It seems like just about every video game you come across, there’s atabletop board game adaptationof it already available. It’s always fun to see how developers can effectively transfer the main mechanics and dynamics from a digital version to a tabletop edition, and it allows players who don’t normally play video games to check out the worlds they’ve been missing out on.
However, there are still some games that are without board game companions (if you can believe it), and it’s about time that changed. The following video games have systems that would work just as well as some of the current board games out there now.
8Disco Elysium
SinceDisco Elysiumwas designed with tabletop mechanics in mind and inspired byD&D, it’s imminent this game sees a version that brings the dystopian world of Elysium to players' tables. The game already establishes several core elements that would transition smoothly into analog, and having new narrative adventures and mysteries to solve will deepen the lore and immersion.
7Starfield
As listed above, Bethesda has had no trouble adapting its past IPs into board games, andStarfieldis another exceptional and ambitious RPG that can join them. Lots of the similar aesthetics seen in theFalloutboard game can be expanded here, as you’ll be building out the map of the star systems, setting up outposts, and getting to customize your ship like in Tuesday Knight Games' Mothership RPG.
6Lies Of P
It seems as though just about every Soulslike game is eligible for receiving a board game adaptation, and you can’t help but putLies of Pin that club. Its Ergo mechanics,intricate dark fantasy lore from the world of Pinocchio, Gothic areas, and Bloodborne aesthetics will make it the perfect follow-up board game for fans of the original game and see it go head-to-head with Bloodborne in the tabletop realm.
5Death Stranding
With the Social Strand System built into the game,Death Strandingalready has that key component perfect for a board game adaptation.
Hideo Kojima’s concept can easily be taken from the digital and have players work together in transforming the board to their advantage while passing skill checks to successfully deliver cargo across rough terrain and avoid enemy BTs. Plus, this is one of the few PlayStation titles to not receive a tabletop version.
4Alan Wake
No matter how perplexing and brain-breaking the story ofAlan Wakebecomes, the main objective is to free Alan from the Dark Place. Remedy can take inspiration from Alien Fate of the Nostromo and The Texas Chainsaw tabletop games in crafting an escape-style scenario where players assume Alanand the cast of characters from Alan Wake 2in helping each other escape while avoiding Scratch.
To incorporate manuscripts and make you feel like a writer, there can be a mechanic where you may piece together words.
3Dredge
There is a market for tabletop fishing games,Lovecraftian-inspired horrors, and archipelago exploration, soDredgecan certainly make its splash and impress.
You can really see how the mechanics from Dredge can carry over into existing systems already seen in board games of its kind, and players moving their ships around an archipelago map, catching fish, and avoiding sea monsters, makes for some competitive gameplay.
2Supermassive Games - The Quarry, Dark Pictures, And Until Dawn
Supermassive Games is known for horror games where your choices and decisions matter, leading to unpredictable circumstances for characters who are dealing with a variety of monsters.
This is the perfect recipe for a horror board game inspired by all of Supermassive’s eerie enemies and environments on one board, with mechanics like social deduction and tarot cards coming into play.
Expansions can also add places like the SS Ourang Medan and Blackwood Sanatorium.
1Hades
It’s surprising that there’s been noHadescard game made yet, as the hand-drawn visual style, colorful environments characters, weapons, and roguelike mechanics can be executed brilliantly in a tabletop vision.
Similar to God of War: The Card Game, players assume the characters of Zagreus and his allies in the Underworld to escape, or restart the game after someone in the party dies.
