Although the worlds of The Forgotten Realms and Eberron are popular choices for manyDungeons & Dragonscampaigns, there are hundreds of fantasy worlds with rich history and detail to use as the setting at the table. This is especially true for video games, which offer unique and rich stories to draw from.
What makes fantasy such a popular genre for games are the tropes that are familiar to players but can also be subverted in subtle ways that have a large impact on the feel and gameplay. When translated to D&D, not only can you play in a familiar world with more immersion, but get to make your own stories in these epic IPs.
9The Witcher
Filled with terrifying monsters, heroes wielding magic and swords, and including traditional fantasy races, The Witcher games and book series make an almost ideal backdrop for a D&D campaign. With so much lore and even game maps that you’re able to refer to, almost all the work is done for you.
You don’t even need to cut that many races, as halflings, dwarves, elves, gnomes, kobolds, and goblins are all found in the universe. Players could be mercenaries, sorcerers, and even witchers themselves, battling any monster that you can think of as the world is made up of the conjoining of many different multiverses.
8The Elder Scrolls
Many games exist in the Elder Scrolls series, most notably Elder Scrolls Online, Skyrim, and Oblivion, featuring traditional fantasy backdrops with decades of lore to fill in the details. Gameplay even acts much like a game of D&D, choosing your race, class, and even background in some cases.
Although most of the different races are just variants of humans, there are also elves, orcs, goblins, and khajiit, which can be easily substituted for a tabaxi or leonin. Eventhe schools of magicare strikingly similar, only needing a couple of alterations to blend into D&D.
7Divinity: Original Sin
From the creators of Baldur’s Gate 3, the Divinity: Original Sin series also exists in a unique fantasy world filled with magic, gods, and fantasy races similar to the species in D&D. Most of the conflict in Divinity surrounds a source of powerful magic called Source and tyrannical false gods, which would make an epic campaign.
Any of the class options would work for a Divinity campaign, but the species options would be limited to humans, dwarves, elves, and dragonborn. Like any good fantasy series, Divinity has centuries of in-game lore that can allow dungeon masters to put the party in any time period that works best for the group.
6The Legend Of Zelda
A unique fantasy design that is both easily recognizable and admirably iconic, the Legend of Zelda series makes an excellent backdrop for a campaign where players can explore the land of Hyrule and beyond. Since most games take place in alternate worlds, you can even craft your own Hyrule outside the canon.
Gorons canuse earth genasi stats, Ritos can use aarakocra, and Zora can use triton.
Ganon is a strong and obvious choice for a campaign villain, but games like Majora’s Mask and Skyward Sword subvert this expectation, so the villain could be anything you want. Although the D&D classes don’t fit super neatly into the world of Zelda, magic does exist so it can be easily handwaved.
5Dragon Age
Forming a party of unlikely adventurers using various forms of weaponry and magic, Dragon Age already resembles most D&D campaigns on the surface. The fantasy world is also filled with usable lore that players can wield to craft memorable characters that fit seamlessly into the campaign while remaining unique.
Each game also tends to establish a world-ending event, such as the arrival of the Darkspawn or tearing of the veil between worlds, that forces the party to take action. The DM can even introduce recognizeable characters into the campaign to serve as lore guides or powerful allies.
4Dragon’s Dogma
The Dragon’s Dogma series focuses on the exploits of the Arisen and their summoned pawns from beyond the rift. This can be an interesting focus for a campaign where the players are themselves Arisen, their hearts stolen by an elder dragon and are otherwise deathless, unless killed in battle.
Although not a playable race in the game, Dragon’s Dogma has other sentient races such as Saurians (lizardfolk), and goblins.
Since the world of Dragon’s Dogma contains paths to other worlds, it gives DMs freedom to expand and alter the lore to fit whatever would be needed for a D&D campaign. Also, with the gameplay focused on fighting big monsters, a campaign focused on chopping off hydra heads and battling flying manticores can be intense and epic.
3Elden Ring
In the Lands Between, roaming undead, deadly creatures, and even dragons present a deadly challenge where a hardcore, gothic-themed D&D campaign would feel right at home. Since the map is minimized to optimize gameplay for a video game, it can be easily scaled up to make the world feel grander and add longer traversal.
Although the campaign would have mostly humans in the party, allowing demi-humans to be an option could make for some creative character options.
With Elden Ring’s many NPCs and endings, which are entirely unique from one another, it also opens up the campaign’s goal to bemore player-focused, allowing the party to choose their own path, even if the lore remains identical. Just be prepared to binge 12 hour deep lore YouTube videos to prepare for crafting a campaign.
2Monster Hunter
A decades-spanning franchise with over 20 titles, Monster Hunter is exactly what it sounds like: hunting big monsters. In modern titles especially, gameplay is a mix of hunting and tracking down the monsters while exploring new areas as you uncover lost lore or hidden secrets at the center of the story.
This meshes well with a D&D campaign, having players utilize Survival and Nature skills to build up their supplies and discover the weaknesses of especially terrifying beasts. The biggest change, however, would be that MH is a low-magic setting, meaning that casters would be out-of-place in the world and gameplay.
1Warhammer
A mix of wargaming and fantasy lore that has spawned many video game franchises, the fantasy version of Warhammer is an expansive source of lore and conflict that can be used to make any type of D&D campaign. Typically comprised of warring factions across a sprawling fantasy setting, there is plenty of overlap with D&D.
Warhammer has many different TTRPG systems if you prefer the lore over the D&D system.
The lore of Warhammer is beyond expansive, with whole novels dedicated to the expanding and detailing the world, its factions and heroes, spread across several millennia. Although just using the backdrop, maps, and various fantasy species also works to make an equally satisfying campaign.
