5 Ways to Use Premade Modules in Your Homebrew D&D Campaign

By Luke Hart

Today in the Lair, I want to talk about five different ways you can adapt and use premade adventure modules—things like Curse of Strahd or Rime of the Frostmaiden—inside your homebrew D&D games.

This approach is fantastic for new dungeon masters who don’t feel quite ready to build everything from scratch but also don’t want to run a module straight out of the book. It’s also a lifesaver for veteran DMs who love homebrewing but could really use a break from reinventing the wheel every single week. Modules are full of solid design work, interesting encounters, and cool ideas. You don’t have to use them “as intended” to get a ton of value out of them.

Let’s dig into five practical ways to do exactly that.

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1. Cherry-Pick Individual Adventures from Multiple Modules

This is hands down my favorite way to use published modules.

Let’s say your party is level 6. Instead of committing to an entire campaign book, you grab a handful of modules off your shelf and flip through them looking for adventures designed around that level. You might find three different adventures—each from a different book—that all look fun and interesting.

You then take those three adventures and create plot hooks for each one. These hooks are what you present to your players at the end of a session. They choose which one they want to pursue next, and that’s the adventure you prep for the following session.

If you’re running an Acquisitions Incorporated–style game, or using group patrons like those described in Eberron: Rising from the Last War or Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, this works especially well. The plot hooks can literally be contracts handed down by a patron or “home office,” which makes the structure feel intentional and diegetic.

This is exactly how I run my Youngling Campaign. The party operates like Acq Inc, and I regularly present them with three potential jobs—all secretly pulled from different modules. They pick the one they’re most excited about, I prep that adventure, and the game moves forward smoothly. It dramatically lowers my prep time, gives the players real choice, and—at least as far as I know—they have no idea what I’m doing behind the scenes.

Once the players make their choice, that’s the adventure. Don’t keep the others hovering in the background as backups. Make the choice matter and move forward.

And remember: you can change absolutely anything in the adventure you’ve chosen. Adjust it to fit your group’s playstyle. Add traps, recurring NPCs, or roleplaying opportunities. Swap out monsters if needed. Tweak the story. The module is a tool, not a contract.

2. Run a Module as the Main Arc, with Homebrew Character Arcs

Another excellent approach is to run a module largely as written while weaving in homebrew character arcs based on your players’ backstories.

In this setup, the module provides the spine of the campaign. You follow its main plot, major locations, and core threats. You can—and should—still tweak things to fit your group’s preferences, but the overall structure stays intact.

On top of that, you create side quests and mini-adventures tied directly to individual player characters. These character arcs are pulled from backstories and personal goals, and players absolutely love them because the story suddenly becomes about their character, not just the setting.

Sometimes a character arc is a full adventure. Maybe Krindar’s long-lost sister resurfaces and is up to something terrible, forcing the entire party to intervene. Or Elodin’s former thieves’ guild returns, seeking revenge and holding his former lover hostage.

Other times, a character arc is just a handful of encounters sprinkled into the campaign. Two revenants—Krindar’s brothers, whom he personally killed—might track the party down mid-journey. It’s still deeply personal, but it doesn’t derail the entire campaign.

This approach gives you the best of both worlds: a professionally designed foundation paired with custom content that resonates emotionally with your players.

One thing to watch out for is leveling. Adding extra adventures can cause the party to outpace the module’s intended progression. To manage this, keep character arcs short—often a single session works best. Alternatively, cut module content you don’t like to make room. Or, if you’re feeling clever, rework an existing module adventure so it doubles as a character arc by incorporating backstory elements directly into it.

3. Run a True Module–Homebrew Mix

Sometimes you want to run a module, but you also really want to homebrew. Good news: you can absolutely do both.

In this approach, you mostly follow the module’s overarching plot, but you frequently step in and change things to suit your tastes and your players’ preferences. If there’s a section of the module you dislike, throw it out without guilt.

For example, if you’re running Curse of Strahd and you find Vallaki to be an absolute nightmare to manage—and many people do—you’re not obligated to keep it intact. If you hate the bones quest, ditch it. Instead, create a homebrew adventure that excites you and deliver it through existing NPCs like the burgomaster, Lady Wachter, or the ravens.

You can also remix module elements into entirely new content. Maybe Izek and Victor are secretly using their powers to create grotesque humanoid monstrosities that are terrorizing the town. That’s not straight from the book, but it uses familiar pieces in a new way.

As the party travels, you can drop in homebrew encounters using monsters from books like Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes or Volo’s Guide to Monsters. You can even create fully original adventures—there’s no rule saying Barovia can’t also have a rogue necromancer causing problems on the side.

Always remember: the module is a guideline. You are the dungeon master. You are allowed—encouraged, even—to change it however you want.

4. Run a Mostly Homebrew Campaign and Steal from Modules

This is a method I used heavily during my Sword Coast Guard campaign. Most of the story was homebrew, but every so often I’d lift a premade adventure and drop it into the campaign.

For example, I ran parts of Against the Giants from Tales from the Yawning Portal. I used the hill giant and frost giant sections mostly as written, but my group and I didn’t enjoy those adventures much. So, when it came time for the fire giants, I completely homebrewed that section instead.

In one case, I took a map and a single encounter from a premade adventure and gutted everything else. The encounter involved ghouls leaping from pools of water, using ropes and terrain to try to drown the party. That part was cool, so I kept it. Everything else—the story, rewards, and surrounding context—I replaced with my own ideas.

A great middle ground here is to keep the framework of a module—maps, locations, encounter ideas—but heavily rewrite the content to fit your campaign. Rearrange rooms, change motivations, replace monsters, and tailor the adventure to your table.

5. Use Modules as Inspiration for Your Own Homebrew

Finally, you can use modules purely as inspiration.

This works especially well if you want to homebrew your own campaign but don’t know where to start. Grab a module, steal its core idea, and build something new around it.

Maybe you love the concept of Curse of Strahd but don’t want to run the whole thing. So, you create your own demiplane where the characters can become trapped, ruled by a vampire lord, with its own villages and dangers. The premise is familiar, but everything else is yours.

Whenever you hit writer’s block, you crack open the module again. Need an adventure idea? You read about the werewolf den and think, “Yeah, that works.” You then design your own version from scratch.

You can keep doing this with other modules as well. Need a deadly, trap-filled tomb? Look at Tomb of Horrors or Tomb of Annihilation. Need cultist ideas? Princes of the Apocalypse has you covered. Cold-themed adventures? Rime of the Frostmaiden is sitting right there.

Steal liberally. That’s not cheating—it’s smart DMing.

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