Reroll: Looking Beyond D&D and Pathfinder

I'm somewhat of a late bloomer when it comes to role-playing games, both in video game form and their tabletop origins. My early gaming experiences mainly consisted of first-person shooters, strategy games, adventure games, and space sims. My first glimpses into the world of RPGs came from the Ultima series with Ultima VII: Serpent Isle, though this was only in passing, as I was too young and impatient to appreciate the incredible depth and complexity of the golden era of Origin's long-running series.

Then, in 1997, I experienced demos for both Fallout (Black Isle Studios) and Diablo (Blizzard North). It was a magical confluence of the right games at the right time - Fallout utterly gripped me, and I knew I wanted more of whatever that rush was. Not long afterward, I became truly engrossed in BioWare's incredible Baldur's Gate series (1998, 2000), then Planescape: Torment (Black Isle Studios, 1999), and before long I was digging deep in search of more games that could scratch my newly discovered gaming itch. I went back and devoured both contemporaries and classics, and to this day no genre captures my imagination so completely.

Similarly, my love for tabletop role-playing games was born quite late. Before Baldur's Gate, I had only briefly heard of the name "Dungeons & Dragons." I thought it was some sort of board game, but the Infinity Engine RPGs forced me to learn common D&D parlance like "hit dice" and "armour class". It was in 2001 that I was first introduced to D&D around an actual tabletop, and like many novice players, my first character was a horrendously clichéd attempt at a power fantasy self-insert. I only played a handful of sessions before setting the game aside. Back then, it was difficult to find a D&D group. Unlike today, both video games and tabletop RPGs were a pretty easy way to paint a big "nerd" target on your back that would invite no shortage of schoolyard bullying. I picked the somewhat more accepted form of lameness and stuck with computer games.

In early 2019, at the height of D&D 5th Edition's meteoric rise, I was invited to join a game with a group of workmates. I finally had a chance to dig into the hobby that had lived in the back of my mind since I'd first rolled a d20 all those years earlier. And I've played almost weekly ever since. By immersing myself in the TTRPGs, I've learned a great deal about the origins of many RPG video games and earned a far greater appreciation for the long-running, symbiotic relationship between the tabletop and the video game.

A brief history of tabletop and video game RPGs

The commonly accepted history of tabletop RPGs generally venerates Dungeons & Dragons as the undisputed originator of the hobby, though the true history is (as always) far more complex. Tabletop RPGs originally grew out of the tabletop wargaming scene, with groups of gamers increasingly devoting time and effort to creating personas for the generals that would lead their armies around on the mock battlefields. This was where Dave Arneson, colleague of Gary Gygax and co-creator of D&D, began his gaming RPG journey. The documentary film Secrets of Blackmoor is an excellent introduction to the groups that would form a template for what would eventually become a core part of Dungeons & Dragons.

Video games emerged almost in tandem with tabletop RPGs - in the very same year that Dungeons & Dragons was first published (1974), University of Illinois student Reginald Rutherford created pedit5 for the PLATO computer. This was probably the first ever RPG video game, though tracing the origins of the genre is difficult due to the somewhat unsanctioned nature of these proto-CRPGs. Felipe Pepe, author of The CRPG Book writes:

"When Dungeons & Dragons came out in 1974, it unleashed the perfect storm: powerful computers, bored programming students, and a statistics-driven game that was begging for automation. The result was the birth of Computer Role-Playing Games. Recent findings indicate that the first of these CRPGs was likely The Dungeon (AKA pedit5), created in about 4-6 weeks in the fall and winter of 1975."

As explained in the article linked above, PLATO was an educational platform, and system administrators were quick to delete anything not of strictly educational value. Thus, these early CRPGs were frequently given inconspicuous names to avoid drawing attention.

Within a few years, CRPGs exploded in popularity. Tabletop gamers were undoubtedly overrepresented among the initial adherents, as they sought to replicate the buzz of the tabletop without the hassle of finding a group of friends and a convenient block of free time.

Symbiosis

The close relationship between tabletop and video game RPGs meant that the mechanics of many CRPGs closely resembled their tabletop inspiration, or were in some cases explicitly designed to be compatible with tabletop systems. Dunjonquest: Temple of Apshai, for example, used the same core stats as Dungeons & Dragons, allowing players to import their tabletop characters. However, it was officially licensed products that began to formalise the relationship between tabletop and video game RPGs.

