When it comes to campaign ideas for Dungeons & Dragons, video games are an excellent source of inspiration. Dungeon Masters create new religions, political structures and entire landscapes from scratch, so having different points of reference for building a world is a must. Video games are also aimed at players who want to break through familiar fantasy styles with their character’s backstory or by providing unique templates for protagonists.
Fortunately, the Fifth Edition system is flexible enough to bloom wherever it is planted, giving countless beloved classics and their settings a new lease of life with a unique story. So why not let Dungeon Masters use the powers of Splicers as players crawl through the twisting corridors of Rapture?
7 Assassin’s Creed
Transport players to an unforgettable era of history. The Assassin’s Creed series has had numerous entries, from Vikings to pirates to ancient Egyptians. If you or your Dungeon Master is a history buff, this is where you will excel.
Consider setting the campaign in the modern era, similar to the series, with an overarching story set both in and outside the past. Spelling casting and focusing can be scientific devices developed by Abstergo or Pieces of Eden that you or your ancestors got your hands on. Perhaps your party is a test group of citizens forced to venture into the distant memories of ancestors.
6 Silent Hill
Horror settings in Dungeons & Dragons are often limited to the abominable realm of Ravenloft, but if you or your Dungeon Master are comfortable enough flavoring the core aspects of gameplay (races, classes, and spells), a casual trip to Silent Hill, Maine could be in your future. Ravenloft’s Domains and Silent Hill share similarities, as both are projections of the psyche, and monsters terrorizing the area are manifestations of personal will or negativity. And don’t forget that both share a passion for fog related phenomena.
Putting together a group of adventures seems counterintuitive to the video game, as it’s rare to encounter more than one person at a time in Silent Hill, let alone a battle-ready party. Still, talented DMs might be able to come up with a reason. There is a lot of diversity within the subclasses, and half the fun is seeing the creativity of the players in what they come up with.
5 Old School RuneScape
The quirkiness and humor of the world of RuneScape is a staple. Still, the series’ dedication to high fantasy, even with frequent doses of modern jokes and situations, leaves players in a comfortable sense of wanderlust with enough familiarity to feel eternally relevant. If your Dungeons & Dragons group often creates a mix of comedy and fantasy, just like that of RuneScape, setting up your next campaign in the Gielinor could be just the kind of creative freedom you need.
A big focus of RuneScape is leveling up different skills. Let’s be honest; everyone goes to multiple classes in wizards, rangers and hunters. But homebrewing rules for the many non-combat skills will come in handy when incentivizing players to cut down trees or fish. In the same way, players’ downtime activities between adventures become much more part of the experience (like a mastered cooking skill results in a free cast of Heroes’ Feast). In terms of the plot, perhaps the Dungeon Master sends the group to defeat Elvarg the dragon, lifting a quest straight from the source material, or maybe Zamorak has new plans to wreak chaos and destruction across the land!
4 BioShock
With Art Deco aesthetics, haunting tunes from a bygone era, and whipped-up maniacs wanting to tear you apart, the vibe of Rapture is unmistakable. Match players against a new model of a Big Daddy, or perhaps the Splicers continued to evolve beyond their previous iterations. The surrounding marine life also presents a terrifying challenge, as players must cross from one Rapture district to another.
Tonics, EVE and ADAM should play a vital role in the player experience, especially when casting spells. The multiverse theory presented in BioShock: Infinite can also create a unique mechanics or story beat that the players encounter. Perhaps the failure of death causes an alternate version of the deceased character to appear, help the party again, or hunt them down to let them die. And if you don’t mind a meta plot, Bioshock’s tabletop version might just be another lighthouse.
3 Mass effect
For tables that can’t get enough of Spelljammer, the Mass Effect series provides the perfect setting. Even just a campaign around the Citadel, with its political intrigue, gang violence and secrets left behind by its original builders, the Protheans. The Citadel is also a great launching point for deep space missions to alien planets, and what party wouldn’t want to own a spaceship?
For classes, don’t be afraid to limit players’ choices in session 0. The psionic subclasses presented in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything are similar to using Biotics, Artificers are hugely relevant (as in most modern 5th takes), and a Warlock could easily be someone indoctrinated by the Reaper’s. Check out the Dungeon Master’s Guide for optional rules about alien technology and firearms.
2 Elden Ring
With the newest world form FromSoftware still fresh in the minds of many, The Lands Between provides a combat-oriented setting for a Dungeons & Dragons game for players with little interest in social interaction. Groups enjoying a monster-of-the-week experience can fill an entire session with a trip to an Evergaol, and dungeon diggers can sink their teeth into the wildly dangerous Hero’s Graves found around the world.
Magic Items will probably want the most significant overhaul in terms of relevance, as players must loot items specific to the person or creature they killed, in keeping with the FromSoftware tradition. The story of your journey to the Lands Between can be swept far into the past, with players serving under Godfrey and overcoming the various threats to the Golden Order. Or Dungeon Masters can choose a new circumstance, perhaps a peek into the Lands Between after their own Tarnished claimed ultimate victory and what threats now loom on the horizon to the newly established dominion.
The world of Tamriel and the Elder Scrolls series was initially inspired by pen-and-paper games like Dungeons & Dragons, so adapting a campaign to the game’s setting is simple and natural. Tamriel has a laundry list of potential enemies and unexplained phenomena (such as the disappearance of the Dwemer). Dungeon Masters can also use Dragon Breaks to recreate their version of an Elder Scrolls story already told.
Customizing characters in the series is undoubtedly a signature role, so Dungeon Masters should try to offer players something unique in this process, such as under which character a character was born. And of course it wouldn’t be an adventure in Tamriel if the players didn’t start the campaign as prisoners.
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