Digital Tabletop Game Adaptation

"Card games and board games were invented because someone wanted to imagine a big awesome fight between two scary dragons and cards were the best solution available at the time to visualize that. But now we actually have the technology to visualize an actual big awesome fight between two scary dragons and we're using it to depict the fucking cards."

— Zero Punctuation, review of Card Shark

A digital adaptation of an existing tabletop game. While most fans of these games enjoy the feeling of playing them physically, there are still many reasons one might want to play them digitally. It allows you to play with friends you're unable to meet physically. It's a way to play a game your friends don't like. It's very convenient for competitive play, as you can play with people all over the world without needing to travel, and the platform can take care of things like rankings, leaderboards, and tournaments. If you like asynchronous play, digital is your only option. For games with cumbersome set-ups or rules, it can be very convenient to have the computer take care of all that. Finally, some digital options provide a cheap way to test out a game before buying it or can help you keep costs down if you want to play a lot of different games.

Some games are easier to implement into the digital world than others. A Roll-and-Move or Abstract Strategy Game requires little effort to code (A.I. notwithstanding) and is unlikely to have control problems. However, games that take advantage of their physical nature are much harder to emulate, especially Dexterity Games.

Digital board game adaptations come in four flavours, though it's not uncommon for one game to use multiple of them.

The board game website adaptation is an automated implementation of the game on a site like yucata.de (fully free) or Board Game Arena (more games to choose from, though many of the popular ones require a paid subscription). This is a popular and affordable way to play board games. However, the framework of these sites tends not to work for other forms of tabletop games like like Collectible Card Games and Tabletop RPGs.

The dedicated application (sometimes dedicated website) is an application dedicated entirely to the game. They tend to require a one-time purchase rather than a subscription, although expansions may be made available as Downloadable Content. They're typically the most polished option and may come with bonuses. Rarely, these appear in small bundles (especially if they're released on physical media). A free-to-play variation of this is the preferred approach for Collectible Card Games, as they need a dedicated platform to handle their card economy, and tend to use a Freemium model to attract players and hope they end up buying cards.

The sandbox mod is a Game Mod for a board game sandbox like Tabletop Simulator or Tabletopia. This approach has two major differences from the above: The first is that while a few games have paid official mods or mods with the Approval of God, many — if not most — are unofficial Fan Remakes. The second is that these (especially unofficial ones) tend to have less automation, which gives them a learning curve and makes them more cumbersome to play. For instance, if you want to play a card that says "Gain 5 HP", you'd have to select the card, move it to the discard pile, and then increase your HP by 5 manually.^note Most other implementations would just let you click on the card to have the game give you 5 HP and put it in the discard pile for you. On the positive side, less automation gives you more freedom to play the game exactly the way you want, as you can remove a Game-Breaker or play with your preferred house rules without having to outright modify the game.

The mini-game adaptation is the simplest of the four and tends to have the least polish. Don't expect much more than a basic implementation of the game with a relatively simple AI and/or a local multiplayer mode. These typically appear in mini-game compilations, or as a fun little distraction from a game's main campaign. They almost always use games in the public domain, as the publisher doesn't want to shell out licensing fees for something that was never meant to be a major draw. They also tend to choose games most people know already or can learn fairly quickly, like chess, checkers, poker, Crazy Eights or Concentration.^note Though some of these take a lot of time to learn to play well!

Sister Tropes include Simulation Game and Sports Game (specifically the type that aims to simulate the sport). See also Mad Marble Maze, which sometimes simulates the physical wooden game, and Memory Match Mini-Game, which can amout to just a Concentration clone. Compare Digital Pinball Tables and Themed Stock Board Game. See also the Role-Playing Game genre, which often aims to emulate the Tabletop RPG feel, and might be based on pen-and-paper RPGs.