As with many firsts, the true first is hard to nail down - 1982's Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Cloudy Mountain (Mattel Electronics) was an officially licensed TSR product, though it was an action game rather than a CRPG. Conversely, 1985 CRPG Autoduel was based on the non-RPG Car Wars boardgame by Steve Jackson Games. SSI's Pool of Radiance in 1988 marked a significant moment in the move towards officially licensed CRPGs, and SSI followed it with a plethora of the most beloved AD&D licensed CRPGs of the era, such as Eye of the Beholder (1990), Forgotten Realms: Unlimited Adventures (1993) and Dark Sun: Shattered Lands (1993). SSI also released two titles based on the Buck Rogers tabletop setting, a pulp sci-fi spinoff of AD&D: Countdown to Doomsday (1990) and Matrix Cubed (1992).

Other tabletop publishers followed suit. Tunnels & Trolls, a 1975 tabletop RPG lighter on the crunch than D&D, saw a licensed video game in 1990 with Crusaders of Khazan. Traveller, a tabletop game beginning in 1977, saw two licensed games - MegaTraveller 1: The Zhodani Conspiracy and MegaTraveller 2: Quest for the Ancients, both based on the rules of Traveller's second edition MegaTraveller line. Fantasy-cyberpunk game Shadowrun saw two very distinct releases in the 1990s for the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis. Each game took a different approach to interpreting the tabletop rules. Das Schwarze Auge (The Dark Eye), a popular German tabletop RPG, had the Realms of Arkania trilogy between 1992 and 1996 and this system would go on to be one of the more prominent examples of tabletop RPGs being represented in video game form outside of D&D's omnipresence.

The next generation

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons had its final hurrah at the turn of the century with some of the most beloved RPGs to ever grace the PC - Baldur's Gate (1998), Planescape: Torment (1999), Icewind Dale (2000) and Baldur's Gate II (2000). All four titles used BioWare's Infinity Engine, and the games struck a chord with the real-time strategy-obsessed games industry of the late 90s. In 2000, Wizards of the Coast (the new owners of D&D) released Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition (dropping the "Advanced" naming), and licensed video games soon followed suit. The first 3rd Edition game was the rather lacklustre Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor, but things rapidly improved from there, with Neverwinter Nights and Icewind Dale II (the last hurrah for the Infinity Engine) in 2002 and Temple of Elemental Evil in 2003. D&D 3rd Edition also made an appearance in BioWare's Knights of the Old Republic (2003), based on the Wizards of the Coast's 3rd Edition-based Star Wars Roleplaying Game.

Outside of D&D, a new tabletop player entered the video game market with Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption in 2000, based on the long-running World of Darkness RPG. It was soon followed by Troika's Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines in 2004. Shortly thereafter, the Shadowrun RPG returned to video games after a long hiatus with 2007's Shadowrun, while Das Schwarze returned after a similar hiatus with Drakensang (2008).

One of the interesting phenomenons to emerge in this era was the reversed relationship of influence, as video games began to increasingly inspire tabletop versions of games. The Witcher, Dishonored, Dark Souls, and Pillars of Eternity have all inspired tabletop RPG systems. Even Fallout, originally based loosely on the GURPS tabletop system, subsequently inspired a tabletop version based on later games in the series, using the 2d20 system by Modiphius.

Today, the interrelation between tabletop and video game RPGs remains strong thanks to several well-regarded games of recent vintage. D&D's 5th Edition has produced two CRPGs in Baldur's Gate 3 and Solasta: Crown of the Magister while, Pathfinder, D&D's closest tabletop rival in market share terms, has had two incredible CRPGs with Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous.

One of the interesting phenomenons to emerge in this era was the reversed relationship of influence, as video games began to increasingly inspire tabletop versions of games. The Witcher, Dishonored, Dark Souls, and Pillars of Eternity have all inspired tabletop RPG systems.

Unfortunately, a consequence of the commercialisation of the games industry has seen publishers move towards more risk-averse projects. D&D and Pathfinder games are seen as safe and desirable projects for publishers due to their broad brand recognition. Beyond tabletop-inspired video games, the RPG genre has vastly matured over the past several decades, establishing many design trends and conventions not so directly tied to tabletop gaming and the concept of dice rolls.

