Charles S. Roberts, R.I.P. (1930-2010)
Charles S. Roberts, the designer of the first modern board wargame (Tactics), and of D-Day, Afrika Korps, Bismarck, Chancellorsville, and ... sigh ... Gettysburg, founder of the Avalon Hill Game Company, died August 20.
My first hobby game was Gettysburg, a game at which my Dad beat my ten- and eleven-year-old self relentlessly. He'd always take the Confederates, too. From those afternoons came a lifetime of wargaming and alternate history.
Which means that lifetime -- plus my life and career in the roleplaying hobby that his wargames helped spawn (Gettysburg was Dave Arneson's first hobby game, too) -- comes from Charles S. Roberts.
It's not often that you get to shake the hand of the guy who invented your life, but I got to shake his hand at Origins in 2004 and tell him a little bit of what he'd done for me.
Here's the Designer in his own words, in 1983. Let him tell you a little bit about what he's done for you.
My first hobby game was Gettysburg, a game at which my Dad beat my ten- and eleven-year-old self relentlessly. He'd always take the Confederates, too. From those afternoons came a lifetime of wargaming and alternate history.
Which means that lifetime -- plus my life and career in the roleplaying hobby that his wargames helped spawn (Gettysburg was Dave Arneson's first hobby game, too) -- comes from Charles S. Roberts.
It's not often that you get to shake the hand of the guy who invented your life, but I got to shake his hand at Origins in 2004 and tell him a little bit of what he'd done for me.
Here's the Designer in his own words, in 1983. Let him tell you a little bit about what he's done for you.