Dungeons & Dragons is a tabletop game that encourages the creativity of its Dungeon Master and party . While many fans get started on campaigns built by Wizards of the Coast, many will eventually try playing or even building their own campaign based on original ideas or stories that exist outside of D&D. Building a homebrew campaign isn't easy, especially if a player is creating something based on content like a popular book series. However, there are some excellent written worlds that have been converted into campaigns thanks to dedicated hard work from D&D fans.
Turning a book series into a D&D campaign can take painstaking hours, or even years, to accomplish. Worlds have to be bent to fit the rules for of Dungeons & Dragons, changing species into races and skills into classes, as well as translating the world itself into a space a DM can navigate as they lead their party through the story. For worlds as big as Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter, whole D&D communities have put their resources together on places like Reddit, comparing notes and compiling all the work into one functioning resource book for campaigns.
While some worlds would obviously make interesting Dungeons & Dragons content, there are also series' that may surprise players, those which offer a unique and interesting take on the decades old tabletop RPG system. Below is a mixture of popular book series, and potentially surprising titles, that have been transformed into homebrew campaigns that any D&D DM can run. While some of these campaigns are as complete as a Wizards of the Coast sourcebook, others have given DMs the bare bones, leaving room for creative interpretation and personal preferences when setting up an adventure to run.
D&D Homebrews Based On Books: Harry Potter By J.K. Rowling
Fans of Dungeons & Dragons and Harry Potter can enjoy them simultaneously thanks to hard work shared by Reddit canon D&D sourcebook adventures with a little work from the DM translating the setting to fit the Harry Potter themes, making the homebrew a fun way to explore many different D&D adventures in a different light.
D&D Homebrews Based On Books: Percy Jackson By Rick Riordan
Fans of the Percy Jackson series can choose to run a D&D homebrew based on the content created by classic D&D setting that the DM can translate using the homebrew content. This book series inspired homebrew has taken extra time to work out the demi-god races, giving players plenty of skills and bonuses to try out when they create their character.
D&D Homebrews Based On Books: Lord of the Rings By J.R.R. Tolkien
There are many different resources for Dungeons & Dragons players when it comes to a homebrew, or even an official source book, for a Lord of the Rings inspired campaign. ZeroHitPoints has created a homebrew guide for free that players can access through the internet if they don't want to spend money on a campaign source book like Adventures In Middle-earth published by Cubicle 7.
ZeroHitPoints breaks down key narrative points into campaign friendly modules, as well as explaining different classes, races, and histories behind the world the players will be delving into. This is an excellent resource for those who want to give Middle-earth a try during their next campaign, or who want a Lord of the Rings inspired session with more narrative flexibility.
D&D Homebrews Based On Books: Star Wars By Various Authors
While the Star Wars series is known best by its movies, the novel universe helped expand the world that so many Star Wars fans have come to love and know. Because of this, reddit traditional Dungeons & Dragons source book, helping fans navigate the information in a familiar way. Each part also has a table of contents to help players new and returning easily find the information they need in the wealth of provided homebrew content. Thanks to this homebrew, players can feel the Force while they journey through the world to overthrow the Sith, or even the Dark Side themselves.
D&D Homebrews Based On Books: The Chronicles Of Narnia By C.S. Lewis
The rich narrative world of The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis sits up at the top of the most popular fantasy titles of all time. Thanks to fans like TheMetroYeti on Reddit, Dungeons & Dragons fans can set up a homebrew campaign that lets their party slip into a Narnia-themed homebrew. ThemetroYeti provides players with the backbone they will need for any adventure that could happen in the world, outlining races, classes, major areas and how different magic works in the realm.
Similar to classic D&D campaigns, each of these homebrew adventures focuses on creating rich worlds that promote exploration while immersing the party in an expansive fantasy setting. The use of D&D rules and guidelines for gameplay when creating a homebrew campaign shows how flexible and creativity inclusive the game is, especially because many popular book series' can be shaped into campaigns using D&D concepts. Utilizing homebrew content in a Dungeons & Dragons campaign encourages players to put a fresh twist on the popular tabletop game, while allowing players to enjoy the wonders of adventure and exploration in favorite worlds outside of a classic D&D setting.
Source: Cattegy/Reddit, TerryGhast /Reddit, TheSauciness/Reddit, TheMetroYeti/Reddit, ZeroHitPoints
