Tabletop Roleplaying Games and Their Rising Popularity Within the Video Game Industry

It seems like more and more video game studios are beginning to base their games on tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGS). These games are going from strength to strength, with Larian Studios’ Baldur’s Gate 3 being nominated for eight awards in total at 2023’s The Game Awards event (including game of the year).

           Baldur’s Gate 3 is the third entry in the Baldur’s Gate series, and the first developed by Larian Studios who were already well known for their work on the Divinity series. Baldur’s Gate 3 relies heavily on mechanics borrowed from directly from Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition rulebook. Characters participate in turn-based combat and uses a virtual 20-sided dice (also known as D20s) to make rolls in a variety of situations. It launched to universal, critical acclaim, with multiple reviewers publishing incomplete reviews at the time of launch because they had not finished the game due to the sheer amount of content within it.

Billy Chambers, a fan of multiple computer roleplaying games (CRPGs) adapted from TTRPGs said:

“In recent years the CRPG genre has had something of a resurgence, titles like Pathfinder: Kingmaker, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader and Baldur’s Gate 3 are more popular examples all based on tabletop systems. The pathfinder games, despite being based on a system I've never used, grabbed me, especially WotR, as did Baldur’s Gate 3. All of these games are story marathons that have satisfying choices and diverging endings.Baldur’s Gate 3 is a great example of taking a tabletop system and adapting it for a video game, keeping the core mechanics familiar to those who are experienced with the system and making it an easy learning curve for new players.”

            Another standout example is Cyberpunk 2077 originally released in 2020, which is based on the Cyberpunk role-playing setting, originally released in 1988. Despite a rocky launch, which was mired by technical issues, accusations of “wokeness” surrounding its inclusion of transgender and non-binary characters and performance issues, it found its’ footing. Further patches and updates have left the game with overwhelmingly positive reviews on all fronts (particular praise goes went towards the games first downloadable content (DLC) Phantom Liberty). In fact, it has also been nominated at The Game Awards this year, in the Player’s Choice category.

            One game hoping to replicate this success is Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, which is currently being developed by the UK based studio The Chinese Room and published by Paradox Interactive. Based on Vampire: The Masquerade, a setting which uses White Wolf, Inc’s World of Darkness setting and Storytelling System, it is a sequel to the once critically panned Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines. The original Bloodlines launched with a myriad of technical flaws, but critics did praise its story and worldbuilding. In recent years, the original has received a cult following, and post-launch support by fans. Obviously, Bloodlines 2 does not want to join its predecessor in quality, but can it really avoid it? Originally being developed by Seattle-based Hardsuit Labs, The Chinese Room took over following long delays. A trailer was released in September 2023, with an expected launch date of 2024 but long-time fans of the series are not entirely convinced that it will avoid the pitfalls that made its predecessor so notorious.

            It seems like it is becoming an even more popular option for game studios to develop games based upon tabletop roleplaying games, but is this just a passing trend, or will it mark a new era for games development?