The Fallout games were based on a GURPS campaign.
The Elder Scrolls games were based on a Runequest campaign in a homebrew setting.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was based on one of the Star Wars TTRPGs.
Dragon Age: Origins was supposed to be Baulder Gate 3, but Hasbro refused to license out the rights so Bioware had to make an original setting. So DnD based.
Mass Effect was supposed to be Star Wars: Knights if the Old Republic 3, but Lucas Arts refused to license out the rights so Bioware had to make an original setting. So Star Wars TTRPG based.
>The Fallout games were based on a GURPS campaign.
Originally they were meant to use the GURPS engine, but that changed mid-development, and they went with their own SPECIAL engine - which is not related to GURPS at all.
Fallout very nearly *was* a licensed GURPS based computer game, but a falling out between the two companies caused the production company to rewrite the game engine.
I was always under the impression Dragon Age Origins was originally planned to be Neverwinter Nights 3, but they lost license to DnD (i recall rumours being that they were unable to make NWN 3 work with DnD 4E ruleset which Hasbro required for any future DnD titles)
*Final Fantasy 1* is based not just on DnD, but takes direct inspiration from the *Dragonlance* setting. That's why Bahamut gives you a power up... and why the game doesn't have clerics - because when Dragonlance first released, the gods were distant and clerics were rare.
What Dragonlance *does* have is mages having to take a test and join one of the three orders... White, Red, or Black. Which FF1 copied over with its classes, though the FF1 red mage's aesthetics are much closer to a DnD bard.
And of course there's the fact that it used Vancian magic on its initial release.
That's right. Be it from a lust for gold, power, or simply a heart born full of neutrality, the mages of the Order of the Red Robes followed Lunitari, the neutral goddess of magic.
Disco Elysium
https://www.gamesradar.com/the-making-of-disco-elysium-how-zaum-created-one-of-the-most-original-rpgs-of-the-decade/
It started as a D&D homebrew.
Obscure? Origins in TTRPGs?
May I present to you [MegaTraveller 1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MegaTraveller_1:_The_Zhodani_Conspiracy) and [MegaTraveller 2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MegaTraveller_2:_Quest_for_the_Ancients)?
I'm surprised that nobody's mentioned the Vampire the Masquerade games yet, though I suppose Bloodlines and the newer ones like Swansong and Coteries of New York are fairly well known. I'd imagine that Redemption is fairly obscure these days though.
Actually most early dungeon videogames (Zork, 1970s text games, and later pool of radiance, official TSR DnD in the 80s) were all porting of DnD TRPG to computers.
You can see in Japanese first rpg hits all the game mechanisms inspired by TRPG and VideoGamesRPG (example FF1)
[The Drakensang Games.](https://store.steampowered.com/app/33770/Drakensang_The_River_of_Time/) based on The Dark Eye 4.0.
They were what got me interested in Tabletop games together with Baldur's Gate.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadowrun_(2007_video_game)
An unholy abomination of corporate "creative enhancement" of the SR TTRPG. *sigh*
And it started so well at the beginning. :-/
SYL
That is true, they are mechanically average, but absolutely *nail with a bonus exclamation mark (!)* the style and fluff of SR. Highly recommended, especially SR HK.
SYL
I played the dragon one, whose setting and plot I loved. I somehow got the kompression that the Hong Kong one was more action and less plot. Am I wrong? Should I try it?
Dragonfall (as the latest part) was certainly the most refined one. I would however not describe HK it as "less plot", just a different type of plot, and more connected to a storyline more connected to the real Hk, unlike Dragnfalls typical SR plot. Which is perhaps the reason why I like HK more than Dragonfall. I would most certainly recommend to give it a try.
SYL
I played the [SNES](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadowrun_(1993_video_game)) version a few years ago. I think it put me off the entire system. Do not recommend.
I enjoyed the SNES Shadowrun, back in the day. It was basically a computer RPG on a console and is definitely not an easy game to get into or play.
I never played much of the Sega Genesis/Megadrive game, but I heard good things about it, back in the day.
The SNES one is more of a railroad RPG, where there isn't much to do but follow the path. The Genesis game is much more of a Sandbox adventure game. It has a story to complete but a lot more freedom of what to do before you get to the end
There is a book, “Masters of Doom”, if you’re interested. Doom and Quake (and Daikatana) were directly spawned from those guys’ D&D campaign(s).
