During the first few months after Baldur's Gate 3 released, I heard a similar refrain coming from my friends and people on social media- people would say something like "I normally don't play RPGs like this, but I love Baldur's Gate 3! Flash forward 6 months and now Baldur's Gate 3 has swept the major award shows and broken into the top 10 most-played list on Steam. How did a game from such a niche genre break into the mainstream? In order to answer this, I invited CRPG historian and writer/editor for The CRPG Book, Felipe Pepe, on to the show to talk about all of this. Topics discussed include: * How he got into RPGs and why we love the genre * The state and role of CRPGs through history, including discussions about Fallout, Ultima, Wizardry, Baldur's Gate, Pillars of Eternity, Morrowind, Arx Fatalis, Skyrim, Disco Elysium, Wasteland, The Gold Box Series, Shadowrun, Dragon Age, and many more games. * Why Baldur's Gate 3 broke out in such a big way * Recommendations for other CRPGs through history for new fans of the genre * The CRPG Book project You can follow Felipe on Twitter (https://twitter.com/felipepepe), check out the free PDF version (https://crpgbook.wordpress.com/) of The CRPG Book, or purchase a wonderful hardcover edition (https://www.bitmapbooks.com/products/the-crpg-book-a-guide-to-computer-role-playing-games) from Bitmap Books (all author's proceeds to go charity)! Check out Dave's guest appearance on the "Fun" and Games podcast (https://sites.libsyn.com/94715/episode-166-live-from-2005), where we did an Xbox 360 retrospective! Support Tales from the Backlog on Patreon! (https://patreon.com/realdavejackson) or buy me a coffee on Ko-fi (https://ko-fi.com/realdavejackson)! Join the Tales from the Backlog Discord server! (https://discord.gg/V3ZHz3vYQR) Social Media: Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/talesfromthebacklog/) Twitter (https://twitter.com/tftblpod) Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TalesfromtheBacklog/) Cover art by Jack Allen- find him at https://www.instagram.com/jackallencaricatures/ and his other pages (https://linktr.ee/JackAllenCaricatures) Listen to A Top 3 Podcast on Apple (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-top-3-podcast/id1555269504), Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/2euGp3pWi7Hy1c6fmY526O?si=0ebcb770618c460c) and other podcast platforms (atop3podcast.fireside.fm)!