For me:

  1. Shadow Over Mystara

  2. Pool Of Radiance

  3. Neverwinter Nights

SOM is my favorite arcade game of all time as well as beat 'em up, the cherry on top is that it’s a D&D game. Does it follow the rules and mechanics of the game? Hell no, but it’s fun in that it’s the soul of the game mixed with fighting game mechanics.

Pool Of Radiance is the only Gold Box game I’ve beat so far. It’s primitive but it really does the rules and campaign of AD&D justice. Best to play it with the Gold Box Companion that maps the game for you.

NWN is great since it’s 3D D&D while like POR it sticks to the rules of 3.5 D&D. Plus it allows you to make your own campaign if you wish or play fan made ones (some of which are really good and outshine Bioware’s own).

  • LaGG_3 [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    5·
    2 months ago
    1. Baldur’s Gate 1
    2. Planescape: Torment
    3. I hate to admit it, but I still like Baldur’s Gate 3 a lot lmao

    NWN was my shit back in the day. I have great memories of playing with friends online, and we goofed around griefing a my-hairdo RP server lol.

    Baldur’s Gate 2 is super good, I just don’t think I like the combat of high level DnD, let alone ADnD specifically.

    NWN2 is super underrated, and the expansions are cool.

    Uhhhh also shout-out to those stupid Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance hack and slash games that were kinda fun to split screen co-op.

    • Speaker [e/em/eir]@hexbear.netEnglish
      6·
      2 months ago

      PS:T is True Kino Gaming. I wish Tides of Numenera had captured the magic in the same way, but it scratches a similar itch if you like very narrative heavy games.

      • LaGG_3 [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
        5·
        2 months ago

        Yeah, problematic bits of Chris Avellone aside, PS:T is the best execution of the same ass story he recycles every time.

        I’ll always remember the Ranged Touch boys quitting that game lol. I enjoyed Tides of Numenera enough to finish a playthrough, but it always seemed like a game I’d never want to replay.

        • Speaker [e/em/eir]@hexbear.netEnglish
          5·
          2 months ago

          I only wanted to play a second time because there was a quest I finished but could never turn in in the first area because events transpired when I took a nap one time.

      • LaGG_3 [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
        3·
        2 months ago

        Gah I wish I had a pc or a console to play it.

        I hope you get to play it in the near future! If you’re nostalgic for all the old ass games, you’ll probably enjoy it. It’s not a perfect game, but it does a good job of providing a TTRPG experience on a computer.

        I forgot Icewind Dale, which has a ton of fun subclasses on the recent EE

            • SorosFootSoldier [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
              3·
              2 months ago

              I still need to dip my toe into the Gold Box games lol

              They’re old, ngl, and kind of cumbersome to play but if you want a game that let’s you do some ad&d 1st edition (or was it second, memory is hazy) it’s great for that. Like most CRPGs the beginning is a tough slog but by the end you’ve got levels under your belt and gear you can clean up. Protip: play single classes don’t multiclass because it takes forever to level.

  • SnowySkyes [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
    5·
    2 months ago

    1. Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous

    2. Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader

    3. Pathfinder; Kingmaker

    I refuse to acknowledge Hasbro/WotC and its games. Fuck them.

  • barrbaric [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    4·
    2 months ago
    1. Baldur’s Gate 3
    2. Lords of Waterdeep (the boardgame)
    3. Baldur’s Gate 1

    BG3 is an all around solid game with a decent amount of polish, and while the main story is pretty boring and predictable, as with most Bioware-style games the real story is in the companions, and they’re a good enough selection that most players will be able to pick out a party without having to use anyone they really hate. I would still say that I had more fun talking about the game than actually playing it.

    I played Lords of Waterdeep with the Skullport expansion exactly once at a friend’s house and it was alright. It’s a worker placement boardgame and tbh the branding didn’t really do much for me because I don’t know or care about anything in the Forgotten Realms, much less Waterdeep specifically.

    BG1 is a boring game with a simple and uninteresting story, and really does a great job of instilling a hatred of the Vancian casting system in the player. Turns out a 1:1 implementation of AD&D’s rules makes for a bad game, who knew. The only reason this takes #3 is because I actually finished it.

    Also started but never finished BG2 and NWN2 (didn’t get far in either), and played a little of the Neverwinter MMO and DDO but stopped quickly because neither were good. I actually own Planescape Torment but have never actually brought myself to play it. EDIT: saw someone mention BG Dark Alliance and I did also play that for several hours at a friend’s house once. It should probably be in third but the fact that I forgot means it obviously didn’t make much of an impact.

    I will close by saying that WOTC should canonically blow up the Sword Coast so that they can set games elsewhere for once.

    • SorosFootSoldier [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      Bard’s Tale baby. Maybe not strictly a D&D game but we all know that it’s a D&D game. I never bought this but I rented it about a zillion times in order to beat it back when that was a thing, lmao.

      From what I’ve seen this game looks hard. Are you talking about the NES version?

  • SpiderFarmer [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    3·
    2 months ago

    1. Neverwinter Nights (never beat it, just love the vibes)

    2. Baldur’s Gate 3 I’m enjoying it so far.

    3. Baldur’s Gate 2 (or whichever had Drizzt in it.)

    (I’ve played a lot of paper DnD, including 2.0, but never got much into the video games.)