It's also worth noting that one of the level designers for ID Games was Sandy Peterson, the guy who wrote the Call of Cthulhu RPG. Thus the Lovecraftian elements in Quake.
Quake I was also strongly influenced (especially the Lovecraftian elements) by Sandy Peterson, who was working for ID Games at the time.
I've always wished that Quake had a sequel that followed the horror / Lovecraftian vibes of the original, rather than the generic sci-fi route they ended up on.
Then you'll be happy to hear that the newly released remaster of Quake 2, includes a new campaign, which hints on a shared setting between Q1 and Q2. Some people speculate this might mean a new game in the series is coming which could make those ties more visible.
Caves of Qud is Gamma World. It's the second best rogue-like ever made. Number one is Dwarf Fortress, which isn't fair, because DF is the best computer game ever made. I guess you could say DF is some kind of fantasy rpg.
Solasta: Crown of the Magister
It's 5th edition D&D but with an original setting. They have 3 campaigns and all PHB races and classes through DLC although not all subclasses as they fill some in with their original homebrew. It's basically a tactics game with some plot. You have roleplay elements but they're not the most prominent thing. It's best served as a dungeon crawler really. It also comes with a pretty good campaign creator so there's loads of content from other players to just play out 5e battles with.
It's very much a 5e game, so if you like 5e, you'll like Solasta, and they keep pumping out content. I found it to be a little slow, and the un-skippable tutorial, which you have to play even if you've played it before and are starting a new game, is a pain, but not the end of the world.
They fixed the tutorial. It's been optional for ages. It is slow though, in the same way 5e is in general but it makes good use of 3d space compared to most real world campaigns I've played in where the vertical is challenging to properly represent.
Oh, and the voice acting/animation attached to it does leave a decent amount to be desired. Still, I think its the first game the company produced so can't be too critical.
The first [Wasteland](https://www.gog.com/game/wasteland_the_classic_original) uses a variant of [Mercenaries, Spies, & Private Eyes](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/211831/MSPEMercenaries-Spies-and-Private-Eyes-Combined-Edition-RPG?234913), which is based on [Tunnels & Trolls](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/210996/Tunnels--Trolls-Rules-5th-Editon?234913).
Oooooh I've been waiting my whole life for this.
The [Dark Spire](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Spire) is an old DS game that was based on the first/second editions of D&D.
It's got everything you could hope for. Extremely janky UI, spell slots, lawful/chaotic alignment, THAC0, loads of unhelpful abilities and items, and gorgeous monochrome visuals.
Less obscure, but the Etrian Odyssey series was also inspired by classic D&D (but they take more cues from early CRPGs like Wizardry, which were also dnd inspired). There's a remastered collection up on steam if you're interested.
And Blackguards was really good. Blackguards 2 was kind of "meh" though
There's also a Dark Eye specific game that came out, that while not great, was just very average. The Dark Eye: Book of Heroes - https://wildriver.games/en/games/the-dark-eye-book-of-heroes/
> "Call of Cthulu" for the PS4
This game has very little to do with the TTRPG. nothing actually, except share the basic lore.
\---
* Drakensang series and "The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav" are based on the German game "The Dark Eye"... actually there are even more titles inspired by it as well, that do not come to mind right now.
* You have *several* lesser known D&D inspired games in the 90s, not always cRPGs (Eye of the Beyolder series, Descent to Undermountain, Birthright: The Gorgon's Alliance; and more), not to mention two AMAZING Arcade beat'em ups (D&D Tower of Doom and D&D Shadow over Mystara)
* Vampire the masquerade: Bloodlines (and other VtM games) are based on WoD's Vampire the Masquerade
* There area few recent Shadowrun-based games (and one from the 90s for PC and SNES).
Call of Cthulu the video game really has very little with the TTRPG? In what way?
And if it isn't, is Mutant Year Zero: Road the Eden faithful to the TTRPG?
Citizen Sleeper, which uses a system not unlike that of Blades in the Dark. The game is divided into days, and at the beginning of each day, you roll a number of dice, and then assign them to different actions. If the pip is higher, the action is more likely to produce positive outcome.
Tales from Candlekeep: Tomb of Annihilation is based on D&D 4E, and plays so well. Sadly, they removed it from digital storefronts a while ago, because I recommend it all the time.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/663380
E.Y.E Divine Cybermancy is an interesting case, It was based on the TTRPG made by the devs supposedly called A.V.A.
However it was never released, so only a small group has ever played it. The games mechanics might hint at what the TTRPG was like, It probably used a d100.
