Top 5 Official Campaign Settings for 5E D&D

Here at Nerdarchy we love our fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. The system is fluid and elegant, allowing for play in a variety of different settings. But maybe you’re new to the RPG hobby and you’re just not sure where to start when it comes to a campaign setting. While we tend to like our own homebrew settings, building an entire world can be a daunting task — especially for someone who’s just picked up a book and a set of dice for the first time. But don’t let your knickers get in knots; we’re here to help.

Celebrating 5E D&D campaign settings

There are so many great 5E D&D settings and adventures put out by Wizards of the Coast all ready to play with a bit of reading. As such, I’d like to count down my top five WotC official 5E D&D settings and I’ll share what makes each one special.

These are my personal opinions about settings and flavors for 5E D&D official settings. If yours are different, the versatility of these worlds is exactly what makes them so cool. If you’re new to D&D hopefully this gives you a jumping off point to decide where you want to game first.

“Your world is the setting for your campaign, the place where adventures happen. Even if you use an existing setting, such as the Forgotten Realms, it becomes yours as you set your adventures there, create characters to inhabit it, and make changes to it over the course of your campaign. This chapter is all about building your world and then creating a campaign to take place in it.” — 5E D&D Dungeon Master’s Guide chapter one. The DMG is a terrific resource for worldbuilding and not for nothing we’ve got no shortage of perspective on this topic here ourselves!

5. Forgotten Realms

Kicking off our list is a staple setting for D&D. The world for R. A. Salvatore’s famous Drizzt novels and home to a recent Magic: The Gathering expansion, Forgotten Realms fits comfortably into bread and butter fantasy.

The setting is plagued by world-ending cataclysms about every decade or so (in game time), which lends well to a plethora of adventurers carving names for themselves. There are even entire companies dedicated to heroism in the setting such as the famed Acquisitions Incorporated.

When delving into the rich lore of the world, one learns of days gone by when magic was even more prevalent than it is in the current age, and a great many ruins exist bearing testament to this. These ruins are fantastic opportunities for would-be heroes to explore some dungeons and possibly encounter monsters, such as the famed dragons (yes, I went there).

The primary campaign setting for adventures like Storm King’s Thunder, Dragon Heist and more, this particular world is also home to many video games. These include the up and coming Baldur’s Gate 3, the action-packed Dark Alliance and the forgotten Sword Coast Legends.

With such a wealth of resources to offer knowledge and flavor for this expansive world setting, it’s many new players’ first foray into D&D for good reason.

4. Theros

Familiar to many players of Magic: The Gathering, Theros is a world inspired by Greek and Roman myth and flavor. This setting is heavily focused on the pantheon of gods who choose champions to enact their will upon the mortal world.

Theros is a bright and gleaming world if ever there were one, and it’s idyllic in many senses. The number of player races for the setting is actually quite limited, and the choices offered are anything but stereotypical of a high fantasy game. You won’t find elves or dwarves in Theros. Instead your non-human options include centaurs, leonin, minotaurs satyrs, and tritons. While some might bristle at the racial limitations initially, I find the limitations enhance the overall vibe of the setting.

Mythic Odysseys of Theros offers an abundance of cosmic lore for your gaming pleasure. From explanations of gods and demons, to a new perspective on the planescape and the greater multiverse. If you want epic fantasy with some direct divine intervention, then Theros is the setting for you.

3. Eberron

Nerdarchist Dave would definitely take issue with my placement of Eberron (he’s said many times it’s his favorite). Don’t get me wrong, Eberron is a gem of a setting — an arcanapunk dream with enough steampunk flavor to sate the sci-fi fans? Yes, please!

Eberron was originally created for WotC’s Fantasy Setting Search competition in the year of our lord, 2002. Eberron takes many elements of classic D&D settings (particularly those of the Forgotten Realms) and flips them on their proverbial heads. Instead of residing beneath the surface world serving a spider queen, drow live in jungles where they honor their scorpion king (no, not Dwayne Johnson).

