The most insane device in this vein IMO is the Panasonic Penwriter. It's a four color typewriter (!) and plotter. Yes. It was using pens to write whatever you typed. And this was in 1985! If it'd been more reliable (surprise: it wasn't) it would've taken the world by storm. (I think Brother had one too.)
I'm sad to find there aren't any videos on YouTube of this Panasonic Penwriter printing something. If you or anyone you know has access to one of these device then please consider sharing a video!
This is really neat. If you got a large-format X-Y pen plotter, you could get it to play D&D, exploring a large dungeon map, having skirmishes, etc. This would be even better with a flatbed plotter, rather than a rolling one.
I love these devices, though they're expensive to run. We used the large-format HP pen plotters for various large software analysis&design diagrams, and for keeping huge project management charts posted. On the side, I wrote an optimizer that would take an HP-GL file and optimize for pen travel (shorten time spent between pen-up and pen-down positions for various graphics operations) and for pen changes.
The TCO of the large X-Y pen plotters seemed subjectively expensive, for hobby purposes, which I suspect is most of the reason to still use a pen plotter. Large paper (maybe you can use the current inkjet ones), expensive pens that you go through quickly (I don't know whether they're made anymore, or whether there's a viable DIY way to keep them refilled and working, or to adapt current off-the-shelf non-plotter pens), and keeping the mechanics of old machines working (and perhaps stockpiling backup/parts units, when you can find them).
The original pens are, AFAICT, somewhat hard to come by, but we modded the pen carousel and have a 3d printed holder to put more modern pens in. With this mod, the TCO doesn't seem to high, although I didn't initially purchase/set it up, and I haven't had to do serious maintenance yet.
But you can throw a pen into any gantry mechanism, whether that's a cheap laser like the k40 or a hobby router like the xcarve, or a kit-built machine like cncrouterparts sells.
These are cheap and ubiquitous. Most of them speak gcode not hpgl, but that's just a firmware tweak or a postprocessor change.
The memories of the game and the subsequent rise and then the fall (if you want to call it that) of it.
Does anybody have any updates on the developer and the game?
If you're interested in algorithmic drawing, https://turtletoy.net is a nice little toy to play around in and it uses the same primitive operations as most plotters (pen up and down, move to coordinate). One popular plotter is AxiDraw which can be controlled in a multitude of ways including an Inkscape plugin and a REST-API.
You could possibly get a very cheap 3D printer and rig it for 2D plotting fairly easily (using the printer itself to manufacture the missing parts even!)
Yet another fun reason to get a pen plotter!! It seems that there are plenty of examples on eBay, maybe even if it doesn't work a retrofit would be a fun project?
Lately someone worked it out how to connect it to a modern PC. https://retrocomputing.stackexchange.com/a/7936/3722