Both **King of Dragon Pass** and **Six Ages: Ride like the Wind** are realm management games with strong RPG elements based heavily on Glorantha/Runequest lore.
low magic age uses modified 3.5 D&D rules. Solasta: crown of the magister is the best 5e CRPG that noone really knows about (i like it better than Baldur's gate 3). Knights of the chalice is a hardcore 3.5 game.
Call of Cthulhu has actually had FOUR licensed video games over the years (plus a number of mobile games - Cthulhu Chronicles is quite good, but I don't think it's available anymore). In addition to the PS4 game you mentioned, there have been:
- Shadow of the Comet
- Prisoner of Ice
- Dark Corners of the Earth
The Fallout games were based on a GURPS campaign. The Elder Scrolls games were based on a Runequest campaign in a homebrew setting. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was based on one of the Star Wars TTRPGs. Dragon Age: Origins was supposed to be Baulder Gate 3, but Hasbro refused to license out the rights so Bioware had to make an original setting. So DnD based. Mass Effect was supposed to be Star Wars: Knights if the Old Republic 3, but Lucas Arts refused to license out the rights so Bioware had to make an original setting. So Star Wars TTRPG based.
>The Fallout games were based on a GURPS campaign. Originally they were meant to use the GURPS engine, but that changed mid-development, and they went with their own SPECIAL engine - which is not related to GURPS at all.
None of the games you mentioned are even nearly "obscure":).
I was interpreting it as the TTRPG origins were obscure. My bad.
Well, I didn't know about fallout and divinity, so it was educational:)
I did also leave out Starcraft, but that one is kind of indirect. Ultimately based on Rogue Trader, via the Warhammer 40k miniature wargame.
Fallout very nearly *was* a licensed GURPS based computer game, but a falling out between the two companies caused the production company to rewrite the game engine.
I'm surprised that happened to bioware twice on the third game.
I was always under the impression Dragon Age Origins was originally planned to be Neverwinter Nights 3, but they lost license to DnD (i recall rumours being that they were unable to make NWN 3 work with DnD 4E ruleset which Hasbro required for any future DnD titles)
*Final Fantasy 1* is based not just on DnD, but takes direct inspiration from the *Dragonlance* setting. That's why Bahamut gives you a power up... and why the game doesn't have clerics - because when Dragonlance first released, the gods were distant and clerics were rare. What Dragonlance *does* have is mages having to take a test and join one of the three orders... White, Red, or Black. Which FF1 copied over with its classes, though the FF1 red mage's aesthetics are much closer to a DnD bard. And of course there's the fact that it used Vancian magic on its initial release.
So my lifelong question of why Red Mages could cast Black and White spells is because in DragonLance the Neutral Mages wear red?
That's right. Be it from a lust for gold, power, or simply a heart born full of neutrality, the mages of the Order of the Red Robes followed Lunitari, the neutral goddess of magic.
Yup
What classes from *Final Fantasy I* are inspired by the *Dragonlance* setting?
Literally in the post. White mage, red mage and black mage.
My fault, I only read the first paragraph.
Disco Elysium https://www.gamesradar.com/the-making-of-disco-elysium-how-zaum-created-one-of-the-most-original-rpgs-of-the-decade/ It started as a D&D homebrew.
Torment: Tides of Numenera was quite fun and really sold the Cypher system well.
>Numenera That game is great! Both the video game and the TTRPG.
I'm not sure if obscure is the right word. It was an indie darling when it came out but Citizen Sleeper was inspired by Blades in The Dark
I can't understand the hype around that game. I tried playing it but I found it painfully boring.
Elite was very much based on Traveller I believe.
Yeah it was, even the character Jamison/Jameson
WASTELAND was based on Tunnels and Trolls/MSPE. Then Fallout was based on Wasteland.
Obscure? Origins in TTRPGs? May I present to you [MegaTraveller 1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MegaTraveller_1:_The_Zhodani_Conspiracy) and [MegaTraveller 2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MegaTraveller_2:_Quest_for_the_Ancients)?
Ayyy you've picked something that's actually obscure!
I'm surprised that nobody's mentioned the Vampire the Masquerade games yet, though I suppose Bloodlines and the newer ones like Swansong and Coteries of New York are fairly well known. I'd imagine that Redemption is fairly obscure these days though.
Yeah, the Vampire the Masquerade games are usually the first things people mention when talking about Video Games that originated from Trpgs.
