With the premiere of Bridgerton season 4 this week, and the anticipation for the show to arrive on Netflix later this month, we’ve got all things romance on the brain. I love the bright colors, the surprising musical arrangements, and the will-they-won’t-they (except they totally will because hey, this is romance). But it’s also got me thinking about all the ways Bridgerton reminds me of another of my geek loves…. Dungeons & Dragons. So here are 5 ways Bridgerton is totally like D&D.

A Narrator

The very first episode of Bridgerton opens with Julie Andrews’s iconic voice introducing the main characters and setting the stage for the viewer for everything that is about to happen. Just like in any good TTRPG campaign, the narrator creates the world and sets the tone of the action for the players. Without a storyteller as your guide, you’d miss the connections, the inside scoop on important topics, and maybe even the climax of the whole story! And, just like the DM in Dungeons & Dragons, the narrator in Bridgerton, Lady Whistledown (no spoilers here if you’re new to the show!), directly impacts the way the “players” behave — they hear the narrative written about them and react accordingly, just like the players might change their characters based on what the DM tells them!

Heroes and Villains

Any good story has a variety of characters in various shades of morality. Nothing is truly a stark “hero vs villain” story, but that being said, both D&D and Bridgerton rely on protagonists and antagonists they must overcome. There are the main heroes of this story (the Bridgerton family) and then their various allies and enemies (and frenemies). There are characters they need to overcome (the Featheringtons) and other characters they must win over (Lady Danbury and Queen Charlotte). And then sometimes the antagonist becomes one of the protagonists, which leads us right into……

tropes tropes tropes

A good D&D story and a good Bridgerton story both run on an engine of tropes. Heroes and villains! Enemies to lovers! Secret societies! Tragic parent death! Something to do with horses! (That’s got to be one, right?) Tropes act like shorthand for the viewer or player, allowing them to understand relationships and histories without having been present for them and without having to go into hours and hours of extra narrative. Tropes help get everyone on the same page to keep the story moving along and that’s part of why we love them — and love seeing them subverted! (Though sometimes you just need to watch Cinderella get her Happy Ever After, too.)

Costuming!

I know the costumes on Bridgerton can be a bit polarizing but I’ll say up front that I love them — I don’t mind that they aren’t historically accurate because to me they are telling part of the story. None of these characters are real in the first place, and the story is primarily character-driven, so if they wear something absurd? It’s for character reasons. But this applies in Dungeons & Dragons, too — why does the Rogue carry around a fifty pound toolkit? Because they exist in your imagination and can carry whatever they need to for character reasons. So if Penelope wears a blue velvet gown? Maybe that’s just her toolkit.

You Can Buy the Books…Or Not

And now we’ve arrived at the very end of this list where I get very literal — both of these properties have stacks of books that you could read if you wanted to, but it isn’t really necessary to enjoy. You can watch Bridgerton without ever cracking open a paperback and you can play D&D (assuming you have a good DM) without ever actually owning a Players Handbook. There are, of course, other options — you can always check them out from your local library (did you know library loans still pay the authors? it’s true!) or borrow from a friend if you wanted. But you can also just enjoy the ride, along with any unexpected encounters along the way.

—

About Bridgerton Season 4

  • Part 1 Premiere Date (episodes 401-404): January 29, 2026
  • Part 2 Premiere Date (episodes 405-408): February 26, 2026

Synopsis: From Shondaland and Jess Brownell, BRIDGERTON returns for a fairy-tale inspired fourth season. Bohemian second son Benedict Bridgerton (Luke Thompson) refuses to settle down, despite pleas to the contrary from matriarch Lady Violet Bridgerton (Ruth Gemmell). Until — at Violet’s masquerade ball, Benedict is awestruck by a masked, mysterious Lady in Silver. With the reluctant help of his sister Eloise (Claudia Jessie), Benedict sets out in society to uncover the young lady’s identity. But in fact, his heart’s desire is not in society at all — she is a resourceful maid called Sophie Baek (Yerin Ha), working for the formidable Lady of the house, Araminta Gun (Katie Leung).

When fate brings Benedict and Sophie back together, Benedict wrestles between the reality of his affection for this intriguing maid and the fantasy of the Lady in Silver — unaware that they are the same person. Will Benedict’s inability to see these women as one in the same derail the undeniable spark between him and Sophie? And can love truly conquer anything — even a cross-class connection forbidden by society?

Inspiring Benedict’s journey are the marriages of his siblings —including Francesca (Hannah Dodd) to John Stirling (Victor Alli), and Colin (Luke Newton) to Penelope (Nicola Coughlan), who faces new challenges as a now public gossip columnist.