Last week, we received the amazing news that Cubicle 7 is releasing a Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition Adventures in Middle-Earth Player’s Guide. Even though D&D was heavily inspired by Tolkein’s works, the two IPs never quite came together in an official capacity until now. A DM could figure a way to mold the rules to fit into Middle Earth should he or she choose, but an official guide will make things easier on everyone.
This got us wondering what other properties could make for good D&D campaigns. We picked our top five. Some of them have unofficial RPGs, but we want to see all of these go legit.
Mass Effect
Who says all dungeons and dragons need to be literal? Maybe they can be war-torn outposts and Reapers. A Mass Effect campaign offers millions of planets to explore across the galaxy as well as plenty of enemies to fight. Even better, the combination of the species and powers offers flexibility in character creation, as Mass Effect 3‘s multiplayer has proven. If you lean towards mage types, you could play a biotic. Or if you’re into combat, there are multiple gun play and melee styles to explore.
Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy already has systems that work very well within a tabletop setting. It would be simple to create a dozen classes, and even the possibility for multi-classing like some of the video games offer. The series also has solid continuity when it comes to monsters and spells. There is always Cure, the elemental spells, Ultima, Raise, stuff like that. How you implement magic into your system could depend on your DM’s play style. You could play a game that’s hyper-modern, or use a setting that has a more classical fantasy feel.
The Dark Crystal
The Dark Crystal film only shows us a glimpse of what is possible for playable races and magic in the world of Thra, but at the same time, that’s what makes it an ideal candidate. There is so much potential to build upon the world established in the movie, with three different eras to chose from. There’s the whole crystal era, the broken crystal era, and then the restored crystal era. The World of the Dark Crystal would serve as a great guide to build a roleplaying game.
League of Legends
League of Legends doesn’t have much in the way of plot, but what it does have are multiple fleshed out lands, species, powers, and rivalries. This makes it ideal for a D&D campaign because there are plenty of established areas to explore, but not so specific that a storyteller wouldn’t have flexibility. With hundreds of unique abilities already in the game, players could have a lot of fun letting their imaginations run wild.
BioShock
Whether you play in Rapture or Columbia, sometimes you just want a roleplaying game set in a dystopian alternate past. The BioShock franchise offers a set of dark, fleshed out worlds to play in, where terror lurks around every corner. Players can all start as normal humans and evolve over the game by using ADAM. Of course, there’s always the danger of becoming addicted and losing one’s morality.
Those are our top picks, but what are yours? What games do you dream will have an official tabletop RPG system? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Image credits: EA/BioWare, Square Enix, Universal Pictures, Riot Games, 2K Games