Video Game Influences

[RoiC.]

I'll admit that what got me into RPGs in the first place was the Baldur's Gate series. When I first played it (2002 or 2003) I was 10 years old (and English is not my first language), so I didn't get very far, but I was so enchanted with that world, that it just drew me into this D&D thingy, and RPG games (mostly CRPGs, but also tabletops).


What do you take from your favorite video games into your tabletop sessions? From more simple, mechanical ideas (like offering the players certain options based on their traits and skills without checks, a-la Black Isle/Obsidian), to implementing entire plot elements, reskinned for your game. Doesn't even have to be taken from RPGs... For example, my DM replaced the Ash Zombies in D&D 5e's Lost Mine of Phandelver with zombies from The Last of Us, because it's his favorite game.


Any specifics? Ideas you've been thinking about using but still haven't? Very successful implementations? Complete failures? Everything goes; share your experiences. Thank you

 

[Jhaelen]

I took some inspiration from 'Guild Wars - Nightfall' for my 3e campaign.
I really liked the idea of another plane of existence slowly spilling over into the material world, spreading and slowly turning it into a part of said plane, unless, of course the heroes intervene and save the day...

 

[Aldarc]

I took some inspiration from 'Guild Wars - Nightfall' for my 3e campaign.
I really liked the idea of another plane of existence slowly spilling over into the material world, spreading and slowly turning it into a part of said plane, unless, of course the heroes intervene and save the day...

And the campaign story for Guild Wars Nightfall was written by D&D legend Jeff Grubb himself.

 

[Michael Silverbane]

Most of the stuff that I've ported into tabletop from video games has been mechanical in nature

Mana Potions
Wizards, sorcerers, and psychics can replenish spell slots / power points mid-adventure with these, which are fairly common, along with very common healing potions keeps the PCs in adventure mode (if they do a good job at efficiently overcoming challenges and marshaling their resources, they can keep adventuring without a break almost indefinitely).

Crafting
Magic item crafting is not feat based, but skill based, using resources collected during adventures. This helps to keep the mundanes from needing to rely on the casters quite as much, at least for their cool stuff.

Respeccing
Changing abilities gained through leveling is a simple matter of paying a few hundred xp for it.

 

[Derren]

4Es Taunt ability or the general idea of tank characters whos only purpose is to be hit.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

The 5E game I ran borrowed heavily from the Final Fantasy series.

There may have been a platforming section where the party had to navigate past a series of boulders cascading down a switchbacks, which was inspired by Donkey Kong.

There was one session where the party explored down a well, only to come out the other side on a distant island that was populated by dinosaurs and evil turtle-folk. No mushrooms to speak of, however.

On more than one occasion, a trip across town has turned into an extended fight against waves of thugs, as from Final Fight or Double Dragon.

 

[Teemu]

4Es Taunt ability or the general idea of tank characters whos only purpose is to be hit.

That's earlier than 4e. 3.5 has a feat called Goad, which is a taunt. Interestingly enough, the 3.0 based 2002 release Neverwinter Nights game has a skill called Taunt, which is an addition to the computer game version of the rule set.

Even Pathfinder has a taunt feat, Antagonize.

 

[Jhaelen]

And the campaign story for Guild Wars Nightfall was written by D&D legend Jeff Grubb himself.

Well, that might explain why the story worked so well for a D&D campaign!
Especially considering he's also the author of the original 'Manual of the Planes'.

 

[Aldarc]

Well, that might explain why the story worked so well for a D&D campaign!
Especially considering he's also the author of the original 'Manual of the Planes'.

He was also responsible for the creation of the asura race of magitech inventors in Guild Wars, and you can see the influence of his Dragonlance gnomes on them. I play Guild Wars 2 with several people from my table, but they have not played any of the Guild Wars 1 campaigns, so I may have to consider pilfering from them for future campaign ideas.

Although I have not had a chance to GM it, I have planned a Numenera game around a reskinned Diablo 1/Torchlight. A town, along with its lords and aeon priests, are feeling a dark influence on their minds. They are influenced by an AI extraplanar entity imprisoned at the bottom of a spaceship that has been long buried beneath their mining town. This entity has even reached out to influence local creatures, abhumans, and such, driving them to aggression. But it has also used its pawns to begin reactivating the ship, which it uses to further influence the world around it, such as releasing creatures held in stasis from their slumber or letting into this world horrifying aliens from other planes and worlds. Numenera allows all sorts of fun science fantasy twists to creating a "mad house" dungeon of horror and exploration. I may use some of the supplemental rules on madness and horror from the Cypher System Rulebook and Lovecraftian Numenera glimmer.

 

[Escef]

My longest running campaign world (which I'm dusting off, updating, and doing a lot of background write-up on) was inspired by a blend of a book on the history of witchcraft, the old DragonLance 5th Age, Final Fantasy Tactics, and Xenogears.