The world’s most popular tabletop role-playing game, Dungeons & Dragons, co-created by Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax, was published in 1974 by TSR. One of the first video games we could classify as a role-playing game was Dungeon, released for PDP-10 mainframe computers just a year or two later.
Now, in 2025 we have thousands of TTRPG systems big and small, and hundreds of role-playing video games, many of which can trace their roots to their analog cousins.
How did we arrive here? Tracing the full history of both hobbies through five decades of history would be a challenging errand, but there are certain points of light shining through the fog of history.
The 1980s
The eighties were foundational for both hobbies. Not only did D&D blossom, but the broader TTRPG hobby took off as well, with several essential systems appearing for the first time, including Shadowrun and Cyberpunk 2013, as well as GURPS which almost got a video game adaptation.
The 1980s also saw the release of two video games upon which two different genres were founded.
One of them was Rogue, known from its “Rogue-like” and “Rogue-lite” successors. It was inspired in part by Ster Trek video games from the 70s and in part by D&D. Nowadays, its descendants tend to be closer to action games such as Hades or Dead Cells, but at the time they were hardcore dungeon crawlers, such as Hack (and its fork, Nethack) and Moria.
The other title which defined what role-playing video game could be was Ultima, a rather prolific series which influenced some of the greatest RPGs to ever grace computer screens including Larian Studios’ modern-day hits.
The 1990s
To borrow a common turn of phrase, the 80s walked so that the 90s could run. While the games from the previous decade laid the foundations, the ones we’ve seen in the 90s set the standards and ideas we’re still following and craving.
Systems such as Vampire the Masquerade (which got several fun video games) and Legend of the Five Rings (which got an unusual adaptation this year through Shadowveil: L5R) were gaining popularity. What appeal D&D lost in TTRPGs, it gained twofold in video games. The nineties brought dungeon-crawling classics such as Eye of the Beholder, but there was also a small Canadian studio whose games codified the cRPG genre for the next two decades.
The studio was, of course, Bioware, and the genre-codifying game was Baldur’s Gate, released in 1998. Set in the Forgotten Realms and adapting the rules of Dungeons & Dragons 2e, to many it became the gold standard. Its real-time, party-based combat, branching conversations, memorable companions and an epic story became the core way to approach the genre for decades to come.
However, BG wasn’t technically the first popular game to do things this way. In 1997 Interplay released the original Fallout. It was meant to adapt GURPS, but after objections from the system’s creators, it wound up using its own resolution system. It had character in-spades, crisp writing and a surprising level of graphic violence embellishing its satisfying turn-based combat.
Unfortunately, neither it nor its stellar sequel Fallout 2 managed to influence the genre the way Baldur’s Gate’s real-time with pause battles did. Thankfully, fans of turn-based combat would get their dues in the 2010s.
The new millennium
The 2000s saw the arrival of the influential third edition of Dungeons & Dragons and, inevitably, there were video games based on the new rules.
Perhaps the most important was Knights of the Old Republic, set in the Star Wars universe, and, one year earlier, Neverwinter Nights, which was completely unrelated to the 1991 original. Both were made by BioWare, and cemented its status as the king of cRPGs at the time, although the extraordinary sequels to these titles were made by genre veterans from Obsidian Entertainment.
Bioware also worked on its own original worlds and systems, which in 2009 gave us Dragon Age: Origins. Despite its fresh setting and original mechanics, the legacy of D&D in general (and Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights specifically), was clear for all to see. Future installments (including last year’s DA: The Veilguard) eventually strayed from that template.
It wasn’t all D&D however. 2004 also saw the release of a cult-classic based on the World of Darkness. Vampire: the Masquerade – Bloodlines explored the vampiric politics of night-time LA, and the game’s fans are now awaiting the release of Bloodlines 2, scheduled for October 2025.
Towards the roaring RPG twenties and beyond
It could be argued that the success of 2012’s XCOM: Enemy Unknown invited the return of turn-based combat into the mainstream, and RPGs followed suit. Larian’s Divinity: Original Sin paved the developer’s road towards its grand cRPG epic, Baldur’s Gate 3.
There were also several RPG video games released based on systems other than D&D.
Shadowrun Returns and Cyberpunk 2077 quite skillfully adapt the systems first published in the eighties. Meanwhile, Owlcat Games (known for its Pathfinder adaptations) launched Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader based on a 2009 TTRPG system of the same name.
Intertwined legacy
Role-playing video games are at least as old as their pen-and-paper cousins and for half a century both hobbies have influenced each other. The Covid lockdowns caused them to blend even more, as people sought digital, online tools to keep playing their games.
Fans now use software such as Tabletop Simulator or Foundry VTT to recreate and experience the worlds of Neverwinter Nights (both Bioware’s and 1991 original), or Multi-User Dungeons of old— opening a digital gateway to once analog-only adventures.
What’s the next step? You could (and should) seek out the TTRPGs and get your friends to play them with you. However, you can also find many of the video games mentioned here on the G2A.COM Marketplace, and get the feel for the hobby this way, on your own time and, thanks to many amazing deals, without straining your budget.
Whichever path you choose, incredible, creative, and satisfying journeys await.
The post From Dungeons and Dragons to Baldur’s Gate 3: The shared history of TTRPGs and video games appeared first on Trusted Reviews.
