Since its debut in 2014, The Elder Scrolls Online has continued to expand for its player base with a variety of new content and expansions each year. That of course has continued with the next upcoming expansion called The Elder Scrolls Online: Elsweyr, and while a promotional D&D campaign based around the expansion was meant to get players excited for the new setting, it has since been pulled for unfortunate reasons.
Earlier in the week, Bethesda released a Dungeons & Dragons campaign on the official Facebook page for The Elder Scrolls Online as a way of promoting the upcoming expansion, which is expected to arrive for ESO players early next month. However, after the campaign’s release, it was quickly discovered by users that the campaign drew numerous similarities with a previously-released D&D campaign from 2016 called “The Black Road,” which was written by Paige Leitman and Ben Heisler. “The Black Road” campaign is available on the official D&D Adventurers League website.
Several users on Facebook began commenting on the post (which has since been removed) to compare the similarities between the ESO-themed campaign and “The Black Road,” with author Paige Leitman adding to the conversation with further comparisons between the works and clear marks of plagiarism.
According to Bethesda, the adventure was created by “our friends over at Bethesda Netherlands,” with the campaign being credited to an author named Karrym Herbar, though it’s unknown whether this was the work of an employee or someone contracted/freelanced to write the campaign. While the ESO-themed adventure itself is no longer publicly available, an archive still exists via Ars Technica.
In response to the claims, Bethesda stated that the campaign has been pulled and that the company will “investigate the source,” given that the ESO-themed campaign drew numerous similarities from “The Black Road” campaign.
The Elder Scrolls Online is available now on PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Mac, with the Elsweyr expansion to release on June 4, 2019.
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