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Can I set a DnD campeign in Runeterra?

zorlox77·2/28/2020, 10:21:36 PM·1 votes·6,423 views

I really like the world and lore of league of legends, and I really like DnD. I'm seriously thinking about setting my next campaign on runeterra, but that it comes with a few questions.

  1. How does the legality of that work? DnD is fine in what ever setting, but how does using riot's setting (and potentially recording and posting it) work? Do I need permission? How does money work if it starts making ad revenue. ect.

  2. How do you do dnd with only humans? Obviously there are other races like Yordles and the Vastaya, but what about common monsters? As far as I know there aren't anything like goblins that are going to be a constant minor threat to civilization. And only 3 playable races is a big step down from dnd's 30+ playable options. I know there are plenty of one of a kind monster/races like cassiopiea but I'm looking for reliable options so every plot doesn't rely on bandits/cultists.

  3. What would be good plots set in this world? I have a few good ideas, but I'd like to hear some others. I'm planning to make the story not centered on the champions as much as the world. So they may meet a champion as a high level NPC but rarely are they going to make or break the story.

  4. Is there anything else I'm missing? There are lots of little things that DnD needs that aren't very well established. Like religion. If a player wanted to play a Noxian Cleric who would they worship? I know that the wolf half of kindred gets some worship, but I doubt the whole nation worships death excusively. I expect there are other things that could come up that I haven't thought of... What do you think those are

I have some answers to these questions, but I'd like to hear what other people think. I think most all of these are going to have to be fixed with making up a lot of stuff, but I'd like to see if there is a way to fix this stuff while trying to keep things cannon.

11 Comments

LordRedStone Nr12/28/2020, 11:18:32 PM7 votes

Regarding Legality, I can tell you that you shouldn't worry about that. There are plenty of people that play/ed DnD in Runeterra, and as long as you are using it "at home" (non-commercial) you are fine. Recording and posting the sessions is fine too, the only problem I could potentially see is if you want to sell a rulebook. I know of one or two rulebooks adapting 5e to Runeterra, but both are available for free. It's unclear if these rules apply to something like this, but the Legal Jibber Jabber Policy says you can't monetize stuff based on works from Riot.

yes, it's really called like that.

For the DnD specific questions, I'm afraid I can't help you much, I don't know much about DMing. But there are plenty of folks on our Lore of League Discord who play DnD and/or are currently DMing in Runeterra. Or you may find others on Reddit, e.g. in the comments of this post.

Edit: Formatting Edit 2: I just found out there is an extra server for Runeterra DnD, also organized by the Lore of League team. This way, please!

RiotRiot Pls3/4/2020, 3:38:46 AM6 votes

Many Rioters would also like an official tabletop RPG set in Runeterra!

Rinark2/29/2020, 1:07:52 AM4 votes

  1. As long as you dont try to sell this idea you are in the clear.

  2. To give players more options, I would advise looking into the Eberron Dragonmarks. They add a lot more human subraces which you could flavour as being from different regions. For enemies, The void could corrupt some local fauna to create monsters, or prehaps Zaun performed some horrible experiments that created aberrations. Plus you have a lot of wiggle room in terms of creatures that could exist in Runeterra.

  3. Perhaps the players could be treasure hunters making their way to the shadow isles to find magic loot. But they are not the only ones intrested in what hides on that isle. Perhaps Demacia has issued a bounty on a bilgewater smuggler but the smuggler also helps mages escape their country, who will the players help? Perhaps a young ice mage wishes to master her power in the land of Ionia and needs escorting, but the frostguard have sent agents to recover her.

  4. You can work with your players for stuff like this. Tell them about how much Noxus values strength and ask what kind of strength would they like to exemplify? Then make a god around that. e.g. They want to be a Trickery cleric, so they worship the Goddess Sencil. Who looks into the future and knows that the path to victory is sometimes strange but always there. and many of her followers are part of the Black Rose. That little detail at the end is enough to ground it in the world of Runeterra.

I find that the best way to keep to canon while still making your players feel like they have an impact is to pick a problem in the world that is canon and ongoing, then include them in it in a small way. e.g Bilgewater is in chaos due to Gangplanks "death". The players are a small gang looking to carve out their own piece of the pie. Noxus and Ionia were at war. Armies need food. The players must do odd jobs for cash to keep their food buisness afloat and also collect rare ingredients from the monsters they hunt.

And above all. HAVE FUN WITH IT. That is much more important than anything else here. Hope some of this helped! [slayer-jinx-catface]

Dan Squared2/29/2020, 3:17:23 PM2 votes

I'm currently running a campaign now that's going very well. My advise is to NOT be 100% ironclad to league lore when it can limit player options to much

For example, I would select the races you would like to allow and sprinkle their locations around runeterra. There could be populations of these races all over. Even something like warforged could be present in piltover/zaun

  1. Legality will only really matter if you end up using your game for profit somehow

  2. Don't. Bend the world of runeterra to suit your game. If you have a player who really wants to be dragonborn, you can very easily insert the race into the world. Obviously you can still restrict things like material from other books, but all the PHB main races are easily to work in

  3. Find out what your players are playing and get their backstories, see if you can work any plots off what they give you. Right now my players are in the Delverhold, trying to uncover the source of sabotage and raids to the cities mining operations...one of the players is a zuanite who is traveling to find the reason for missing shipments

  4. Again, allow them within limits. No reason runeterra can't have other nature gods. May just have to reskin or reflavor some. Others you might cut...do you really need the Raven Queen with kindred around? Could even let certain champs fill that void

Would advise to keep champion interaction to a minimum, at least at lower levels. You want your players to feel special and that can be hard if a champion just shows them up

YinCheri2/28/2020, 11:35:27 PM2 votes

Hi, A lot of people are interested in this topic, here's a good Runeterra guide (it is not my work) It covers the setting, races and some scenarios etc. It changes it a bit from original 5e but I believe with some homebrew you can make it work. [slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

Rextreff2/29/2020, 1:17:17 AM1 votes

yes brilliant :D

Natsu E Dragneel2/28/2020, 11:16:16 PM1 votes

RIOT ANSWER THE PERSON D: I WANNA KNOW TOO

Inkling Commando2/29/2020, 7:50:31 PM1 votes

i turned some champions into characters for sessions i am in. mostly poppy and her skins.