Not every Pathfinder Adventure Path or standalone adventure is available as a Paizo Official Foundry Module for purchase from Paizo and if there’s a module or adventure path that’s appealing to run, getting that content into Foundry VTT can be daunting. I’ve spent some enough time on this process, recently bringing Rise of the Runelords into Foundry, a 1st edition adventure path, and have some tips to share for those getting an adventure into Foundry for Pathfinder 2. I’m motivated to share these tips because there are some excellent adventure paths that don’t have foundry modules and with a bit of work it can in the end be easier to run said adventures in foundry than outside foundry using traditional techniques.
Preparation and Planning
Selecting the right adventure is foundational to a successful campaign. Begin by discussing preferences with your players to identify themes and styles they enjoy. If everyone is new to RPG games you can start by asking what their favourite shows and movie are. The adventure needs to be engaging for your players so include them in the selection process. After narrowing down options I prefer to explore Paizo’s Adventure Paths. My own group wants to explore and build their characters for longer than a few sessions and Adventure Paths offer that opportunity. Read a candidate Adventure Path’s Player Guide for insight into the campaign’s tone and character recommendations. The character recommendations will give you an idea of the types of encounters you’ll be running for the Adventure Path.
If you can afford it, you can purchase the first module and evaluate it’s fit for your group. If you can’t afford to buy the first module to preview it then look for people who’ve shared their thoughts on Youtube or Reddit. How It’s Played on Youtube has good overviews of a few of Paizo’s Adventure Paths.
Gathering materials is the next step. PDFs are preferable to physical books for their ease of use in Foundry. When it comes to tools, dual monitors are a significant advantage, allowing you to view Foundry alongside reference material, speeding up data entry. The core rulebooks (Player Core, GM Core, Monster Core) are frequently cited in Paizo modules, though the Monster Core’s stat blocks are available online under the ORC license. I feel that the GM Core book is an essential book to own and read through while Monster Core and Player Core can be referenced online if your budget is tight. All 3 have their most essential content on Archives of Nethys but don’t discount the ability of the artwork to inspire you as a GM.
Converting and Importing Map Content
One of the first steps in bringing an adventure module into Foundry is importing and converting the necessary maps. Several tools can streamline this process but DungeonDraft is highly recommended. It’s the easiest to use and provides a wide array of art resources, allowing you to create custom maps. It’s an invaluable tool for bringing the tiny maps in a PDF or book up to the scale needed for use in Foundry. If you use Dungeondraft, the Universal Battlemap Importer automates the placement of walls, doors, and lighting when importing maps made with Dungeondraft.
Greenshot is a helpful screenshotting tool providing more functionality than Window’s built-in print screen capabilities and it’s Free. If you’re working with PDFs of the adventure, Greenshot is a free and effective tool for capturing images directly from the documents. For any necessary image cleanup, GIMP offers powerful editing capabilities at no cost. It’s helpful for scaling down images, cropping maps, measuring grid sizes, etc.
Free maps sourced online from creators, such as /r/battlemaps, often look beautiful and save time but sometimes pose a grid alignment challenge in Foundry, especially if their grids are irregular or misaligned. A combination of techniques is usually required to get grids to align in Foundry, especially if they’re offset by the creator (ie: a cropped map). Start by identifying the pixels per grid square, which is usually around 100 but can vary significantly.
To use a map in Foundry you need to know the pixels per square of the map image so that the grid lines are aligned in Foundry. Where the creator hasn’t shared this essential info, this is where Gimp’s ruler tool can come in, letting you quickly determine the pixels per inch of a given map. If no grid is present, use recognizable elements like door widths or wall thickness to estimate. Once aligned, test the setup with tokens to ensure smooth gameplay.
For stubborn cases (ie: old maps meant for printing and not virtual table tops) or official adventure content missing high-res maps, I’ll reacreate the map in DungeonDraft myself and use DungeonDraft’s trace tool to use the PDF map as a reference.
Getting the squares from a reference to line up with the squares in Dungeondraft can be tricky if you’re randomly sliding the scale slider but if you follow this process, you’ll quickly get your reference properly aligned and scaled quickly each time:
- Screenshot the PDF map from the adventure module using Greenshot and save the screenshot in the same folder as your dungeondraft file.
- Dungeondraft makes you decide the dimensions when creating a map so count the square dimensions of the map so you can recreate it in the same square dimensions in Dungeondraft.
- After creating the new dungeondraft map file, click Settings on the left and choose Trace Image
- Load your screenshot file
- Drag the scale slider to get the initial scale somewhat correct
- Now use a combination of dragging the trace image with the mouse and resizing it with the mouse wheel to get it right. Fine adjustments are too difficult at this point using the scale slider so the mouse is ideal.
- Center a square of the trace image on the left then scan your eyes right until you notice the first square being off. It will tell you if it’s too small or large.
- Each time you change the scale you will have to drag the trace image to readjust it.
Converting and Importing Monster & NPC Content
For NPCs, monsters, and items, the Foundry Pathfinder 2e compendiums are a goldmine. Most monsters are already available, and for unique entries, the PF2e-Foundry-Data-Entry tool simplifies the process by generating formatted HTML. This is the tool staff at Paizo use themselves for data entry into Foundry. Custom items can start with existing templates—modify a similar weapon or item to save time. Familiarizing yourself with Foundry’s integrated image library can help you assign fitting visuals without extensive searching.
How to use PF2e-Foundry-Data-Entry
Deidril’s Pathfinder 2 PDF Import creates journals and game elements directly from purchased PDFs but the selection of supported content is small. Ensure your PDFs are official, as these tools require legal copies to function. PDF2 to Foundry used to be the go-to tool but no longer supports recent versions of Foundry.