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Examples

Board Games

• 7 Wonders and its two-player spin-off 7 Wonders Duel both have Board Game Arena implementations, as well as paid, dedicated apps for Android and iOS devices.
• Azul and the Master Chocolatier variant are available on Board Game Arena.
• Candy Land had a CD-game adaptation where you could play the game against a friend, or just click around and visit the various locations to talk to the characters and play minigames. For example, visiting Frostine will let you make your own ice cream, and visiting Grandma Nut will let you interact with her garden.
• Carcassonne has several digital adaptations including for PC by Deep Silver, iOS devices by The Coding Monkeys, the Xbox 360 by Sierra Studios, and the Nintendo Switch by Asmodee Digital.
• Chess has numerous digital implementations, both in dedicated games and as a mini-game. The preferred platforms for digital chess are Chess.com and its open-source competitor Lichess.
• Chess 2 was originally a chess variant played with a normal chess set and the Chess 2 cards to explain the new rules and new armies. A video game version was later released for the Ouya, followed by a Steam version.
• Clue has had several official dedicated adaptations over the years, including an MS-DOS version of Clue: Master Detective. A current version is available on Steam and mobile app stores. Downloadable Content is available that reskins the game into other settings such as Wild West or Sherlock Holmes, but with no actual change in gameplay.
• Dominion was originally available on Board Game Arena, but it was replaced with a dedicated website and a dedicated application. Both are free-to-play — you have free access to the base game and limited access to the expansions, but you have to pay for accessing the expansions as you please.
• Everdell has a dedicated app.
• Forgotten Waters is a Zig-Zagged case, as the board game can only be played with the companion app (which can be downloaded for offline play). The rolls made in the game are plugged into the app and results are narrated aloud, describing how players succeed, fail, and proceed to new locations.
• Gloomhaven received a full PC game adaptation, which it was well suited for as it has many elements that are about as close to a Turn-Based Strategy video game as a tabletop game could get.
• Jaipur can be played on Board Game Arena. It also has a paid, dedicated app for iOS and Android that features a campaign mode.
• Monopoly has had many video game adaptations over the years. Among the consoles the game has been released for include the Sega Master System, Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Genesis, Nintendo 64, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
• Mysterium has dedicated Steam and mobile versions available, with a limited single-player campaign.
• Pandemic had a Steam and mobile release, but it was delisted in 2022 because the studio felt that "we no longer feel the current quality and reliability of the game is on par with what Pandemic deserves on digital platforms". On the bright side, a Pandemic adaptation was added to Board Game Arena in 2021.
• Res Arcana can be played on Board Game Arena.
• Root has digital editions for PC, iOS, Android and Nintendo Switch.
• Scythe has a dedicated official version on Steam and mobile, with the "Invaders from Afar" expansion available as DLC.
• Small World has a dedicated official version on Steam and mobile, with expansions available as DLC.
• Stratego has had several video game adaptations over the years, beginning with one published by Accolade in 1990.
• Talisman is available on most modern platforms, with its vast host of expansion sets available as Downloadable Content to the point where the full expansion bundle can cost over twenty times the base cost of the game.
• Terraforming Mars has a dedicated official version on Steam and mobile, with expansions available as DLC.
• Ticket to Ride and the First Journey kid version both have dedicated official implementations on Steam as well as for iOS and Android, with many of the expansion maps available as DLC.
• Werewolf (1997) can be played on the dedicated MafiaScum forums, as it's a Social Deduction Game that revolves around discussions and simple actions that can be performed by post. Unlike most board game adaptations, MafiaScum requires human moderators to take care of things like PMing people secret information.
• Wingspan has a Board Game Arena implementation. It also has a dedicated app that includes polish like animating the bird pictures and letting you listen to their sounds. There's also an official release for the sandbox Tabletopia.

Card Games

• Munchkin has a dedicated app on Steam, and mobile.
• Sentinels of the Multiverse has a dedicated application adaptation.
• Uno has an app for iOS and Android. It also had a Facebook Games application.

