User:Masem/draft/Digital tabletop game

Digital tabletop games are a genre of video games that allow for the playing of tabletop games, including board games and card games, via personal computer or video game console. In many cases, such games are digital recreations of existing board games, with the game handling the rules and scoring, while others are solely digital games that use tabletop game elements but often adding in gameplay aspects only possible through virtual elements within a video game. An additional subgenre includes virtual tabletop systems that allow players to recreate existing games or design their own games, though must manage the rules and scoring themselves. Digital tabletop games frequently include online functionality to play against other players, or to play against one or more computer opponents.

Virtual tabletops
Virtual tabletops are software that provides an environment for players to manipulate game pieces, roll dice, play cards, or other actions to mimic playing of a tabletop game. Many are freeform, in that they provide the basic actions for moving elements around the game space and the means to chat with other players, but lack any structured component to enforce a game's rules. More recent titles include the ability to interface with scripting languages to do some of the game's automation.

One common virtual tabletop area is that to support pen-and-pencil role-playing games. The software manages the map, tokens representing the player characters and enemies, and character sheets,

Another class of virtual tabletops are those that support a variety of card games, including collectible card games. They enable players shuffle and deal cards, play cards to spots on a tableau, and frequently include dice rolls and counters used in some collectible card games.

A third class of virtual tabletop are generic systems that simply provide a means to create and manipulate game pieces within a virtual space.

Virtual tabletops are dependent on assets to be available to represent the game, which can create copyright infringement in some areas since game art and content are frequently copyrighted to the original game publisher. In some cases, the virtual tabletop publisher has worked with game publishers to offer officially-sanctioned versions of games to be played in the tabletop software, often at some cost to the player for the license.