Points of inspiration

As with RPG video games, tabletop has matured and evolved over the past several decades, growing more popular and diverse than ever before. The tabletop industry is ripe with potential inspiration for video games, and studios taking a dip into RPGs outside the established safety net of D&D and Pathfinder may be surprised by the potential opportunities to attract new fans.

Basic Roleplaying

The Basic Roleplaying system, known commonly as BRP, is one of the oldest tabletop systems on the market. It was released in 1980 by Greg Stafford and Lynn Willis as the underlying mechanical system for their tabletop game RuneQuest. BRP was soon adapted for the Call of Cthulhu tabletop game, as well as Pendragon, another Greg Stafford game based on Arthurian tales of chivalric virtue.

One of BRP's great advantages is its adaptability to almost any setting - the core stats are broadly applicable and a game's theme is largely determined by the list of available skills and items. The game system can also be easily tweaked depending on the sort of lethality a designer might seek - Call of Cthulhu is well known for its lethality, promoting role-play over combat, but the BRP core rule book provides several options for running high-powered player games. The system is also based on 10-sided (d10) and 100-sided (d100) dice rolls - intuitive for players and simple to implement for designers.

Dungeon Crawl Classics

Dungeon Crawl Classics (DCC) by Goodman Games was one of the earlier systems to emerge during the Old School Renaissance (OSR), a style of tabletop gaming that sought to emulate the spirit and/or mechanics of the hobby's origins in the 80s and 90s. There is some debate over whether DCC is truly an OSR game - it is originally based on the D&D 3rd Edition Open Game Licence, though gameplay tone and lethality are certainly influenced by early tabletop games.

DCC is a potentially challenging system to implement in a video game format, though there is much inspiration that could be taken from its magic system, which provides an opportunity for some chaotic game mechanics. Together with the chaotic madness of a typical DCC session, the system seems perfectly tailored to the sort of irreverent and freeform design that a studio like Larian has built a reputation for.

GURPS

Given GURPS' influence over CRPGs, it is surprising that there haven't been any licensed GURPS products. GURPS is most notable for being the initial system for Fallout (1997), but after a licensing disagreement between Interplay and Steve Jackson Games, Fallout adopted its own SPECIAL system. The influence of GURPS on SPECIAL is most apparent in Fallout's Perks system, which has echoes of the Advantages/Disadvantages mechanic of GURPS.

Many games since Fallout have implemented similar systems to GURPS' advantages and disadvantages, a mechanic that encourages a player to take negative traits in exchange for certain benefits. It's a system that encourages roleplaying, while also catering to the kinds of players who love to min-max. Like BRP, GURPS is also a system readily adapted to any setting.

Traveller

Traveller is the original science fiction tabletop system and has seen many iterations over the years, along with two video game adaptations. The system itself is straightforward, approachable, and with some tweaking, could be adapted to other settings.

Where Traveller truly shines, however, is the character creation, and I would love to see more video games go all-in on character creation like Traveller does. The infamous Traveller lifepath system offers the player a series of choices and dice rolls that determine their eventual character. For players who love roleplay, the system is brilliant, but perhaps less so for the min-max types.

Classic Dungeons & Dragons

While the contemporary edition of D&D has seen vast popularity at both the tabletop and in video game form, the fact remains that the overwhelming majority of D&D video game history was made with pre-3rd Edition rules. The past few years have seen a huge resurgence of interest in older editions of D&D, particularly AD&D and the original D&D Basic / Expert sets. These rule systems have also seen clones, in the form of games like Old School Essentials, OSRIC, and Basic Fantasy.

While some of the mechanics are less intuitive than later tabletop systems, (i.e. the infamous "THAC0"), AD&D is not as complicated as it is made out to be, and is in many ways vastly more straightforward than modern D&D. The true value here, however, is the opportunity to seize on both the brand recognition of D&D and the legacy of classic D&D video games like Eye of the Beholder, Dark Sun and Baldur's Gate. Modern game design capabilities provide the opportunity to truly give justice to classic D&D mechanics, and as an AD&D die-hard myself, I live in eternal anticipation of another classic D&D game.