Champions of Norrath features a traditional role-playing video game storyline, in which the player acts as a hero who must save the world via a series of quests and battles.

Divided into five acts, the game begins with a quest to assist the elves in their war against the orcs, who have formed an alliance with goblins (which is strange to the citizens of Norrath).

In later acts, the player must eventually travel to the underworld and beyond thanks to the antics created by the strange orc leader and his contacts.

There are three main antagonists in the storyline: Pelys, leader of the orcs, Vanarhost, a vampire in the Underworld who also narrates the entire game and Innoruuk, the God of Hatred.

From there, the game continues to follow classic RPG standards, as the player fights monsters, explores forests, towns, godly domains and dungeons, obtains gold to purchase weapons, and so on.

As with most RPGs, many dungeons in Champions of Norrath feature a boss or large group of enemies that must be defeated to advance or obtain a special item.

This is important for scenarios which require a transfer of characters, such as online play (now defunct), multiplayer games, and the sequel, Champions: Return to Arms.

Before the servers shutdown on April 2, 2013, players were able import their character(s) for online play, which could be accessed from a save point.