what video game most faithfully replicates the dungeons and dragons ruleset, experience and atmosphere? Ideally, I'd like a game that I can play against decent AI, where I can follow along with a copy of the DnD handbooks next to me. A Dungeon Master Simulator, if you will. Does such a thing exist?

I should also point out that I have next to no experience playing Dungeons and Dragons, I just want to try it out first, before I try and convince a group of friends to play it with me.

Neverwinter Nights I'd say. You can actually have DM even thou I've never tried it, and it's got an immense ammount of downloadable adventures for various ammount of players - or you can make your own.

Neverwinter Nights is what you are looking for I would say. Even if everything is not exactly as how you want it the game is so highly customizable that you can change and add most anything from classes, items, spells, abilities to creatures and easily custom levels, areas, and campaigns. It also does not hurt that the community is still adding content even after so many years after release. Check out nwvault.ign.com for a lot of custom content as well as a few other places.

What Fenixp said. You can actually do roleplay sessions with other players, as if you were playing a Pen&Paper campaign; there are (human) DM's who specifically run their games for a groups of players, allowing you to take influence on the game. They can also adapt the difficulty to the party's level or correct it on the fly. I believe the DM can also impersonate the monsters, which should give the AI a little boost. ;)

If you're looking for that kind of experience, Neverwinter Connections is the place to find such a group.

Another game you might want to have a look at is The Temple of Elemental Evil. It's nowhere near as versatile as Neverwinter Nights, but it's a decent D&D combat simulator.

EDIT: Whoops, apparantly fexen already suggested it, while I was still editing my post. :D
I'm not sure I'd agree that ToEE has a great story, but if that isn't your main interest, it might be right up your alley. (And in any case, the story is actually based on an old D&D pen and paper module.)

I would recommend Temple of Elemental Evil, it has a lot of customizability and complex combat system. The gameplay is challenging and hard at times. The story and the atmosphere is great.

Thanks for the suggestions so far. I have Neverwinter nights and ToEE sitting in my basket at the minute.

NWN interests me especially. Say if I were to organize a pen and paper DnD game with some friends, could I use it to display a sort of virtual board to show the game we're playing?

TOEE was supposed to be a trilogy but was poorly received (it was super buggy on launch). The ruleset is a solid implementation and fan patches have greatly extended the gameplay (including boosting max level from 10 to 20 and adding whole new quests, etc.).

Regardless it's the only "solo" ruleset implementation that's even close to getting everything in there. NWN in a group is the most like playing D&D and DDO (Dungeons and Dragons Online, which is free to play with lots of free content) is pretty good as well.

In regards to trying out DnD, I'd say no game, and really don't see how one could as DnD (pen and paper) doesn't really share much with video games. Barring Neverwinter Nights multiplayer servers at least.

A much easier and more accurate method of trying out DnD would be to go to a DnD: Encounters session. They're Wizard of the Coast sponsered campaigns intended to do exactly what you wanted: let someone try DnD out. Their website even has a finder that'll tell you waht stores near you run the event.


If you still want a DnD video game just to play, you know, as a regular game, I'm playing Baldur's Gate (first one with EasyTuTu upgrade) and enjoying it. I really like the "zero to hero" style of starting from level one and moving up. Only other DnD game I've played is Neverwinter Nights and I only enjoyed that multiplayer.

Give Knights of the Chalice a try.

It's and indie 'oldschool' rpg based on the OGL rules, with graphics reminding of Ultima 6. There should be a demo on the site.

It has one of the best implementation of the D&D rules, especially regarding combat, and some very nice encounter design.

The story is ok, not great, it's more of a game for tactical turn based combats lovers.

EDIT: How could I forget SSI' Goldbox series. Some of the games I hope will one day reach GOG.

EDIT2: Noticing just now that you have no prior experience with D&D, then I'd probably have to second the Infinity Engine games, and maybe NWN.

You mean have it run in the background while you're playing pen and paper with your friends and use it as reference, e.g. for combat positions etc.? Might be possible but that doesn't sound really practical to me. I'd advise against it.

One thing I believe that wasn't mentioned yet is that ToEE is turn-based while Neverwinter Nights is not. If you're looking for turn-based combat, ToEE might be the better choice. I can also recommend SSI's Forgotten Realms Unlimited Adventures (1993), which, similar to NWN, allows you to create your own scenarios and campaigns (in teh style of the old Goldbox games). It's turn-based and the editor is easier to handle than NWN, but it doesn't have multiplayer features and it's still based on the (A)D&D 1st or 2nd edition rules, not D&D 3.5 or whatever version your books are probably based on.