[3] Her notable works include the Dungeons & Dragons modules Dark Tower and Caverns of Thracia for Judges Guild; the development and design of conversions on games such as Pac-Man and Donkey Kong for Coleco's home arcade video game system; and more recent design work, including the Age of Empires series, Quake II, and Quake III Arena.
Jaquays also influenced the video game industry with significant works at Coleco, id Software, and Ensemble Studios.
While working in Texas, Jaquays cofounded The Guildhall at SMU, a graduate-level game design education program at Southern Methodist University.
In the field of game design, "Jaquaysing" is a term which refers to a multiple path, non-linear, sometimes extra-dimensional approach in scenario writing, considered an innovation created by Jaquays.
[10]: 66 Tim Kask from TSR granted Jaquays a casual license to publish this amateur fanzine, and The Dungeoneer became one of the earliest periodicals for role-playing games.
[10]: 9 The first issue, released in the same month as Dragon #1 (June 1976),[10]: 9 was drawn and written primarily by Jaquays, with contributions by other members of the FDS.
[11][12][13][14][15][16] In addition to these "honest efforts at quality contents to interest readers," Jaquays began submitting artwork to TSR in 1976.
[19] Jaquays worked on two stand-alone D&D modules for Dungeons & Dragons, Dark Tower and Caverns of Thracia, which were completed before she left the company in October 1979.
[10]: 79 Jaquays, Denis Loubet, and Jeff Dee produced Cardboard Heroes in the early 1980s for Steve Jackson Games.
[21] A number of these became the basis for starship models from Ad Astra Games and the deckplans found in Mongoose Traveller Supplement 3 - Fighting Ships.
[10]: 40 From 1993 to 1997, she returned to full-time employment in the table-top gaming industry as an illustrator for TSR, including a six-month period as Director of Graphics.
During this time, she played an active role in the creation of the Dragon Dice game, both as cover artist and icon designer.
[5] Jennell divided her creative energy between projects for design studio Dragongirl Studios, her Fifth Wall brand of game adventures and miniatures, and serving as the creative director for Olde Sküül, Inc.,[1] a digital game developer and publisher based in Seattle, Washington which she founded with three other veteran female developers in 2012.
[38] As creative director for the Transgender Human Rights Institute in Seattle, Jennell Jaquays was involved in the petition to create "Leelah's Law," outlawing conversion therapy of LGBT youth.
[40] The New York Times noted that "two of her earliest D&D modules, Dark Tower and The Caverns of Thracia, are renowned for their pathbreaking designs".
[...] These spaces are thus frustrating and difficult to navigate, but also present the PCs with a wide range of resources which can be combined and exploited in novel ways, including those which may not have been anticipated or imagined by the designer themselves.
Such designs make the spatial practice of dungeoneering more dynamic and interesting than a series of simple choices by creating a more complex and variable landscape within the overall infrastructure of play provided by the megadungeon.
[43][47][48] The project aims to create a mega-dungeon that can be "slot into most fantasy or adjacent tabletop RPG campaigns" and evokes "the layout and style of classic Dungeons & Dragons adventure Caverns of Thracia, which Jaquays authored".
[23] As a level designer for TSR's Castle Greyhawk module, Jaquays shared the 1989 Origins Gamer's Choice Award for "Best Role-Playing Adventure.