Dungeons & Dragons 5.5E (2024)
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Resident Evil: Raccoon City | DND 5.5e
September 23rd, 1998. Raccoon City has not fallen yet.
The streets are still crowded. The trains are still running. Umbrella employees are finishing their shifts, the RPD is answering another night of increasingly strange calls, and rain is beginning to settle over the Arklay Mountains. For most people in the city, tomorrow is still expected to arrive.
This campaign takes the world and events of Resident Evil and places them inside a modern-fantasy version of 1998 where magic and fantasy species have always existed alongside ordinary technology. Clerics practice medicine beside surgeons. Arcane researchers work in university laboratories. Elves, dwarves, orcs, tieflings, dragonborn and humans share the same neighborhoods, workplaces and institutions. Firearms, pagers, VHS tapes, CRT televisions and landlines remain part of everyday life. Magic has not replaced the modern world. It has simply become another part of it, and another field mankind eventually learned to study, commercialize and weaponize.
At the center of Raccoon City is Umbrella. Its laboratories fund medical research. Its money supports hospitals, universities and public programs. Thousands of people work for the company, and nearly everyone in the city knows somebody who does. To the public, Umbrella represents progress. By the time the campaign begins, however, something is already spreading through the city.
Every character enters the story as someone who actually lives in this world. You have a profession, relationships, responsibilities and reasons to remain in Raccoon City. During the opening session, each character independently finds their way to the same neighborhood bar. For a short while, the campaign begins with something almost mundane: meeting strangers, ordering drinks, talking with locals and experiencing the city while it is still recognizable.
Then the outbreak reaches the bar.
By the end of the first session, every player character will have been infected.
From that moment forward, the campaign becomes a race against more than the collapse of Raccoon City. Infection is a persistent mechanic that progresses throughout the story. Additional wounds, exposure and failed attempts to protect yourself can accelerate it. Healing magic can close wounds and keep a dying character alive, but it cannot simply erase the virus. Whatever is happening inside you continues.
Escaping the city is therefore not enough. The military begins sealing the roads. Hospitals become overwhelmed. Communications fail. Entire districts disappear behind barricades, fires and emergency cordons. Supplies become scarce, survivors begin forming their own factions, and rumors emerge that Umbrella may possess the research necessary to stop what is happening.
Your objective becomes increasingly clear: find a cure before the infection overtakes you, then find a way out of Raccoon City before the city itself is lost.
The campaign is built around survival horror rather than traditional heroic fantasy. Ammunition matters. Medicine matters. Spell recovery is limited. Safe places can be fortified, lost or overrun. Exploration and investigation are often more valuable than winning another fight, and not every creature you encounter is something you are expected to kill. Sometimes survival means barricading a hallway, abandoning supplies, choosing who you can afford to help or running while something follows you through the dark.
There will also be a persistent Nemesis-style Stalker system. Certain enemies do not exist for a single encounter. They can pursue the party across locations, survive confrontations, disappear for stretches of the campaign and return altered by what happened to them. Injuries, repeated exposure, environmental factors and failed attempts to destroy them may result in new mutations, behaviors and methods of hunting the group. Learning how a Stalker behaves may be just as important as learning how to hurt it.
Character death can become part of that system as well. If an infected player character dies and the body is left intact, lost or otherwise unresolved, that character may not remain dead in any meaningful sense. Their species, abilities, equipment, injuries and manner of death can influence what they eventually become. A fallen companion may later return as a persistent infected creature, retaining distorted fragments of who they were and continuing to evolve if the survivors fail to put them down permanently.
The events of the Resident Evil games are still unfolding throughout the city. Leon Kennedy, Claire Redfield, Jill Valentine, Carlos Oliveira, Ada Wong and other familiar characters exist and are fighting through their own parts of the Raccoon City incident. The players are not replacing them or reenacting their stories. Your group follows its own path through the same catastrophe, and where you go, who you save, what you discover and what you leave behind will shape your version of the city.
No previous Resident Evil knowledge is required. Longtime fans will recognize locations, events and characters as the larger story develops, while players unfamiliar with the series will be able to experience Raccoon City with the same uncertainty as their characters.
Recruitment Notes
System: D&D 5.5e / 2024 rules with extensive survival-horror homebrew
Price: $10 USD per player, per session
Setting: Raccoon City, September 1998
Genre: Survival horror, mystery, investigation, action and character drama
Opening: Every PC independently arrives at the same neighborhood bar shortly before the outbreak reaches them
Infection: Every PC becomes infected during Session 1, creating an ongoing progression system and a genuine time pressure to find treatment
Campaign Goal: Discover what is happening, find a cure and escape Raccoon City before the infection or the city itself reaches the point of no return
Stalker System: Persistent Nemesis-style enemies can hunt the party across multiple sessions, survive encounters and mutate over time
Character Death: Death is possible, and an infected character whose body is not dealt with may eventually return as an evolving enemy
Combat: Dangerous by design. Retreat, stealth, barricades, environmental solutions and avoiding combat entirely are all legitimate strategies
Resources: Ammunition, medicine, magical recovery and reliable places to rest are limited
Roleplay: Character relationships and personal connections to Raccoon City will matter throughout the campaign
Resident Evil Knowledge: Not required
Age: 18+
Day/Time: TBD
Timezone: EST for me
Platform: Discord, DND Beyond, Owlbear Rodeo
Session Length: 3-4 hours
Starting Level: 1-8
Players Needed: 3-4
I'm looking for players who enjoy immersive roleplay, investigation, horror and decisions that carry consequences beyond a single encounter. You do not need an enormous backstory, but your character should feel like they had a life before the outbreak: a job, people they care about, familiar places and something in Raccoon City worth risking their life for.