10 Tabletop Games That Deserve A Video Game Adaptation

Summary

Tabletop games influence many video game genres today.
Certain tabletop franchises, like Frostgrave, have potential for video game adaptations.
Unique tabletop games like Turnip28 offer creative settings that could translate well to video games.

Tabletop games are regarded as the progenitors of many gaming genres players have come to know and love today. Without Dungeons And Dragons we’d have no RPGs, without Warhammer, no strategy games. Video gaming owes much to its more communal predecessor.

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With franchises such as Warhammer having multiple amazing video game adaptations, and video games like Halo getting tabletop adaptations, it seems that the fusion of the two is only becoming more common. Meanwhile there are dozens of smaller tabletop franchises, and a few within already popular settings, that could be massive on their own merit. Here are just ten of them.

10

Frostgrave

A Frozen Free For All

Ekaterina dmitry-burmak-fg-folio-fight frostgrave — Ekaterina Burmak Dmitry Burmak

Name: Frostgrave
Genre: Skirmish Wargame
Publisher: Osprey Publishing
Released: 2015

Set in the frozen city of Felstad, the former centre of some ancient empire. Warbands stalk the streets in search of magical treasure, lead by Wizards and battling both rival bands and the various monsters that stalk the snow covered streets. While the lore isn’t extensive, it is intriguing enough to get players invested.

Essentially Frostgrave would make the perfect setting for multiple genres of game. It could make for an interesting story driven RPG, a brutal dungeon delver, or even a new team based battle royale. There’s even the potential for a horror in there given the ancient empire’s dabbling in dark magic.

9

Gorkamorka

Orks, Orks, Orks

David gallagher gorkamorka — David Gallagher Games Workshop

Name: Gorkamorka
Genre: Skirmish Wargame
Publisher: Games Workshop
Released: 1997

Fans of Warhammer 40,000 will instantly recognise Gorkamorka as the wild and wacky spin-off that was part Mad Max and part religious war. Set on a world where Orks have crash landed and decimated the ecosystem, things have gotten a bit wacky.

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Gorkamorka has a bit of everything Goblin revolutionaries, warring Ork tribes, humans that seem to have gotten the idea to mimic the Orks in some weird fashion, and mutants. Far from the more serious strategy titles in the franchise, this could be a hilarious romp in the vein of the Borderlands franchise.]

8

A Song Of Ice And Fire

War, Politics, Fun.

Name: A Song Of Ice And Fire
Genre: Wargame
Publisher: Cool Mini Or Not
Released: 2017

With a new action video game adaptation of Game Of Thrones on the horizon, it would be a shame if game developers didn’t have a look at the already massive tabletop wargame set in the same universe. Something that’d easily translate to a strategy video game. With the beloved TV franchise backing it, an adaptation would likely be a success.

The Song Of Ice And Fire tabletop game is a unique take on the genre, requiring players both manage what is going on in the battle, and the politics behind the lines. A video game adaptation would allow players to take command of the many forces from the books. Including subfactions not present in the show such as the Queensmen and Kingsmen that are at odds in Stannis Baratheon’s army, changing the course of wars through careful tactics and brutal politicking.

7

Turnip28

Grimdark but weirder

Name: Turnip28
Genre: Wargame
Publisher:Max Fitzgerald
Released: 2020

A weird mix of the grimdark genre and Monty Python. In Turnip28 the world is strangled by some kind of eldritch vegetable. What humans are left subsist off of this plant, causing them to hallucinate and mutate. All that’s left of civilization are a bunch of babbling, vegetable worshipping, nutters, marching to war in the same manner as Napoleon did a thousand years ago.

Turnip28 is obviously a unique setting already but the game allows players to indulge in their creativity even further than most wargames. Being a miniature agnostic game means players really can create whatever they want. As for a video game adaptation, imagine a cross between Total War: Napoleon and Spore, or every cursed meme character in that uses Elden Ring’s deep customisation thrust into an eighteenth century war, it’d be hilarious.

6

Starfinder

Magic And Aliens

Name: Starfinder
Genre: Tabletop RPG
Publisher: Paizo
Released: 2017

The sister franchise to the successful Pathfinder series. Starfinder takes place in the same universe, as Pathfinder. While it adds new races and worlds it keeps a hard fantasy edge to everything, allowing players to play as traditional fantasy races alongside the new alien ones. Classes are revamped for the setting

Tabletop RPG Video Games That Are Not Based On dnds System pathfinder warhammer 40000 shadowrun

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This might be the easiest TTRPG to adapt. The Pathfinder franchise already features a series of beloved CRPGs. What better way to widen an audience then to give them a whole new genre while keeping the setting for veteran players?

