Skip To...
Larian Studios recently announced that the smash success of Baldur’s Gate 3 will also, unfortunately, be the last Dungeons & Dragons IP the Belgian video game studio works with. On the surface, that seems like a major blow to the gaming world and to fans of BG3, but this actually presents an opportunity for Larian to take the amazing tabletop adaptation system utilized in its recent wildly successful game and translate it to other fantastic tabletop RPGs in need of this kind of video game. When it comes to possible tabletop RPG franchises that Larian Studios could be working with, there are a number of names that immediately spring to mind.
Wraith: The Oblivion
For any tabletop players who want to dig further into this gaming world past Dungeons & Dragons, Paradox’s World of Darkness series is a name that will immediately spring up in most recommendations. Rather than the medieval fantasy realm most picture when imagining tabletop RPG adventures, World of Darkness is set in a version of the modern era full of mythical and nightmarish creatures. The different books associated with the series each contain different monsters, with Wraith: The Oblivion being one of the most popular World of Darkness books from the original run. Larian taking the dice-rolling system of Baldur’s Gate 3 and transferring it into a much darker game like this where the players are all ghosts trying to navigate the afterlife would be an incredibly interesting use of this system.
Geist: The Sin-Eaters
Geist: The Sin-Eaters holds similarities to Wraith: The Oblivion in a lot of ways. The game is a part of Paradox’s World of Darkness series, now titled Chronicles of Darkness, and it similarly deals with lots and lots of death. In this game, however, players aren’t the spirits of the recently deceased but rather spirits that have actually returned to the land of the living as Sin-Eaters. There are a lot of different stories within both World of Darkness and Chronicles of Darkness that Larian Studios could play around with, and there’s some different lore and mechanics separating the versions as well. If Larian Studios was attached to this series, it could produce amazing tabletop adaptations for years to come.
Starfinder
The first games players typically hear about when it comes to “games related to Dungeons & Dragons” are very often Paizo’s Pathfinder and its sci-fi twin Starfinder. It makes sense, considering the game began as a series of adventures in D&D 3.5, but Starfinder has become much more than that nowadays. If Larian Studios wants a fantasy world just as rich in lore and possibilities as the one it just had with Wizards of The Coast, look no further than here. This game feels like the galaxies of Star Wars combining with the magic and fantasy of D&D‘s Spelljammer setting.
Alien
Gamers have been waiting on another classic video game in Ridley Scott’s legendary horror/sci-fi universe since Alien: Isolation and it unfortunately doesn’t seem to be coming anytime soon, but it maybe could if Larian Studios got ahold of the rights to the Alien tabletop RPG from 2019. Swedish game makers Free League Publishing did a superb job crafting a tabletop horror experience that sends players through all of the emotions that come with this situation without making them feel completely helpless. A Larian version of this game would expand the Alien world for many while striking fear through its stress and panic systems.
Blades in the Dark
The gaming world is in dire need of a new heist game. Players still aren’t totally happy with the results of Payday 3, and there really isn’t anywhere else to turn at the moment (Is Monaco 2 ever coming?). That’s where Blades in the Dark could come in. A tabletop RPG system for a group of thieves committing heists in a Victorian English setting feels like an immediate win. It combines all the intensity and clever planning of a heist with the hilarity and spontaneity that comes with the rolls of a tabletop game. If Larian Studios could translate the way Blade in the Dark pulls this off into a video game, then Starbreeze might just wind up left in the dust.
