The Best and Most 'Stealable' Mechanics from Tabletop RPGs

Evan Hill explores innovative mechanics from tabletop roleplaying games and how digital game designers can adapt them.

This 2023 Game Narrative Summit session explores unique and innovative mechanics in the tabletop roleplaying game world, and provides jumping-off points for designers to implement and experiment with them in their own games. Evan Hill, Senior Area Designer at Obsidian, introduces attendees to the wide and strange world of tabletop RPGs, and discusses all the obvious and secret ways the genre has influenced the goals and designs of digital games (for example: how computer roleplaying games work to capture the experience of having a Game Master). Evan also outlines the experimental nature of the talk, looking for new innovations and adaptations that can be transported to digital game design. GDC returns to San Francisco this March 18-22, 2024! For more information, be sure to visit our website and follow the #GDC2024 hashtag on social media. Subscribe to the GDC newsletter and get regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or RSS. Join the GDC mailing list: gdconf.com/subscribe Follow GDC on Twitter: twitter.com/Official_GDC GDC talks cover a range of developmental topics including game design, programming, audio, visual arts, business management, production, online games, and much more. We post a fresh GDC video every day. Subscribe to the channel to stay on top of regular updates, and check out GDC Vault for thousands of more in-depth talks from our archives.