Organizing the Module
Consistency in your setup is key. Decide whether Foundry or the original PDF will serve as your primary encounter description resource during sessions, and stick to it. Spreading references between tools can slow down gameplay and create confusion as you jump back and forth between two sources. You can also miss details mid-session due to the inconsistency so pick whether to copy/paste large blocks of test into foundry or leave it in the PDF. While it takes time, I prefer bringing text into Foundry so I have a single point of reference when running an encounter. It keeps me on my feet and the pace fast.
A well-organized module is crucial for smooth gameplay, so organize it before you fill out the details. I like to start with just placeholders of actors and outlines journal entries to to start; this allows for easy linking as you progress. Trying to fill in full details of a journal entry before moving onto the next makes it difficult to define links between journal entries. Creating just titles for pages to start ensures when working on an earlier encounter you can drag a future encounter in for reference.
Start by structuring your actors, scenes, and journals. For actors, I prefer a folder hierarchy that reflects the adventure path. Subdivide by module and encounter to keep everything manageable. If there’s an encounter with 5 wolves I will only import 1 wolf into the given chapter of my Actors hierarchy, to keep things tidy. NPCs get their own actor. Scenes should follow a similar structure, grouped by chapter and named descriptively to aid quick navigation.
I have two types of journal entries, one main journal for the entire adventure path with a page for each chapter, and journals per scene. If the book has a letter code for a map that’s a clue it needs a page in this journal. Introductory text for chapters go in these pages.
Then I create journals to correspond with each scene, to hold map marker journal entries for each given scene. I use the letter code for a given map as part o the title. These journals are going to have their pages dragged and dropped onto maps for me to open notes for specific encounters on a map.
Actor Setup
Recurring NPCs benefit from the “Link to Actor” setting in Foundry. This ensures their stats, hit points, and abilities remain consistent across scenes, important for NPCs that have a place throughout a storyline. When the players encounter the NPC, and the NPC runs to another level, Link to Actor ensures that the HP is at the same value when you drag it into the other scene. Keep in mind that actors that don’t have this enabled will become a separate actor with separate HP each time you drag one on a scene.
Enhancing Gameplay
Immersive features like dynamic lighting and soundscapes elevate the Foundry experience. Setting up lighting correctly can dramatically enhance atmosphere. Use the regions tool to apply specific lighting behaviors, such as darkening indoor areas while keeping outdoor sections bright. For natural light sources, reference the torch settings in Foundry’s compendium to replicate realistic firelight.
Teleporting regions are another handy feature for multi-level maps. By spacing floors apart on the same map, you can create regions on staircases that teleport tokens between levels seamlessly. Foundry’s documentation provides clear guidance on this setup.
If you’re looking to purchase additional modules, consider the official Paizo Monster Core and Pathfinder Token Beastiaries modules. While they’re a premium purchase, the high-quality art and tokens they provide are worth the cost for a polished experience.
Map Caves and Curves
Encountering problems is inevitable, but many issues have straightforward solutions. Map alignment is a common hurdle, especially with irregular cave walls or older maps not designed for virtual play. When aligning grids, use invisible walls to define movement areas and ethereal walls to control visibility. Test these setups thoroughly with tokens to avoid frustrating players.
Gaps in Adventure Modules
Writers will give ideas for encounters to run but without all of the details required to run them. This is to give options for GMs and players but the writers don’t have the time to fully flesh out all of their ideas in print. Therefore, some parts of an adventure will be lacking in details, such as missing a map for a shop the writer mentions, lack of character stat blocks for potential encounters in town. Start with a Google search, as Reddit and Paizo forums often have discussions and solutions for specific scenarios. If you need to create your own content, the GM Core’s guidelines on encounter and map building are invaluable. Lean on Dungeondraft as a tool for quickly building maps.
AI Assistance (or it’s lack thereof)
Be careful with AI assistance, both with writing and image generation. AI image generators don’t know the floorplan of your encounter spaces so the images they generate will have a visual disconnect from what’s on the map. Chat GPT has layers which censor anything which sounds violent so it will alter it’s output to avoid describing the violent clashes common to tabletop RPGs.
Don’t depend on ChatGPT to recite the material from the adventure. It’s copy-written content so anything GPT knows is third hand knowledge and mangled by becoming an AI language model. It’s ok for querying high level information about an adventure path or a chapter, but it will almost always get the particulars wrong. Don’t discount the value of “RTFM” (Read the fucking manual).
And GPT doesn’t know much about Foundry. It gets roll helpers for journals wrong. It gets the programatic API of foundry wrong when writing macros. Foundry isn’t an open source platform with all of it’s code free to read so GPT doesn’t know anything about it. Don’t trust it for anything technical that’s specific to Foundry. It can help you feel your way through Javascript though, pointing out syntax errors or giving advice on how to refactor a macro’s Javascript.
Final Touches and Playtesting
Before running the module, test your maps and encounters. Ensure tokens can move smoothly and that visibility aligns with the intended design. Adjust encounter spacing to avoid overwhelming players in cramped areas. If an encounter feels extraneous or distracting, consider removing it or modifying its role in the story.
Sharing and Community
For additional support, online communities like the /r/FoundryVTT and /r/Pathfinder2e subreddits are invaluable. Foundry’s official Discord also offers guidance and discussions. While sharing pre-made modules for published adventures is prohibited by copyright, you can contribute original maps or supplementary materials back to the community via these platforms. Check back here regularly for resources as well, and you can leave a comment on my site for others to see.