Dungeons & Dragons invented the role-playing game, then spent a decade watching computers imitate it without permission. When TSR finally licensed the real thing to Strategic Simulations Inc. in 1987, the resulting Gold Box line put actual AD&D rules, THAC0 and all, into a million homes. Since then the license has produced the genre's grandest cathedral (Baldur's Gate II), its strangest masterpiece (Planescape: Torment), its most faithful adaptation (The Temple of Elemental Evil), a long wilderness of mediocre action games, and finally Baldur's Gate 3, the game that made the whole world roll initiative.
This guide follows the license game by game. It is part of our complete CRPG guide.
The essential D&D games
The license at full power
The Infinity Engine miracle
In 1998 a Canadian medical-doctors-turned-developers outfit called BioWare talked Interplay into a real-time AD&D game with a painted world and a party that would not shut up. Baldur's Gate saved the CRPG commercially; its engine then produced, in three years, the fastest run of masterpieces any engine has managed: Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale, and Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, still the consensus pick for the greatest RPG campaign ever shipped. Four games, one engine, zero misses.
The Infinity Engine shelf
1998 to 2002: the greatest run any engine ever had
The license, edition by edition
- 1988Pool of Radiance: real AD&D on a floppy disk Pool of Radiance
- 1991Eye of the Beholder takes AD&D into the real-time dungeon Eye of the Beholder
- 1998Baldur's Gate: BioWare, Interplay and the Infinity Engine Baldur's Gate
- 1999Planescape: Torment takes the license somewhere it has never returned from Planescape: Torment
- 2000Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, the consensus masterpiece Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn
- 2002Neverwinter Nights hands every table a digital dungeon master Neverwinter Nights
- 2003The Temple of Elemental Evil transcribes 3.5E, bugs and brilliance alike The Temple of Elemental Evil
- 2006Dungeons & Dragons Online takes Eberron persistent Dungeons & Dragons Online
- 2021Solasta proves the 5E ruleset sings in turn-based tactics Solasta: Crown of the Magister
- 2023Baldur's Gate 3 wins virtually every Game of the Year award on the planet Baldur's Gate III
The wilderness years and the action detour
Between 2004 and 2020 the license wandered. Atari's stewardship produced console brawlers (the Dark Alliance games, honest fun; Demon Stone, less so), a promising MMO, and Sword Coast Legends, which promised a dungeon master's toolkit and delivered a shrug. The tabletop game's 5th-edition boom eventually rescued the digital side: Larian, fresh off Divinity: Original Sin 2, spent six years building Baldur's Gate 3 in early access with the whole internet watching. It shipped in August 2023 and by December had won more Game of the Year awards than any RPG in history.
The Gold Box campaigns, complete
SSI's full run: the Moonsea, Krynn and the Savage Frontier
The dark settings: Dark Sun, Ravenloft and the Underdark
When AD&D left the Forgotten Realms' sunlight
The action detour and the odd cousins
Consoles, brawlers and experiments from the license's wandering years
The ruleset experiments
From AD&D 2nd edition to the 5E SRD, faithful and otherwise
You must gather your party before venturing forth.Baldur's Gate, eternally
Beyond the screen
D&D's digital age has always fed back into the culture that spawned it. The Gold Box Krynn games adapt Weis and Hickman's Dragonlance novels; Menzoberranzan and Icewind Dale walk the ground R.A. Salvatore's Drizzt books made famous. Start with the fiction below, then the screen adaptations.
The novels that built Krynn and the Realms
Weis & Hickman's Chronicles and Salvatore's Drizzt, the books behind the games
D&D beyond the PC
The screen adaptations and the tabletop renaissance on film and TV
Keep exploring the CRPG guide
The CRPG: The Complete Guide
Explore the The CRPG: The Complete Guide guide →Frequently asked
What was the first Dungeons & Dragons video game?
Officially, the 1982 Intellivision cartridge Advanced Dungeons & Dragons; on computers, the line begins in earnest with SSI's Pool of Radiance (1988), the first Gold Box game and the first faithful digital AD&D.
Do I need to play Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 before Baldur's Gate 3?
No. BG3 is set a century later with a new cast; a handful of returning characters land harder with history, but the game was built for newcomers. If you fall in love and want the roots, the Enhanced Editions of 1 and 2 are the way back.
Which D&D game is the most faithful to the tabletop rules?
The Temple of Elemental Evil (3.5E) and Solasta: Crown of the Magister (5E SRD) are the two purest transcriptions. Baldur's Gate 3 bends 5E deliberately, more bonus actions, friendlier spell economy, because what plays well at a table does not always play well on a screen.
Are the old Gold Box games playable today?
Yes, through GOG packages with DOSBox, and far more comfortably through the fan-made Gold Box Companion, which adds automapping and modern conveniences. Start with Pool of Radiance or Curse of the Azure Bonds.