Dark RPGs For Fans Of Dungeons And Dragons

Summary

DMs can tailor D&D campaigns to any theme, like Dark Souls’ brutal challenge for players who seek added difficulty.
Vampire: the Masquerade games offer dark, vampire-themed alternatives, engaging players with a gothic RPG experience.
Tyranny and Baldur’s Gate 3 embody darker aspects of heroism, offering complex choices akin to D&D campaigns’ freedom of choice.

Dungeons and Dragons is truly one of the most versatile TTRPGs, as DMs can flavor the world to their taste, or even tailor their very own if they feel none of the prewritten locations fit the story they want to tell with their friends. They can also choose what themes to use, from high-fantasy, steampunk, or dark fantasy.

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Best Dungeons & Dragons Video Games, Ranked

RPGs and similar genres in the video game world owe their existence to Dungeons & Dragons, and these games embody the franchise well.

The latter is quite popular for D&D players looking for a bit of edge or even horror in their campaigns. For those wanting a taste of this darkness while waiting for their next game to begin or pick up, these RPGs are the best ones to play.

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Dark Souls

For Players Who Want to be Fed Through the Meat Grinder

Meat-grinder campaigns in D&D are adjusted rules to make things that little more challenging. Death saving throws have an increased DC, and all around death is a more pressing concern. Campaigns such as Tomb of Horrors implement meat grinder rules which may not be for everyone, but hardened D&D veterans might enjoy this added difficulty.

It is not difficult to find difficult video games to play either, as all players need to do is look at FromSoft’s catalog of games and take their pick, most verging further into the darker side of fantasy. Dark Souls is just as good as any place to start, as this would have been many other gamers’ introduction to Soulsborne games. Brutal, unforgiving, but rewarding to those with enough patience to foster skills needed to not immediately die in each new area, Dark Souls won’t be for everyone except those players who don’t want their games or D&D in easy mode.

7

Vampire: the Masquerade – Bloodlines

A Gothic RPG Based on Another Tabletop System

Many D&D players sometimes branch out to other systems just to explore other TTRPGs out there, with one of the most popular outside of D&D being Vampire: the Masquerade. In this system, players are a vampire living in the shadow of human society, trying to maintain their own humanity in a world that seems deadset on stripping it away. Such an intriguing system was ripe for an RPG game, and it arrived in 2004, though its birth was a painful and laborious one.

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13 Best Vampire Games (That Aren't Castlevania) featured image, Blood Omen 2, Vampyr, Vampyre Story

The Best Vampire Games (That Aren’t Castlevania)

Castlevania might be the most iconic vampire gaming series out there, but there are plenty of other great vampire games.

As a newly fledged vampire, the player is inducted into vampire society following an illegal embrace, and are set off on jobs given by the self-proclaimed prince in exchange for his clemency. LA is a gloriously gothic setting for this dark game, as they see the underbelly beneath the glamor, and witness their share of monsters beyond their vampiric brethren, such as ghosts, werewolves, and flesh-crafted abominations. The story pulls players in, and doesn’t let go until the ending, when their fate will finally be decided.

6

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Stop the Paintress Before the Next Culling

They say a painting can speak a thousand words, but in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, they can kill a thousand people. Every year, a deity known as the Paintress works on her latest magnum opus, which depicts fewer people than the year before, resulting in everyone above a certain age inexplicably dying. This became known as the gommage, and every year an expedition is sent to slay her before she can complete her next painting.

After the latest expedition is ambushed, the remaining survivors must team up to accomplish the task they set out to do, just like any D&D party, and the turn-based combat is just one more similarity they share. With an appropriately dark storyline, players can truly lose themselves in for hours. Clair Obscur is the perfect dark RPG for the discerning D&D player.

5

Tyranny

Evil Has Already Won

Tyranny

9/10

Released: November 10, 2016

In most fantasy RPGs, players take up the role of the hero who sets off on a quest to stop the evil forces from achieving their agenda, which normally acquiring more power, or fashioning themselves as the new ruler. This is where Tyranny differs, taking on a darker perspective of the fight between good and evil, as evil has already won by the time the game begins.

