D&D 3.5 Best Settings for Crossovers?

[ColorBlindNinja]

I have a passion for crossovers, and thus have devoted no small amount of thought to D&D crossovers as the focus of a campaign.

As such, I have created this thread to ask the fair people of the playground to recommend their picks for what settings would work best for a D&D crossover.

By "crossover", I mean an actual game of D&D, and an example of a "setting" would be Lord of the Rings.


I'll put your suggestions in a spoiler tag and edit them into this post as needed.

I would prefer to avoid stuff that already has D20 conversions, but that's just a preference.

Spoiler: Recommended Settings

Show

- Modern Earth
- World of Warcraft
- Diablo 2
- Pokemon
- Lord of the Rings
- Game of Thrones
- Star Wars
- Dragonriders of Pern
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Terminator
- Elder Scrolls
- DC
- Marvel
- Dresden Files
- Shadowrun
- Halo
- Worm
- Farscape
- Ecliplse Phase
- Narnia
- Overlord
- Avatar the Last Airbender
- Wheel of Time
- Discworld
- Final Fantasy
- Records of Lodoss War
- Ars Magica
- Earthdawn RPG
- Arthurian Legends Earth

I look forward to your suggestions! Thanks!

EDIT: Also, I would like to stick to the crossover setting's original power level as much as possible.

EDIT 2: Meaning, I don't want to replace characters and creatures with D&D equivalents. For example, in the Hobbit, Smaug wouldn't be a D&D red dragon.

[Uncle Pine]

I've never played it, but unless I'm grossly mistaken Planescape is "Crossovers: the setting".

A few adventures from Dungeon magazine have the party travel from Greyhawk to Earth (I specifically remember one where you wind up in London).

Elminster visited Earth a bunch of times, so Faerun could work (look up the Serpent's Inn). Chainsaw-wielding yuan-ti sound pretty dank.

[ColorBlindNinja]

I've never played it, but unless I'm grossly mistaken Planescape is "Crossovers: the setting".

A few adventures from Dungeon magazine have the party travel from Greyhawk to Earth (I specifically remember one where you wind up in London).

Elminster visited Earth a bunch of times, so Faerun could work (look up the Serpent's Inn). Chainsaw-wielding yuan-ti sound pretty dank.

Modern Earth could work, but it's a bit... mundane.

EDIT: I was mostly focusing on the non-D&D side of the crossover equation, TBH.

[Uncle Pine]

Modern Earth could work, but it's a bit... mundane.

EDIT: I was mostly focusing on the non-D&D side of the crossover equation, TBH.

Planescape pretty much covers anything else. Or were you looking for interesting crossovers that people think would be cool to play out?

[ColorBlindNinja]

Planescape pretty much covers anything else. Or were you looking for interesting crossovers that people think would be cool to play out?

I was looking for stuff more like, D&D and Lord of the Rings.

EDIT: So, D&D, and some other setting from a different fictional series.

[Falontani]

In Dungeons and Dragons Online (an officially licensed Wizards of the Coast product) there is a gateway (quickly closed) from Eberron's Stormreach (in Xendrik) to the King's Forest in Faerun, Toril.

However I don't think that is quite what your looking for.

World of Warcraft has its own set of D20 books for converting to 3.0/3.5 (I still can't tell which) so we have Azeroth covered.

Diablo 2 also has a conversion (is that world even named?)

I would love to see all of the pokemon universe' creatures statted up, and give us a 3.5 pokemon universe! (pokeballs would be the most hilariously cheap magical items), and I could see "Pokemon" being it's own type with it's actual typing (from the pokemon games) being a subtype that they get akin to fire, and cold.

Lord of the Rings has enough information about the world to easily be converted into a 3.5 setting

[ColorBlindNinja]

In Dungeons and Dragons Online (an officially licensed Wizards of the Coast product) there is a gateway (quickly closed) from Eberron's Stormreach (in Xendrik) to the King's Forest in Faerun, Toril.

However I don't think that is quite what your looking for.

Yeah, crossing over different D&D campaign settings wasn't my intention.

World of Warcraft has its own set of D20 books for converting to 3.0/3.5 (I still can't tell which) so we have Azeroth covered.

How good is that conversion? I remember the Lich King's stats being... bad.

Diablo 2 also has a conversion (is that world even named?)

I would love to see all of the pokemon universe' creatures statted up, and give us a 3.5 pokemon universe! (pokeballs would be the most hilariously cheap magical items), and I could see "Pokemon" being it's own type with it's actual typing (from the pokemon games) being a subtype that they get akin to fire, and cold.

Pokemon could be interesting. EDIT: Albeit a lot of work, there are 807 of them now.

Lord of the Rings has enough information about the world to easily be converted into a 3.5 setting

OK, thanks. I'll add those series to the OP list.

