Table Top Gaming’s History
The tabletop game industry is an intriguing thing to observe, largely because of its history. Rarely has any industry not heavily invested in electronics displayed so many instances of innovators introducing an entirely new type of product and successfully finding a market for it.
To date, such innovations and changes have happened a total of three times in the industrys history, resulting in the current state. Arguably, it has happened a 4th time already, though the debate on whether or not that is the case is likely to go on until a theoretical 5th time hits.
Tabletop gaming was rooted from simple board and card games such as chess and poker. Even if it has evolved greatly, it is still the origin of the industry. Theoretically, the first tabletop gaming products, which are the tabletop war games, came from games such as chess and checkers.
This genre includes small models which represent either individual units of entire squads, the former being more preferred. Over a map having specific markings and obstacles, players would control great numbers of these models. Rulebooks would decide all matters of interactions like movement, troop morale, damage calculations and limitations on army construction. Almost everything is determined by a roll of dice. Some of the most popular examples are Games Workshops Warhammer franchise, both the fantasy and 40k versions.
As the era of technology continued, the industry continued to evolve. David Arneson came up with the idea of applying the rules of tabletop war games on a much smaller scale. Instead of a single player controlling large troops, the player can work on a single character at a time. Gary Gygax then developed the tabletop roleplaying game, which began with Dungeons & Dragons. It was such a different treatment of the genre that the industry was surprised with its uniqueness and creativity. Models were no longer needed and there were so many more options available, taking the tabletop gaming experience to a whole new level. With the continued dominance of Dungeons and Dragons in the market, more games revolving around the same concept were produced. Some of these include the sci-fi Alternity and the Lovecraftian horror-inspired Call of Cthulhu.
After several years of success, another mind hit upon another innovation that would introduce the world to an entirely new product. Richard Garfield considered the feasibility of creating a game that functioned like Dungeons & Dragons, but was played with cards, as opposed to dice. Soon enough, the world was introduced to the collectible/tradable card game. Magic: the Gathering was an entirely new experience, calling on enough imagery to connect with RPGs but played with greater similarity to card game. Almost two decades and over 10,000 different cards later, Magic is still going strong. Even World of Warcraft, an MMO, has gotten in on the market with a TCG that bears its name, trademarks and general style.
Tabletop gaming has definitely evolved from its roots through three important events. Over time, some franchise has managed to transcend their root game and explored other forms. For instance, Warhammer 40k has its own RPG, Dungeons & Dragons has its own miniatures-based strategy game and Vampire: the Eternal Struggle is a card game form of White Wolfs old Vampire: The Masquerade RPG line.