RPG's to board games and going full circle.

[darjr]

The forthcoming Castle Ravenloft board game from WotC is inspired by D&D and roleplaying games and also inspired by games like 'Betrayal at the House on the Hill'.

I played the game that inspired that board game, Chill 'Black Morn Mannor'. From Pacesetter games it was inspired by the Chill roleplaying game and set in that universe.

It's a very fun game and really is similar to Betrayal while also being much simpler.

I've never heard of the game before and suspected that Betrayal was inspired a little bit by rpg's but had no idea how much.

 

[Stormonu]

TSR has tried this in the past, with spotty results. Don't forget the fairly successful Dungeon! boardgame and the horrid Dragonstrike game (I own it for completeness, but it's pretty bad).

Late in the 90's, TSR also came out with the boxed sets for D&D (D&D ruleset for 1st-5th, Dragon's Den, Goblin's Lair and Haunted Tower). They were D&D, but also board games as well (you put the poster-sized maps face up for the players to romp through and some of the mechanics were simplified to fit a boardgame experience - I'm planning to take my eldest son through them here shortly).

If they do the Ravenloft board game well, I think it will inspire people to possibly look at the RPG. At the same time though, a poor version may simply be forgotten. I'm certainly hoping for the former, as I have a great love of Ravenloft.