[Falontani]

How good is that conversion? I remember the Lich King's stats being... bad.

There was a lot of bad things there. The biggest one being how they handled base classes, however there is a plethora of lore, the races are good, and the spells work well. With minimal effort you can use most of it (almost easier than converting pathfinder).
The things they got right, were mainly the prestige classes, and the feats.

[ColorBlindNinja]

There was a lot of bad things there. The biggest one being how they handled base classes, however there is a plethora of lore, the races are good, and the spells work well. With minimal effort you can use most of it (almost easier than converting pathfinder).

Interesting. Thanks for the info.

[Nifft]

There was a d20 variant of the Game of Thrones RPG.

It had feats & skills & all that stuff, so it ought to be fairly easy to crossover, and as a D&D character you'd probably have a great time dominating the poor little low-magic setting... at least until Arya put a knife between your shoulders.

[ColorBlindNinja]

There was a d20 variant of the Game of Thrones RPG.

I've heard rumors that it wasn't very good. Is that true?

It had feats & skills & all that stuff, so it ought to be fairly easy to crossover, and as a D&D character you'd probably have a great time dominating the poor little low-magic setting...

That could be either a lot of fun or a potential problem, depending on what you're going for.

at least until Arya put a knife between your shoulders.

Let's face it, that's not going to stop them.

EDIT: I'll add Game of Thrones to the list.

[Blue Wizard]

Back before Disney owned the franchise, I would have gleefully offered Star Wars as having beautiful crossover potential, with both natives and transplanted wizards/bards/paladins/whatever having abilities the other side could gawk at and exclaim in wonder over, "How are you DOING that?!?"

Now, however, I'd be afraid of doing it, with all of the hurt toes and sore tempers concerning that franchise. Never host a game you know is liable to start fights around the table.

Dragonriders of Pern would be an interesting setting choice. A dragonrider shows up, yells to the players "Get On!!" They go Between and the next moment they are fighting Thread. Could be fun... until the Holds learn what they can do, then suddenly politics as everyone wants these guys at their place.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer could be a hilarious franchise to get mixed up in, with a full adventuring party thinking "Easily flammable vampires? Tons of treasure? Cops who don't see anything?" as major plusses to that whole 'modern world' setting.

Or Terminator. PC's God shows up, say's "I've got a mission for you, over on this other world" then, one short briefing later, a wizard, two barbarians, the halfling and a half-troll monk show up at Sarah Connor's restaurant, telling her, "Come with us if you want to live!"

[frogglesmash]

Elder Scrolls is a solid candidate.

[ColorBlindNinja]

Back before Disney owned the franchise, I would have gleefully offered Star Wars as having beautiful crossover potential, with both natives and transplanted wizards/bards/paladins/whatever having abilities the other side could gawk at and exclaim in wonder over, "How are you DOING that?!?"

There's also a D20 Star Wars, which could be nice.

Dragonriders of Pern would be an interesting setting choice. A dragonrider shows up, yells to the players "Get On!!" They go Between and the next moment they are fighting Thread. Could be fun... until the Holds learn what they can do, then suddenly politics as everyone wants these guys at their place.

That sounds like it could be interesting.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer could be a hilarious franchise to get mixed up in, with a full adventuring party thinking "Easily flammable vampires? Tons of treasure? Cops who don't see anything?" as major plusses to that whole 'modern world' setting.

I remember vaguely hearing there was a TRPG for Buffy, but I don't recall any details.

Or Terminator. PC's God shows up, say's "I've got a mission for you, over on this other world" then, one short briefing later, a wizard, two barbarians, the halfling and a half-troll monk show up at Sarah Connor's restaurant, telling her, "Come with us if you want to live!"

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll add them to the OP.

EDIT:

Elder Scrolls is a solid candidate.

Thanks, I added it to the list.

[flappeercraft]

I'm thinking a crossover with Marvel/DC could be good. One could say that the low-mid high power heroes could be for a no-low optimization game while the higher optimizations for stuff like the higher powered characters.

Star Wars could be interesting too.

[ColorBlindNinja]

I'm thinking a crossover with Marvel/DC could be good. One could say that the low-mid high power heroes could be for a no-low optimization game while the higher optimizations for stuff like the higher powered characters.

The major issue I see with Marvel and DC is that the comics have a lot of content. The MCU and DCAU would be a lot more manageable in sheer information and perhaps power as well.

In any event, I'll add them to the OP.


By the way, does anyone think that Fire Emblem would work well for a D&D crossover?

[Nifft]

I've heard rumors that it wasn't very good. Is that rue?

It had gorgeous art and decent production values.

Oh, the game rules? Nobody I know (including me) wanted to play it even once, so probably not very good.

