In the Dungeons & Dragons family of role-playing games, the idea of the Greek elements are used as the symbolic building blocks of reality; the four Elemental Planes form a metaphorical ring around the "Prime Material Plane" that contains all the "everyday" game settings (Faerun, Greyhawk, et cetera). In all editions of the game there is the addition of a Positive (Creative/Constructive) Energy Plane "above" the Elemental and Prime planes, as well as a Negative (Destructive/Necromantic) Energy Plane "below" them. In the more complex cosmos of the 2nd Edition and beyond there are other planes where the six major elemental planes adjoin each other. The Paraelemental Planes manifested where the elemental planes overlap - Fire and Earth become Magma, Earth and Water form Ooze, Water and Air are joined as Ice, and Air and Fire unite as Smoke (the opposing pairs of Fire/Water and Earth/Air do not touch). The Quasielemental Planes were formed where the Positive or Negative Planes bordered the elemental planes; they express either the abundance or intensification of the element's nature, or its destruction or absence. The positive Quasielemental expressions of Earth, Water, Air and Fire are Minerals, Steam, Lightning and Radiance, respectively; their negative counterparts are Dust, Salt, Vacuum and Ash.

In the world of Naruto, there are certain people who can mix elemental aspect into new elemental jutsu. So far, expressions of this shown are ice, wood, lava, storm, boil, dust, heat, explosion and magnetism. The ice mixes water and wind, wood mixes water and earth, lava mixes earth and fire, storm mixes water and lightning, boil mixes fire and water, dust mixes earth, wind and fire. There are also elements unique to the anime and movie medium, among them crystal, darkness, steel and swift. This is similar to the building block idea of Dungeons and Dragons, which also links with ideas of primitive man that all things are made up of classical element.