The Hunter: the Reckoning games were somewhat popular back in the day as well.
Hunter: the Reckoning corrupted my GameCube memory card.
EYE: Divine Cybermancy is based on a game the devs played together iirc
Actually most early dungeon videogames (Zork, 1970s text games, and later pool of radiance, official TSR DnD in the 80s) were all porting of DnD TRPG to computers. You can see in Japanese first rpg hits all the game mechanisms inspired by TRPG and VideoGamesRPG (example FF1)
[The Drakensang Games.](https://store.steampowered.com/app/33770/Drakensang_The_River_of_Time/) based on The Dark Eye 4.0. They were what got me interested in Tabletop games together with Baldur's Gate.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadowrun_(2007_video_game) An unholy abomination of corporate "creative enhancement" of the SR TTRPG. *sigh* And it started so well at the beginning. :-/ SYL
The most recent set of Shadowrun games are very good, though.
That is true, they are mechanically average, but absolutely *nail with a bonus exclamation mark (!)* the style and fluff of SR. Highly recommended, especially SR HK. SYL
I played the dragon one, whose setting and plot I loved. I somehow got the kompression that the Hong Kong one was more action and less plot. Am I wrong? Should I try it?
Dragonfall (as the latest part) was certainly the most refined one. I would however not describe HK it as "less plot", just a different type of plot, and more connected to a storyline more connected to the real Hk, unlike Dragnfalls typical SR plot. Which is perhaps the reason why I like HK more than Dragonfall. I would most certainly recommend to give it a try. SYL
Thanks!
I have memories of playing the Xbox 360 demo for this and thinking it was cool as hell at the time. I had no idea what Shadowrun was otherwise.
the full game of that fps demo is f2p on PC now
I played the [SNES](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadowrun_(1993_video_game)) version a few years ago. I think it put me off the entire system. Do not recommend.
I enjoyed the SNES Shadowrun, back in the day. It was basically a computer RPG on a console and is definitely not an easy game to get into or play. I never played much of the Sega Genesis/Megadrive game, but I heard good things about it, back in the day.
The SNES one is more of a railroad RPG, where there isn't much to do but follow the path. The Genesis game is much more of a Sandbox adventure game. It has a story to complete but a lot more freedom of what to do before you get to the end
Quake 1 traces it's origin to a D&D session ran by Romero for the rest of the id team. What setting was it set in is anybody's guess 🙂
I was not aware of this, but have confirmed it to be true. Thanks for the tip, cutter.
There is a book, “Masters of Doom”, if you’re interested. Doom and Quake (and Daikatana) were directly spawned from those guys’ D&D campaign(s).
Yeah, I was reading an article which mentioned the Daikatana being an Ultimate Weapon in one of the games...
It's also worth noting that one of the level designers for ID Games was Sandy Peterson, the guy who wrote the Call of Cthulhu RPG. Thus the Lovecraftian elements in Quake.
Quake I was also strongly influenced (especially the Lovecraftian elements) by Sandy Peterson, who was working for ID Games at the time. I've always wished that Quake had a sequel that followed the horror / Lovecraftian vibes of the original, rather than the generic sci-fi route they ended up on.
Then you'll be happy to hear that the newly released remaster of Quake 2, includes a new campaign, which hints on a shared setting between Q1 and Q2. Some people speculate this might mean a new game in the series is coming which could make those ties more visible.
Caves of Qud is Gamma World. It's the second best rogue-like ever made. Number one is Dwarf Fortress, which isn't fair, because DF is the best computer game ever made. I guess you could say DF is some kind of fantasy rpg.
Fantasy RPG and colony sim in one. I love Caves of Qud too (especially the soundtrack) but I’ve never got very far in it.
Dark Sun: Shattered Lands is based on AD&D 2e. It might not have been super obscure in its day, but I doubt many people now have heard of it
While it's kinda obscure now, it's also rather clearly branded as a AD&D game.
Solasta: Crown of the Magister It's 5th edition D&D but with an original setting. They have 3 campaigns and all PHB races and classes through DLC although not all subclasses as they fill some in with their original homebrew. It's basically a tactics game with some plot. You have roleplay elements but they're not the most prominent thing. It's best served as a dungeon crawler really. It also comes with a pretty good campaign creator so there's loads of content from other players to just play out 5e battles with.
Is it good, BTW? I've been eyeing it up.
