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I've been playing video games since I was 3, but I'd always rather play D&D and here's why

The beauty of tabletop gaming is that it removes any of those pesky invisible walls that video games always have.

D&D Monster Manual 5E — Image credit: Wizards of the Coast

Features by Trent Cannon, Senior Contributing writer

Published on Fri Mar 27 2026

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I don’t make it a secret that I love to play video games. They excite me. They give me a chance to reflect on the world. Sometimes they help me bond with my son. They’re a huge part of who I am, but here is a secret: as much as I love playing video games, I’d almost always prefer to play D&D.

There is, of course, a lot of crossover between video games and tabletop games, especially RPGs and the like. There is even a whole portion of video games that are based on tabletop games, such as the incredible (and potentially heartbreaking) Baldur’s Gate 3. I started playing video games in the late 80s when I stumbled across a shiny golden Zelda cartridge in my step-dad’s collection, and they’ve been a huge part of who I am ever since.

But, honestly, there is very little that video games can do that a good tabletop group can’t. Games like D&D can offer all the drama and action of a video game without the invisible walls or the sensation that the world is limited to what a team of developers thought was a reasonable solution when they were designing the game for a wide audience, instead of your specific group of friends, who have their own unique sense of humor and tastes. A good DM can adjust (or abandon) their plans depending on whatever wild solution the players come up with in a way that no video game can.

Baldur's Gate 3 Karlach — Image credit: Larian Studios

The closest I’ve come to this specific feeling comes from Baldur’s Gate 3, which not only encourages players to take multiple different routes to its final fight but actively rewards you for trying to break the game in creative ways. However, even here, there is a feeling of limitations and rigidness to how the game is designed. The feeling of overcoming a fight in a creative way is because you found a loophole in the way the game was coded, rather than because your friend across the table is rewarding you for doing the unexpected.

Compare that to some of the experiences I’ve had around the table. As a DM, I’ve watched in awe/horror as my players burned a city, where I had expected them to spend several sessions doing side quests, to the ground in a spiteful rage. I’ve adjusted my plot and sped up the final act of a campaign because the players were losing interest. I’ve built a player’s historically terrible dice rolls into the plot by explaining that they were cursed by the god of luck so that each failure was canonically someone else’s fault. You can’t do that as a video game designer because you can’t make those kinds of fundamental changes to a game after it ships.

The cover of the 2024 Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide — Image credit: Wizards of the Coast

This isn’t a “look how good a DM I am” story, but it is a story of how a good gaming group elevates the experience. All my years of playing tabletop games have led me to believe that there is no puzzle or riddle or combat encounter that can’t be overcome by a group of the most deranged friends you’ve ever met, making things up on the fly.

Video games are part of who I am and have been since I can remember. They’re there when I want to experience the story someone else wants to tell. However, when I want to tell a story but don’t feel like writing a whole novel about it? That is when I get my friends together to play a game. It is collaborative storytelling that doesn’t exist anywhere else in gaming. There is no replacement for a great gaming group and the limitless stories they can tell.

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