If tabletop adventures are cancelled, it can be frustrating. But for fans of the Anime Overlord, that is the reason why the series even exists.
Anime often have a curious backstory. Because it’s not always just the author’s diligence that brings a work to life – sometimes it’s also a pinch of frustration. That was the case with Overlord. The author, Kugane Murayama, actually wanted to play tabletop with his friends.
But because the sessions kept getting cancelled, he instead wrote Overlord during that time – both the manga and the series became a huge success.
Tabletop group never comes together – that creates time
What did the author say? In an interview (mypage.syosetsu) eight years ago, Murayama explained how Overlord came to be. To which he replied:
One of the reasons I started writing is the fact that my [tabletop] group no longer met regularly. Even in the setting of Overlord, the RPG plays a significant role.
Elsewhere, he clarified that this tabletop game was Dungeons&Dragons. Thus, it is clear: We have the (somewhat unreliable) tabletop group of Murayama to thank for both the Overlord books and the anime ever being released.
What is Overlord about? Overlord takes place in the world of the MMORPG “YGGDRASIL” – at least at the beginning. Because the game is being shut down. The player with the character “Momonga” logs in one last time to settle in the guild hall of his “monster guild”. In the process, he reflects on past adventures and waits for the servers to be shut down.
But time passes and … nothing happens. The game world continues to run, and the NPCs suddenly come to life. Momonga then takes the name of his guild “Ainz Ooal Gown” and plans to dominate the game world – with the wealth of his guild and all the NPCs he and his former teammates have gathered over the years.
How has D&D influenced Overlord? How strongly Overlord is influenced by Dungeons&Dragons can be noticed in almost every episode. The entire magic system in the series is based on D&D – both the “levels” of the various spells and many of the abilities themselves. Almost all have a counterpart in tabletop or are even directly taken from it.
While the levels in YGGDRASIL (the PC game that the protagonist merges with) differ, as levels up to 100 (and possibly higher) can be achieved there – in D&D, it generally caps around level 30 with epic creatures.
Overlord, like many other modern anime, belongs to the so-called “isekai” genre, where characters from the real world are transported to a fantasy world and then experience adventures with their knowledge and often special abilities. We have introduced some of the best isekai anime here.
