Tabletop gaming saved videogame RPGs

Tabletop gaming saved videogame RPGs | PC Gamer Skip to main content Open menu Close main menu PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES US Edition UK US Canada Australia Subscribe Sign in View Profile Sign out Search Search PC Gamer Games Hardware News Reviews Guides Video Forum More PC Gaming Show PC Gamer Clips Software Codes Coupons Movies & TV Magazine Newsletter Affiliate links Meet the team Community guidelines About PC Gamer PC Gamer Magazine SubscriptionWhy subscribe?Subscribe to the world’s #1 PC gaming magTry a single issue or save on a subscriptionIssues delivered straight to your door or device From$1Subscribe now Don’t miss these RPG Cara Ellison, senior narrative designer on Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 before Paradox switched developers, discusses her love of Troika’s original RPG: ‘Everyone on the team helped really make that maximum goth’ RPG You’ve never heard of it, but a Russian studio made a fantasy take on original Fallout way back in 2001, and it honestly kind of rules RPG Esoteric Ebb isn’t just the best Disco since Disco, it’s the closest anyone’s come to the magic of tabletop D&D in a videogame RPG It’s only March, but I’m calling it: Esoteric Ebb is 2026’s best RPG and the first worthy successor to Disco Elysium RPG The OG Baldur’s Gates are freshly patched, and you can pick them up with 500+ hours of other CRPGs for $23 right now Games The best indie games on PC RPG The best RPGs on PC RPG You can blame some of Deus Ex: Invisible War’s console limitations on the publisher’s ‘weird theories that FPS games don’t sell or RPGs don’t sell’ Roguelike Two of Mewgenics’ most memorable areas were directly inspired by a brutal and brilliant tabletop RPG RPG Divinity: everything we know about Larian’s ‘most ambitious RPG yet’ Games PC Gamer’s Game of the Year Awards 2025 RPG The only CRPG using D&D’s original setting is finally on Steam, with fan patches and quality-of-life fixes pre-installed RPG ‘We lost things such as physics in games:’ The dev behind my most anticipated RPG thinks players are craving more interactive games, not just ‘moving around in a static 3D environment’ RPG Warhammer 40k: Dark Heresy might just have everything I want from a CRPG RPG The dev behind my top upcoming RPG is a Hungarian chef who thought ‘if not now, then when?’ and learned coding from scratch to make his dream ‘eurojank’ masterpiece PopularNEW: PC Gamer Clips!MarathonArc RaidersBest PC gearQuizzes Games RPG Tabletop gaming saved videogame RPGs Features By Fraser Brown published 7 March 2026 RPGs have evolved by embracing their history, and we’re incredibly lucky that they did. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. (Image credit: Larian) Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter PC Gamer Get the PC Gamer Newsletter Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Want to add more newsletters? Every Friday GamesRadar+ Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you’re going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them. 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From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we’ve got you covered. Signup + Once a month SFX Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month! Signup + An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter Dungeon MasterWelcome to Dungeon Master, PC Gamer’s regular RPG column, where Online Editor Fraser Brown (and guests) delves into PC gaming’s most beloved and enduring genre. Grab a seat in our badly-lit tavern and please ignore the goblin puke.The journey made by the RPG genre over the last few decades is yet more evidence that time is cyclical. In the ’80s and ’90s, exceptional RPGs like Ultima and Baldur’s Gate took the mechanics and player agency of tabletop games like D&D and deftly adapted them for (mostly) singleplayer romps, nestled inside our big, grey desktops.But as RPGs became big business and tabletop gaming remained stuck as a niche (albeit a substantial niche), the genre was transformed. The isometric CRPGs designed by studios like BioWare, it was decided, were old school. It was time for them to be usurped.Real-time, action-based combat became the norm, accompanied by cinematic storytelling and only the most epic of stakes. Console audiences became the focus, and even important PC gaming studios started making concessions. And, for a time, we were mostly OK with it. You may like The best RPGs on PC Divinity: Original Sin 2’s brilliant armor system is one of a kind in RPGs, and I’m bummed we’ll apparently never see it again It’s only March, but I’m calling it: Esoteric Ebb is 2026’s best RPG and the first worthy successor to Disco Elysium (Image credit: ZA/UM)But tabletop is back, baby! And it has been for a while. The ridiculous popularity of live play tabletop sessions and the increasingly low barrier for entry into game development has filled the sails of this venerable genre with a huge gust. And now, studios big and small are doing fascinating, creative things with their RPGs, and many of them—certainly the best ones—owe a debt to tabletop gaming.My latest obsession is Esoteric Ebb, a D&D take on Disco Elysium—which itself functions very much like a tabletop game, full of skill checks for even mundane things, like kicking a mailbox, and an absurd degree of player agency. The sheer breadth of options in both these games, and their unparalleled react