I'm thinking a crossover with Marvel/DC could be good. One could say that the low-mid high power heroes could be for a no-low optimization game while the higher optimizations for stuff like the higher powered characters.

Star Wars could be interesting too.

Star Wars is a great idea, fourthing that.

In terms of Marvel / DC, what about the Mutants & Masterminds game? Did that have a setting?


For modern urban magic, I guess you could do Dresden Files -- with a Fate-to-D&D conversion from the RPG.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer had an RPG, that might make a fun crossover if your players were fans fo the show.

Shadowrun could be interesting, with high potential for WTF?! from both sides of the crossover, since high-tech is its own sort of magic.

[Telonius]

Avatar (Last Airbender) works fairly well. Some of the forumites even put together a bending system several years back.

[ColorBlindNinja]

It had gorgeous art and decent production values.

Oh, the game rules? Nobody I know (including me) wanted to play it even once, so probably not very good.

I heard they were overly complicated, so maybe that's why it's not that popular?

For modern urban magic, I guess you could do Dresden Files -- with a Fate-to-D&D conversion from the RPG.

Interesting. EDIT: I'll add Dresden Files to the OP.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer had an RPG, that might make a fun crossover if your players were fans fo the show.

I remember hearing that here was a Buffy RPG.

Shadowrun could be interesting, with high potential for WTF?! from both sides of the crossover, since high-tech is its own sort of magic.

I'll add Shadowrun to the list.

[Falontani]

Avatar (Last Airbender) works fairly well. Some of the forumites even put together a bending system several years back.

can I get a link to that? I would very much like it

[martixy]

Diablo 2 also has a conversion (is that world even named?)

Diablo's world is called Sanctuary.

Avatar would be frickin brilliant. That setting was BUILT to be a TTRPG universe. Heck, the anime itself is a dramatized version of an epic RPG campaign set in that world, complete with the party dynamic, the BBEG, the levelling up, goofing off and most other tropes you see in actual games.

[ColorBlindNinja]

Avatar would be frickin brilliant. That setting was BUILT to be a TTRPG universe. Heck, the anime itself is a dramatized version of an epic RPG campaign set in that world, complete with the party dynamic, the BBEG, the levelling up, goofing off and most other tropes you see in actual games.

I assume you mean Avatar the Last Airbender, and not James Cameron's Avatar?

[frogglesmash]

Any setting with magic that uses completely different rules than d&d magic create increasing possibilities as both sides would have vastly different expectations for mages. A good example of this Harry Potter and The Natural 20.

I've also slowly been working on a Halo d20 system so that's something to consider.

[ColorBlindNinja]

Any setting with magic that uses completely different rules than d&d magic create increasing possibilities as both sides would have vastly different expectations for mages. A good example of this Harry Potter and The Natural 20.

In all honestly, Harry Potter's magic system is pretty vague and ill-defined. I can see that being frustrating to make into a campaign.

I've also slowly been working on a Halo d20 system so that's something to consider.

Interesting, I'll add Halo to the list.

[frogglesmash]

In all honestly, Harry Potter's magic system is pretty vague and ill-defined. I can see that being frustration to make into a campaign.

Not really, everyone basically casts like a warlock with a larger work selection, the vaguest part imo is the item crafting.

[Telonius]

can I get a link to that? I would very much like it

No problem. And by several years back, I apparently meant "a decade ago."

Two other possible settings, both care of Robert Lynn Aspirin. Thieves' World, and the dimension-hopping adventures in the MythAdventure series. (The Foglios did a webcomic of the first book of the MythAdventures series, but it seems to be only available via the Wayback machine now).

[radthemad4]

I would love to see all of the pokemon universe' creatures statted up, and give us a 3.5 pokemon universe! (pokeballs would be the most hilariously cheap magical items), and I could see "Pokemon" being it's own type with it's actual typing (from the pokemon games) being a subtype that they get akin to fire, and cold.

https://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Pok%C3%A9m...5e_Sourcebook)
https://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Pokemon_Traits_(3.5e_Subtype)
https://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Pokemon_Co..._Variant_Rule)
http://tgdmb.com/viewtopic.php?t=53546
http://tgdmb.com/viewtopic.php?t=55558

[Goaty14]

Any setting with a well of many worlds looks like fair game, TBH.

[Venger]

"worm" is very popular on this forum. it's a grimdark superhero serial where the characters all treat their powers like they live in the tippyverse and fight powerful kaiju that operate like epic monsters in D&D, but are actually sort of dangerous. unlike most normal comic book superheroes, many characters here are so overpowered they might survive in a D&D setting and be able to interact with the world in a meaningful fashion

[unseenmage]

Farscape has a D20 system book IIRC.


Are you familiar with the Jumpchain phenomena? Seems it's a fan made intellectual property hopping single player RPG that does much of what you're looking for; albeit without D20 compatibility.