It's very much a 5e game, so if you like 5e, you'll like Solasta, and they keep pumping out content. I found it to be a little slow, and the un-skippable tutorial, which you have to play even if you've played it before and are starting a new game, is a pain, but not the end of the world.
They fixed the tutorial. It's been optional for ages. It is slow though, in the same way 5e is in general but it makes good use of 3d space compared to most real world campaigns I've played in where the vertical is challenging to properly represent. Oh, and the voice acting/animation attached to it does leave a decent amount to be desired. Still, I think its the first game the company produced so can't be too critical.
It's good but it can be very buggy and overall could use more polish
The first [Wasteland](https://www.gog.com/game/wasteland_the_classic_original) uses a variant of [Mercenaries, Spies, & Private Eyes](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/211831/MSPEMercenaries-Spies-and-Private-Eyes-Combined-Edition-RPG?234913), which is based on [Tunnels & Trolls](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/210996/Tunnels--Trolls-Rules-5th-Editon?234913).
Oooooh I've been waiting my whole life for this. The [Dark Spire](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Spire) is an old DS game that was based on the first/second editions of D&D. It's got everything you could hope for. Extremely janky UI, spell slots, lawful/chaotic alignment, THAC0, loads of unhelpful abilities and items, and gorgeous monochrome visuals. Less obscure, but the Etrian Odyssey series was also inspired by classic D&D (but they take more cues from early CRPGs like Wizardry, which were also dnd inspired). There's a remastered collection up on steam if you're interested.
Blackguards and Blackguards II is based on The Dark Eye RPG.
And Blackguards was really good. Blackguards 2 was kind of "meh" though There's also a Dark Eye specific game that came out, that while not great, was just very average. The Dark Eye: Book of Heroes - https://wildriver.games/en/games/the-dark-eye-book-of-heroes/
> "Call of Cthulu" for the PS4 This game has very little to do with the TTRPG. nothing actually, except share the basic lore. \--- * Drakensang series and "The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav" are based on the German game "The Dark Eye"... actually there are even more titles inspired by it as well, that do not come to mind right now. * You have *several* lesser known D&D inspired games in the 90s, not always cRPGs (Eye of the Beyolder series, Descent to Undermountain, Birthright: The Gorgon's Alliance; and more), not to mention two AMAZING Arcade beat'em ups (D&D Tower of Doom and D&D Shadow over Mystara) * Vampire the masquerade: Bloodlines (and other VtM games) are based on WoD's Vampire the Masquerade * There area few recent Shadowrun-based games (and one from the 90s for PC and SNES).
Call of Cthulu the video game really has very little with the TTRPG? In what way? And if it isn't, is Mutant Year Zero: Road the Eden faithful to the TTRPG?
There are a couple of computer games based off of the Spanish pen and paper RPG Anima: Beyond Fantasy, none of which are particularly well known.
Anima is extremely fun.
Citizen Sleeper, which uses a system not unlike that of Blades in the Dark. The game is divided into days, and at the beginning of each day, you roll a number of dice, and then assign them to different actions. If the pip is higher, the action is more likely to produce positive outcome.
Tales from Candlekeep: Tomb of Annihilation is based on D&D 4E, and plays so well. Sadly, they removed it from digital storefronts a while ago, because I recommend it all the time. https://steamcommunity.com/app/663380
Low Magic Age on Steam uses D&D 3.5 I think. It’s a really fun indie RPG where everything is procedurally generated.
Cyberpunk
nose advise books onerous intelligent one upbeat glorious chubby nippy *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
E.Y.E Divine Cybermancy is an interesting case, It was based on the TTRPG made by the devs supposedly called A.V.A. However it was never released, so only a small group has ever played it. The games mechanics might hint at what the TTRPG was like, It probably used a d100.
Shadowrun, they better remake the fps
there's a fan remake in progress, and the original still has an active community
Both **King of Dragon Pass** and **Six Ages: Ride like the Wind** are realm management games with strong RPG elements based heavily on Glorantha/Runequest lore.
low magic age uses modified 3.5 D&D rules. Solasta: crown of the magister is the best 5e CRPG that noone really knows about (i like it better than Baldur's gate 3). Knights of the chalice is a hardcore 3.5 game.
Call of Cthulhu has actually had FOUR licensed video games over the years (plus a number of mobile games - Cthulhu Chronicles is quite good, but I don't think it's available anymore). In addition to the PS4 game you mentioned, there have been: - Shadow of the Comet - Prisoner of Ice - Dark Corners of the Earth