Eberron recontextualizes old races or recreates them entirely, like psionic cannibal halflings. It also introduced us to new, now classic races such as the warforged and the changelings.

The most defining feature was the emphasis on technology and political intrigue. While there’s no shortage of high adventure in Eberron, by far the most defining aspects had to be the technology and emphasis on roleplay. In Eberron, blimps, trains and magic-powered communicators are standard fare. Bionic prosthetics with mystic stone batters? Absolutely a thing here.

While politics take a (very slight) backseat to tech in recent iterations of the setting there’s still more than enough opportunity for some intrigue in Eberron, particularly when it comes to the Dragonmarked Houses, a prime feature of the world’s governmental structure.

With a flair of X-Men flavoring and a dash of oppressive magical power, the stories surrounding the Dragonmarked (and those with aberrant Dragonmarks) make for some prime roleplaying encounters.

2. Wildemount

The feature setting of Critical Role’s second campaign, Wildemount takes the political intrigue elements and cranks them up to eleven. Races feud with open conflict and corruption lurks at every level of the systems of power.

Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount embraces many of the standard fantasy tropes we love while spinning them with a touch of dark fantasy. While not outright horror (as in Ravenloft), the setting possesses a distinctly darker tone, with more emphasis on systems of oppression and an entire section dedicated to understanding everyday life in Wildemount.

However, don’t mistake this for a lack of epic scale. This new canon 5E D&D setting ramps up magic to the next level, with its introduction of dunemancy, a subschool of magic revolving around time and space. Wildemount blends many elements of dark fantasy and epic fantasy for one of the most iconic D&D settings to date. Its racially diverse cityscapes offer a new perspective on the war and intrigue to define the setting, which frequently prompts players to ask deeper questions about morality and the cosmos.

The many organizations of Wildemount only work to further the emphasis on politics and role play. Truly, any player interested in a grittier, more systemically engaging setting should absolutely embrace this new setting and dive in headlong.

1. Ravenloft

Inspired by classic horror, Ravenloft is my personal favorite setting by only a narrow margin. This is due to its versatility.

While many of the aforementioned settings define the world for you and give a solid ground on which to base your campaigns, Ravenloft does just the opposite. The nature of the Mists secludes areas from one another, causing technology to develop at different rates and locking the monsters of the region into defined territories. Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft gives Dungeon Masters tools and guides to help them embrace the different domains of dread, or to build their own.

Because of the nature of the Mists itself and the themes of the setting, DMs can comfortably go wild with their own horror-inducing realms and slot them into the cosmos and lore with little effort. Ravenloft so clearly and articulately presents a world filled with horror and dread that any fan of scary movies should absolutely look into it.

Curse of Strahd introduced us to this setting for 5E D&D and it provides one of the best written premade adventures for this edition of the game. However, VanRichten’s Guide to Ravenloft takes eveything to the next level. Not only does the book provide and in-depth guide for running horror campaigns and really selling the genre to players, but it also offers some of the best written tools I’ve ever found to guide new and experienced DMs alike in creating their own elements for a setting.

From body horror to eldritch terror, Ravenloft has something spooktacular for everyone. One of the best elements of all is that when running a horror-themed D&D game in Ravenloft, each DM can tailor the experience to suit their players in all the best ways. If you’re into horror or you just want to run a horror one-shot for October then this setting is where it’s at.

What do you think of our list?

Do you agree or disagree with any of the setting rankings? What is your favorite official D&D setting from WotC? Whatever your thoughts, drop something in the comments! Please like and share, if you enjoyed the article, and connect with us on Twitter and Facebook. Stay nerdy!

*Featured image — Each of the official 5E D&D campaigns and settings generally focus on one or a few aspects of the game, highlighting these through unique mechanics, playstyles, character options and more. And we cover ’em all! Whether here at Nerdarchy the Website or over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel we’re always creating new content to share our love of the hobby and inspire players to have more fun rolling funny shaped dice together. [Composite images courtesy Wizards of the Coast]

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