Will CRPGs Mark the End of Tabletop Roleplaying?
Written by Alex Fairweather
TTRPGs have celebrated quite the renaissance over the past few years, what with the success of shows like Stranger Things giving a glimpse into the world of the nerd, as well as the brilliant reception The Legend of Vox Machina received on Amazon Prime Video. But just last year, a Dungeons and Dragons video game released to critical acclaim: Baldur’s Gate 3. Could the success of this game and others CRPGs spell an end to the tradition of the shared tabletop?
First, what do all of these initialisms mean? TTRPG stands for Table-Top Role Playing Game, think your standard Dungeons and Dragons or Pathfinder game, with everyone seated around a table, rolling dice and sharing snacks. This is often paired, especially in the Eighties and Nineties, with the image of kids in their basement battling monsters from realms forgotten. CRPG, on the other hand, stands for Computer Role Playing Game. This doesn’t quite mean your normal RPG, however, but instead a digitisation of a TTRPG. A great example is Baldur’s Gate 3 by Larian Studios, which uses the base ruleset of Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition to inform its gameplay. And with “Overwhelmingly Positive” reviews on Steam and at peak more than eight hundred thousand players, it’s clear that this was an excellent choice.
Baldur’s Gate 3 isn’t the only CRPG that’s taking the market by storm, however. Fans of the TTRPG Pathfinder have been lucky to have the same treatment as D&D fans for a few years before with the games Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous by Owlcat Games. Both of these games operate on the Pathfinder 1e ruleset and follow the adventure paths of their respective titles, offering players a new way to experience these stories by themselves, whether to try again or give an offer to those who don’t have the table to play the game. Indeed, even the famed wargame Warhammer 40k has its own CRPG in the form of Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, another game by Owlcat Games. Taking the lore of the 40k Universe and running with it, Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader excels in weaving the intricate story of the forty-first millennium with many diverse and interesting characters.
Of course, bringing the TTRPG world into the digital world is excellent for many people. Taking rulesets and adventures and turning them into games is a brilliant exercise in accessibility for those who cannot play the games on a tabletop. But could these games spell the end for tabletop gameplay? It’s a difficult truth that companies only have so much time on their hands, and IPs can only be stretched so far in each direction. Many TTRPG companies are already investing in creating online tools for character creation, with some even focusing their efforts on developing their own virtual tabletops (or VTTs). We’re in an age of continual computerisation, where anything that can be digitally represented often is. With sites like Wordle and the New York Times Connections replacing the traditional newspaper crossword, it seems like the approach is to leave tradition for the electronic environment. Will the tradition of tabletop be lost to time?
Sadly, it’s too early to tell. But there’s no need to worry! TTRPG companies are still releasing fantastic new games every week, such as the wonderful Draw Steel by MCDM games. Whilst there are still pen-and-paper games in development, it’s unlikely that we’ll entirely lose the classic attitude to the tabletop world. It seems that the fountain of CRPGs is destined not to replace TTRPGs, but instead to enhance them and give new angles that were previously unexplored. Plus, if tabletop gameplay was to fall, what would we do with all of our dice?
To read another article written by Alex Fairweather or to learn more about Draw Steel go here!
Written by Alex Fairweather, Edited by Noah Blackham, Photos by Alena Darmel, and Published by Paige Tamasi