An in-depth look at how tabletop RPGs evolved into the epic digital adventures we known and love today.

By: Adam DiLeo

So many of the 2019-2020's biggest games are big, elaborate RPGs, and this got us thinking about how the genre has evolved from its pen and paper roots. If you’ve never played a tabletop role-playing game like Dungeons & Dragons, Call of Cthulhu or Cyberpunk 2020, you may not realize just how much modern RPG video games -- all video games, really -- owe to their venerable tabletop predecessors.

Fundamental game features we take for granted like item inventories and character customization are the direct result of the work Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson began in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin nearly 50 years ago. RPG series like The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Dragon Age, Final Fantasy and many, many more simply wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the innovations pioneered by tabletop gaming.

Interestingly, Gygax’s original Chainmail ruleset, on which he and Arneson based D&D, was itself based on a two-page fantasy wargaming supplement written by Len Patt. But that’s a story for another article.

Using the broadest definition, any tabletop game could technically be considered a role-playing game. Even a game like chess puts the player in the abstracted role of a commander in a battle. For our purposes, though, we’ll define a tabletop role-playing game as one that places paramount importance on player choice through a fantastical mix of exploration, combat, social interaction, statistical advancement, and practical logistics. And dice. Lots and lots of dice.

In the digital realm, early programmers first began writing text-based computer RPGs on university and government mainframes in the 1970s, starting with Will Crowther’s Colossal Cave Adventure in 1976. Then, as now, role-playing video games have included as many of the elements above as possible in an effort to translate the shared storytelling of a tabletop game into a self-contained electronic medium. In a tabletop game, the Game Master (or Dungeon Master, Keeper, Referee or whatever particular terminology a game decides to use) populates the game world and adjudicates its rules for the players. Thus, the entire evolution of video game RPGs -- from simple text-based forerunners like Colossal Cave Adventure and Zork to modern titles like Monster Hunter: World and The Witcher -- can be seen as an attempt to perfect a virtual Game Master. This is no small task, as human GMs are capable of adapting to a limitless variety of player choices, changing the entire game on the fly depending on how the players choose to play it.

It’s impossible to understate just how high a standard tabletop RPGs have set for their video game counterparts. Video games continue to get more and more elaborate with bigger maps, sharper visuals, deeper stories and smarter AI. And yet, no matter how advanced the technology and production values become, game developers will still strive to reproduce the “go anywhere, do anything” feeling of tabletop role-playing games. And who knows? Maybe one day a video game will actually be able to replicate a good GM’s ability to generate custom adventures tailored to even the weirdest player choices. It might even be advanced enough to seamlessly blend a fully integrated narrative with truly infinite player freedom.

It’ll never replace the feel of a good set of dice, though.

Looking to get into TRPGs yourself? Have a look at our guides on which tabletop RPG is right for you, or how to start playing Dungeons & Dragons.