Buying Guide: Role Playing Game with Pen&Paper Templates

In the 1970s, the genre of pen and paper role-playing games developed from the centuries-old so-called war games. Dungeons & Dragons appeared in 1974 as one of the first of these RPGs and at the same time the best-known and most popular of these games to this day. Eventually, as the world of digital games grew in importance, video game developers quickly turned to the analogue template for inspiration. To this day, numerous games have appeared that clearly have their roots in pen and paper role-playing games, or are even based directly on licenses for such games. With pop culture phenomena such as Critical Role and Stranger Things, role-playing games with pen and paper are increasingly breaking out of the nerd niche and penetrating the consciousness of the general public. But what are actually the best video games based on a pen and paper template? We get to the bottom of this question in this buyer’s guide video.

We have focused on games that are actually based on an appropriate license and use the appropriate rule set. You won’t find a Pillars of Eternity here, for example. Although the series is very much based on the well-known elements of classic pen & paper adaptations, it uses completely independent settings and rules. Also not represented is Baldur’s Gate 3, which is probably the greatest beacon of hope for Dungeons & Dragons fans at the moment. As the game is still in Early Access at the time of writing this buyer’s guide, we can’t in good conscience recommend it without testing the final product. Nevertheless, you will definitely discover one or the other interesting title, maybe a few old acquaintances and even a surprise in our list. Anyway, we wish you a lot of fun with epic adventures.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (D&D 3rd Edition, 2003)

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Source: LucasArts



Let’s also start directly with the surprise and the title, which probably very few would have expected here. At first glance, Star Wars has relatively little to do with the popular pen and paper role-playing games. However, Bioware’s developers were deep into Dungeons & Dragons at the time they were working on Knights of the Old Republic. After all, they had delivered successful direct conversions of the role-playing universe with Baldur’s Gate 1 + 2 and Neverwinter Nights. With Star Wars they turned to a completely different cosmos, but the makers didn’t want to give up their roots completely. Therefore, the combat system of the role-playing game also uses the rules of Dungeons & Dragons, more precisely the so-called d20 system, an offshoot of the D&D 3rd Edition.

All fights therefore take place in rounds and are thrown in the background according to the rules. In the game itself, the display takes place in real time, which can be paused at any time. Which, from today’s point of view, caused the course of the fight to appear quite undynamic. We probably don’t need to say too many words about the other qualities that make the game one of the best Star Wars and role-playing games of all time. The story, the music, the characters and other aspects were showered with praise and awards at the time. The plot twist within the narrative is still considered one of the best plot twists of all time.

The PC version is available today on Steam and GOG. This can also be adjusted a bit to modern conditions such as widescreen monitors with the help of mods. On the Xbox, the classic is also still available in the digital store and can also be played on the Xbox One and the Xbox Series thanks to backwards compatibility. There are also versions for Android and iOS devices that are very successful. The game is now also available on the Switch. The port is also playable, but the quality is a bit lower than that of the mobile versions.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines (World of Darkness, 2004)

Vampires: The Masquerade – Bloodlines

Source: PC Games



When Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines was released in 2004, nobody expected that almost 20 years later this role-playing game would still be spoken of with great enthusiasm and respect. It has become a cult classic of the genre, although it was launched in a technically rather bad state at the time, which spelled the end for the developers at Troika Games. It is considered an imperfect masterpiece because the writing, the serious decisions and the general atmosphere of the game world are still outstanding today.

The game is based on the pen and paper universe of World of Darkness, which began in 1991 with Vampire: The Masquerade. The game books sold millions of copies, making World of Darkness the second most successful role-playing game after Dungeons & Dragons for a while. Bloodlines primarily uses the world in which vampires, werewolves and demons direct the fortunes of human history as its setting. In this world, vampires follow a code of keeping the secret of their existence and avoiding unnecessary killing. In the game, the player slips into the role of a young, newly transformed vampire who belongs to one of the seven clans.

The developers had problems transferring the rules of World of Darkness to a real-time first-person combat system with firearms and melee weapons. Therefore, the rules of the template were not followed to the last detail to achieve a playable combat system. The game is available today on Steam and GOG. We recommend that you familiarize yourself with the unofficial fan patches and mods as they bring the game to a technically better state.