I’ve stayed away from the video game-TTRPG crossover on my blog/newsletter for nearly a year, but today I dip my toe in. I’ve compiled a list of 8 games with a quick reason why you should play or replay them to improve/inspire your TTRPG scenario designs.
I’d be really interested to hear what video games have inspired you over the years, less so thematically and more in ways you can implement concrete ideas at your tables!
Well, I would say that Dark Souls is a megadungeon game. It does a very good job of it, both in design and flow.
In particular, I can even see the four phases of His Majesty the Worm showing up when playing Dark Souls: crawl, challenge, rest and city(firelink shrine) phases.
I always loved the character creation for Ultima IV. Kinda reminds me of Beyond the Wall. would love to see more of this…
But honestly, I actively avoid using video games as inspiration. Too on the nose, and I don’t like the sorta cycle of borrowing from ttrpgs to crpgs. I feel like THAT IS HOW WE GOT 5e.
Neat!
I definitely agree you can get a lot of juice out of video games as interactive experiences to make fresh-squeezed gameraid for tabletop play. I often point to Final Fantasy X as a great campaign structure for those linearly inclined.
Slightly off topic as this wasn’t exactly game cannibalism:
I was very inspired by Dishonored and actually wound up running a one-shot set in that world using the Modiphius 2d20 system for the game; I hacked in rules from the Conan game they made.
That’s a neat comparison!
JRPGs seem like a big inspiration for plenty of folks, Break being that transferring to OSR-y game design!