Collectible Card Games

• The game Card Wars from the Adventure Time episode of the same name underwent a Defictionalization into a real-life card game, with there being two digital versions created (Card Wars and Card Wars Kingdom). However, the series has been sadly discontinued with both games being removed from the app store in 2020.
• Cardfight!! Vanguard has had a few Japan-only simulators released for the Nintendo 3DS, but the most well known simulator is Cardfight!! Vanguard Dear Days, a standalone app for the Nintendo Switch and PC based on the second reboot and the only game in the series released in English. It's mostly known for being absurdly pricey for a card game simulator, boasting a USD $70 price tag at launch compounded with USD $70 Downloadable Content for new cards.
• Magic: The Gathering has the free-to-play Magic: The Gathering Arena implementation. There's also the older Magic: The Gathering Online, which is not free-to-play, but has a redemption policy for collections of virtual cards.
• Pokémon can be played online on Pokémon Trading Card Game Online. Some physical products come with codes that can be redeemed for digital cards. This game was later succeeded by Pokémon Trading Card Game Live, which follows much the same principle with a revised presentation.
• Weiss Schwarz has had exactly one video game adaptation, Weiss Schwarz Portable for the PSP.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!:
  • The Yu-Gi-Oh! Official Card Game/Trading Card Game has many, many, many simulators released over the years. Although several of the first few games were merely imaginings of what Kazuki Takahashi's version of "Duel Monsters" would look like with a semblance of an actual ruleset, from the Game Boy Advance era onwards most subsequent releases were parallels of the real card game, with each new title bringing forth a new campaign, new characters, and most notably, new cards in addition to the previous ones. The last fully paid, standalone release of a simulator was Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution, an Updated Re-release of Legacy of the Duelist with the Master Rules April 2020 Revision and every card up to "Structure Deck: Shaddoll Showdown". Since then, the release of paid simulators has been retired in favor of Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel, a free-to-play simulator that is the first Yu-Gi-Oh! simulator game to have a consistently updated card pool, much like Magic the Gathering: Arena.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links is an inversion; the main format, Speed Duel, is technically a part of the OCG/TCG but is adapted from the Duel Terminal arcade machine, which created the Speed Duel format. The success of Duel Links would inspire Konami of America to print a real counterpart of Speed Duel with updated rules inspired by Duel Links.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! Rush Duel has the Nintendo Switch games Yu-Gi-Oh! RUSH DUEL: Dawn of the Battle Royale!! (for Yu-Gi-Oh! SEVENS) and Dawn of the Battle Royale!! Let's Go! GO RUSH!! (for Yu Gi Oh Go Rush), which fulfill the status of paid simulators for Yu-Gi-Oh! in lieu of the paid OCG/TCG simulators. Also, Duel Links now qualifies as one for Rush Duel as of its September 2023 update, although it is not a 1-to-1 conversion of physical Rush Duel since it tweaks the rules to function slightly closer to Speed Duel.

Tabletop RPGs

• Star Wars d20 forms the core of the ruleset of Knights of the Old Republic and its sequel The Sith Lords. The game setting itself is descended primarily from the Tales of the Jedi comic book series, with the odd Call-Forward to the film series and the rest of Star Wars Legends.
• Dungeons & Dragons:
  • The Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale series are both set in the Forgotten Realms setting and use 2nd Edition. Planescape: Torment uses the same ruleset but is set in, well, Planescape—specifically, Sigil.
  • Neverwinter Nights, also a Forgotten Realms adaptation, uses a slightly modified form of 3rd Edition as its rules engine. The sequel Neverwinter Nights 2 uses 3.5 Edition.
  • Baldur's Gate III, a Distant Sequel to the BioWare games by Larian Studios, uses 5th Edition.
• Owlcat Games has developed a series of isometric RPGs adapted from tabletop RPGs.
  • Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous are both CRPGs adapted from Pathfinder adventure paths and use mostly accurate reproductions of Pathfinder 1st Edition for their rules (bar the odd Balance Buff or Nerf and the fact they slimmed down the skill list immensely), even featuring fully turn-based gameplay instead of Real-Time with Pause as was the case in all previous d20-based CRPGs.
  • Owlcat's third game adapts Rogue Trader, a tabletop RPG Spin-Off of the Warhammer 40,000 franchise, into Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader.