Playing as the character known as the Fatebinder, it is up to them to aid one side of the rebellion, or further their own goals, as control, decisions, and the consequences that may follow are fully left in the players’ hand, allowing for total of freedom of choice, just like a D&D campaign, as players are free to forge their own path on their journey.

4

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

More Monsters Than You Can Shake a Monster Manual At

One of the most expensive RPGs of all time, The Witcher 3 could rival any Dungeons and Dragons campaign in terms of sheer scope. Playing one of the titular witchers known as Geralt, players travel across the entire continent on the trail of their adoptive daughter Ciri, who is fleeing the ice-cold touch of the Wild Hunt. While on a hunt of their own, players encounter a menagerie of monsters, such as hags, wraiths, and vampires, just to name a couple. As a warrior created for the purpose of slaying monsters, there will be plenty of quests involving felling these dangerous beasts.

Most Impressive Monsters In The Witcher 3

The Witcher 3 hosts different kinds of frightening monsters; however, these ones stand out as the most impressive with incredible powers & abilities.

Mistrusted and outright hated by a lot of people, the world of The Witcher often feels less than welcoming, which only helps to solidify the dark fantasy feel, and not to mention the creatures which can teeter straight into nightmare territory. Critical Role fans will also feel right at home here, as the witchers are what inspired Matthew Mercer’s homebrew class, the Blood Hunter.

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Baldur’s Gate 3

Infected with a Mind Flayer Parasite, Players are Racing Against the Clock

By now, there probably aren’t any D&D fans who have not at the very least heard of Baldur’s Gate 3, as its release was quite the celebrated event for fans. Choosing between an origin or custom character, the players are taken aboard a nautiloid and infected with the Mind Flayer tadpole, which is said to turn anyone infected into one of the tentacle-faced monstrosities, and thus they set off with fellow infectees to find a cure before it’s too late.

Players get to tour most of the Sword Coast high and low, seeing the beauty and also the darkness of the locale. Act 2 in particular, taps into the scarier side of D&D, treating players to outright terrifying places and monsters, and not to mention the Dark Urge character option players can pick. Perfectly capturing the feel of a D&D campaign, especially with the possibility of co-op, Baldur’s Gate 3 is definitely one of the games any fan needs to play, and replay.

2

Dragon Age: Origins

Gather a Party to Stop the End of the World

One of the best RPG series of all time is without a doubt Dragon Age, which started off to great success with Dragon Age: Origins. The Blight has come to Ferelden, as the darkspawn spread their cursed touch across the land as they spill over it from the underground, slaughtering any innocents unfortunate enough to be in their path, led by a fearsome archdemon, a draconic creature with tremendous powers at its talons.

As the only faction able to truly stop them, the player joins the Grey Wardens, willing or not. Before that, players get to build their own character, even deciding on their background before they become an adventurer, their class, race and gender, a la D&D. TTRPG fanatics will be made to feel right at home as they adventure across Ferelden, delving into dungeons, battling monsters and bosses with the help of a companion or two who may banter with one another during their walks, simulating how players might RP outside of combat.

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Planescape: Torment

Takes Place in an Underutilized D&D Setting

D&D has countless campaign settings to allow for even more creative and unique campaigns, with one of the more overlooked being Planescape multiverse, which encompasses multiple planes of existence, and is home to countless humanoids and other creatures, and in this case, the Nameless One. The unnamed player protagonist has been cursed with immortality, his resurrection costing the life of another to maintain the balance, with no recollection of his past life. His latest resurrection has him out searching for answers as to who he is and why he defied death.

With this being an actual D&D licensed video game, this makes it the perfect RPG for fans, with just enough darkness in terms of themes and setting to satiate that hunger. Players can also recruit companions to give them that feeling of setting off on an adventure with friends and allies to help.