Having said that, let's have a look at the gameplay elements of D&D that can be simulated by a board or video game:

• Story, in which your decisions alter the outcome
• Characters, that have stats and abilities
• Actions, the success of which is linked to character stats and abilities
• Combat, also linked to character stats and abilities
• Rewards, in the form of xp/level or items, usually improving character stats and abilities

If you play a video game like Baldur's Gate 3, you will find all of these elements. So, as long as you don't mind that your list of possible actions is limited by whatever is coded into the game, you get an experience that is at least very similar to D&D. To some extent these games usually at least try to give you the illusion that your decisions alter the outcome, and might have a limited number of slightly different outcomes. But sometimes the facade is very thin, and if you play the game a second time, you will notice a lot of story elements that you can't change, even if you try to make different decisions. *Spoiler Alert* In Baldur's Gate 3, the Nautiloid "ship" of the mind flayers will *always* crash and end you up in the same location, regardless of what decisions you take in this early part of the game.

In board games, sometimes the story is even more linear and/or short. Most board games don't have apps, and there are only limited means of telling a story visually, so if there is a story, it is limited to some read aloud text. For obvious reasons, you don't want that text to be too long, at least not if the game has more than one player. I just ordered Legacy of Dragonholt, which is basically a somewhat overpriced choose-your-own-adventure book with character sheets; I will probably play this only solo, because if I'd play it with my wife, I'd need to read a lot of text out loud. But at least in Legacy of Dragonholt, there are a lot of decision points, and the abilities you choose on character creation determine which choices you can make. So if you make an orc brawler or a gnome alchemist, you will end up with different skills, and thus different options, even if you play through the same story. The only thing that is missing, in my opinion, is a system of dice rolls and skill checks. Other people might prefer that if you choose for example the Stealth ability, you will always succeed when Stealth is actually an option in the story.

While I prefer board games to be strong on the story side, that of course is also a matter of taste. I mentioned yesterday the new Descent: Legends of the Dark, which I won't buy. But that is based on my preferences; if you were looking for a game in which you mostly have tactical combat, and an extensive system of character development with lots of abilities and skills, the new Descent might actually be the game for you. You'd still need to consider in how far the app bothers you, whether the $175 price tag isn't too high for you, and how happy you are with the 3D cardboard terrain. But if you want mostly a dungeon crawler with nice miniatures and a decent tactical combat system, I'm wouldn't rule Descent out. Especially if you prefer dice-based combat over Gloomhaven's card-based combat.

I still believe that Lands of Galzyr will come very close to a lighthearted, 2-player, D&D-like experience for me and my wife. But of course that game is still being crowdfounded, and it'll take at least another year before I can actually verify this assumption. Baldur's Gate 3 is also only being released next year, although you can buy the game now and play the beta. So, on the video game side of things, I would recommend Solasta: Crown of the Magister, if you prefer an already released game that comes rather close to D&D.