Video Games

Dedicated Applications

• Battle Chess, a '90s series of computer chess games featuring animated chess pieces brutally murdering each other in the event of capture.
• Chessmaster, a digitized version of Chess where you can play against CPUs or other people using various versions of the game.
• LEGO Chess is a LEGO-themed chess game that features a story mode with a Western and a Pirate story with matching chess sets. Capturing pieces during Story Mode plays some cartoony shorts to play to show exactly how these pieces take each other.
• Play Magnus is a chess app with the gimmick that the AI opponents represent Magnus Carlsen and other top players at various ages.

Games Featuring Mini-Game Adaptations

• 102 Dalmatians: Puppies to the Rescue has a checkers mini-game and a mini-game that simulates a real-life Mad Marble Maze game.
• The Nintendo DS game 50 Classic Games, its sequel 50 More Classic Games and its 3DS sequel 50 Classic Games 3D feature classic games like Domino, chess, Blackjack and Mahjong.
• Clubhouse Games is a Nintendo DS game featuring tabletop games from all over the world, such as including chess, Shōgi and Backgammon. The Nintendo Switch follow-up Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics has a similar selection, and adds some games like Hanafuda and mancala.
• The Licensed Game based on Jul i Skomakergata features a Ludo adaptation, though it can only accommodate two players (you against a friend or a computer-controlled Officer Klinke). It's a reference to the episode where the main character secretly meets his friend Klinke to play Ludo. There's also a Concentration mini-game where you try to find matching pairs of shoes (the main character is a shoemaker).
• Kirby and the Forgotten Land has a Mad Marble Maze mini-game that starts off as a simulation of the real-life variation.
• Neopets: Amongst the many games to play were virtual versions of card and board games like Sakhmet Solitaire, Cellblock (Connect Four), and Puzzle Adventure (which is basically Reversi). Sadly, many of them were taken down when Adobe Flash was removed.
• One of the licensed Pettson and Findus games features a digital food-themed Battleship clone that you can play against Pettson or a friend.
• The original licensed Pinchcliffe Grand Prix game features a chess mini-game with voice clips from Sheikh Ben Redic Fy-Fazan, who's seen playing the game in the movie. It also has checkers and mahjong (solitaire).
• Red Dead Redemption and its sequel, being set in the waning days of the American Old West, feature gambling minigames in the saloons of the towns the protagonists can visit. Poker and blackjack can be played in both games, while the former game includes liar's dice and the latter has dominoes.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • The DS Updated Re-release of Super Mario 64 comes with a collection of minigames you can play by yourself or with friends, attained by catching rabbits found throughout the game. Luigi's mini-games are digital versions of card games like poker (Picture Poker) and roulette (Mushroom Roulette). Also, Yoshi's "Loves Me...?" mini-game is a variation on single-pile Nim.
  • New Super Mario Bros.: The "Table" category of minigames features digital versions of card and board games like blackjack (Luigi-Jack), Texas Hold-'em (Luigi's Thrilling Cards), and Reversi (Bob-Omb Reverse). Some of them were carried over from Super Mario 64 DS, and some were new additions.
• The Like a Dragon series has a few tabletop minigames, such as Shōgi and poker.

Tabletop Simulation Sandboxes

• Tabletopia is a free-to-play sandbox virtual table that can be downloaded for free or just played on its website. The games are officially licensed adaptations. The website has a paid subscription required to access the Premium games, and the Steam release has some paid games.
• Tabletop Playground aims to be an improved version of Tabletop Simulator .
• The PC game Tabletop Simulator is a physics simulator designed for tabletop games. It comes with 15 well-known games like chess, and you can download mods to get more. The company has partnered with publishers to release a few paid, official game adaptations. You can also implement your own game ideas if that's your thing. The physics engine lets you play like in real life, and even flip the table.

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