative design.
The Cog That Thinks
A 19-page Mechanus encounter exploring consciousness, free will, and what it means to be alive. Players discover Eleven, a modron that has developed individuality while remaining loyal to Primus, and must decide its fate. Features four distinct resolution paths: help it hide, help it escape, convince it to report itself, or bring it to Primus. Each path has genuine trade-offs and lasting consequences. Combat is possible but not assumed; the real conflict is philosophical.
Design Highlights
- Roleplay-focused moral dilemma encounter
- Four resolution paths with meaningful consequences
- Memorable NPC with distinct voice and quirks
- Engages with Mechanus's philosophical themes
- Optional combat that adapts to player choices
- Scalable for levels 10-15
Technical Implementation
- Reactive storytelling based on player choices
- Philosophical depth and moral complexity
- Memorable NPCs with distinct personalities
- Content that adapts to player decisions
- Multiple quest completion states
- World state tracking and consequences
Design Approach: The encounter focuses on reactive storytelling, player choice, and philosophical depth. Eleven's dilemma requires players to engage with Mechanus's core themes of order versus individuality. The four resolution paths each have genuine trade-offs, with player decisions creating consequences that extend beyond a single encounter.
The Slag Bargain
A Moonsea settlement module that applies design principles I've studied from the best RPGs to my own work. The mithral mine that built Slag Hollow is dying, or so the Miners' Guild claims. The Zhentarim say they're lying. The Harper operative says the Zhentarim are preparing to seize the mine. They're all wrong. Something in the deep tunnels has been eating the mithral for months. Players arrive as tensions reach breaking point. What they do in the next seven days determines whether Slag Hollow survives, and in what form.
Design Philosophy
- No clear villains: every faction has legitimate motivations
- Meaningful choice without perfect outcomes
- Place as character: Slag Hollow shapes the conflict
- Reactive systems: Clock and Trust mechanics
- Six distinct resolution paths
- Systemic vs. individual malice (corporate quotas)
Design Systems
- Faction conflict with gray morality
- Interwoven faction ecology (reputation systems)
- Reactive world that responds to player action
- World state tracking (Clock system)
- Dialogue trees mapped to disposition states
- Multiple endings with trackable consequences
Design Approach: The module demonstrates my study of the best RPGs, referencing Fallout: New Vegas, The Outer Worlds, and other similar games in its designer's commentary. The Zhentarim are a corporation protecting investments. The miners have been stealing from the Xorn for sixty years. The Xorn are a displaced community defending their home. Every resolution requires trade-offs; there is no perfect path. The design mirrors how the best RPGs create quests where meaningful choice means accepting consequences, not finding the "right answer."
Game Master Experience
I've been running games for over 5 years, mostly D&D 5e and Pathfinder 2e, using Foundry VTT for the last few. I've run 100+ sessions. Here's what I've learned that actually matters.
Your Players Will Do the Opposite
They'll latch onto the random NPC you made up in two seconds and ignore the major plot hook you spent hours on. They'll befriend the enemy you expected them to fight. They'll skip the dungeon and go straight to the boss. This isn't them being difficult—it's them playing the game. The best prep I do now is building flexible situations, not rigid plots. If I need five minutes to readjust, I tell them. Taking notes on what I improvise means I can tie it back into the story later.
Prep Less, Remember More
I used to prep everything. Then I'd watch players spend two sessions in a tavern asking about the bartender's family while blowing through the combat I'd planned. Now I prep the world, not the story. I know what's happening in the background, who wants what, and what happens if players don't intervene. Then I let them drive. I keep a list of names ready because someone will always ask. I track what NPCs know and what players have told them. The stuff I improvise often becomes the table's favorite moments.
The World Remembers
Players will remember the tiny detail you forgot about three sessions ago. They'll ask about the guard you named Fred because you panicked. I've learned to write down everything I make up on the spot: NPC names, places, random details. When players return to a town weeks later, the world should remember what they did. That guard they helped? He's still grateful. The merchant they robbed? He's got a grudge. Consistency makes choices feel real.
Rules Are Tools, Not Laws
If I don't know a rule and looking it up will kill momentum, I make a call and move on. We can look it up after the session. I tell players when I'm making a ruling and that we'll clarify it later. Sometimes the rule of cool beats rules as written. But I'm consistent—if I allow something once, I remember it. I keep notes on house rules so I don't contradict myself three sessions later.
What Actually Works
The best sessions happen when I prep situations, not solutions. I know what the villain wants, what happens if players don't stop them, and what resources are available. Then I let players figure it out. I've had them talk their way out of fights, turn enemies into allies, and solve problems I never considered. That's the point. The modules I write reflect this: multiple paths, flexible NPCs, and consequences that make sense based on what players actually do, not what I planned for them to do.