5

Lancer

Who Doesn’t Love Mechs?

Name: Lancer
Genre: Tabletop RPG
Publisher: Massif Games, Dark Horse Comics
Released: 2019

Earth becomes uninhabitable following ecological collapse, and humanity escapes to the stars. Thousands of years later mankind has spread among the stars. Players take on the role of mech pilots, duking it out or allying with everything from corporate agents to eldritch beings.

As a setting Lancer feels fresh. While mech based sci fi in tabletop gaming is nothing new, (Battletech predates Warhammer 40,000 after all!) Lancer takes the concept and tries to turn it into something that would appeal to fans of both Dungeons And Dragons and Armored Core. It would make for an excellent RPG adaptation.

4

Malifaux

Steampunk, Horror, And Gunslingers

nguyen-mai-diem malifaux — nguyen mai diem Wyrd Games

Name: Malifaux
Genre: Skirmish Wargame
Publisher: Wyrd Miniatures
Released: 2009

Set on an alternate Earth run by magic, Malifaux centres around the titular mysterious city only accessible through interdimensional portals known as breaches. A treasure trove of magical artefacts for a world quickly losing its magic, brave adventurers, authoritarian guild soldiers, and greed fuelled smugglers all journey to the mysterious city. It feels almost like something out of Bioshock.

A steampunk setting with everything from gothic horror to crime syndicates, Malifaux is a brilliantly crafted setting with tons to explore. Due to the nature of the setting it could really be adapted into anything, but something story driven would certainly be welcome given the rich and brutal world it presents.

3

Warhammer The Horus Heresy

Warhammer 40,000’s origin story

Adrian Smith hh — Adrian Smith Games Workshop

Name: The Horus Heresy
Genre: Wargame
Publisher: Games Workshop
Released: 2012

This one might be cheating slightly, as there was a Horus Heresy mobile game set during the very first battle, and another based on the spin off board game Betrayal At Calth. However a game focused on the wider setting has yet to be realised. The Horus Heresy is essentially why Warhammer 40,000 is so dark.

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A game set in the Horus Heresy would need to be at scale. This was a time when the colossal Space Marine supersoldiers were cannon fodder, both sides unleashed dark age technology that could eviscerate worlds, and the mythical Primarchs battled each other in god-like duels. It’s probably best suited to a strategy but a brutal Battlefield One-esque shooter would also be on the cards.

2

Infinity

War Never Ends

Name: Infinity
Genre: Skirmish Wargame
Publisher: Corvus Belli
Released: 2005

Set in a future where mankind reached the stars prior to settling matters on Earth. Infinity imagines a world where cultures and nations from all over the world clash across space. Conglomerates of nations from Earth duke it out with renegade colonies, an AI that may be benevolent or ruling from the shadows, space nomads and alien civilisations.

With a setting so full of varied factions, potential narratives and awesome sci fi designs, Infinity needs more recognition than it gets. It might not be as well known as Warhammer but the setting alone should net it some interest from game devs.

1

Trench Crusade

Behold A Pale Horse

Mike Franchina Trench Crusade — Mike Franchina

Name: Trench Crusade
Genre: Skirmish Wargame
Publishers: Mike Franchina, Tuomas Pirinen, James Sheriff
Released: 2024

Exploding on to the scene in late 2024 via Kickstarter. Trench Crusade has taken the internet by storm since its arrival. Set in an alternate 1914, where hell has invaded Earth. Mankind now battles the eldritch forces of damnation and their mortal servants. Trench Crusade is a mysterious, brutal mix of fantasy, alternate history, and some sci-fi sprinkled in for good measure. Soldiers die in the most horrific ways imaginable, in droves, all to buy humanity a little more time or bring about their destruction.

The game focuses on small warbands duking it out in no-man’s-land. They might be fighting over a holy shrine or stockpile of weapons. With carcasses of the smallest haemonculi to the largest blessed tanks littering the battlefield. Trench Crusade could work on so many levels, from strategy to RPG. It’s a setting ripe for adaptation.