- "Fantasy wargaming" redirects here. For the 1981 game by Bruce Galloway, see Fantasy Wargaming.
A wargame, specifically a tabletop wargame or miniatures wargame, is a type of strategy game in which players enact battles between opposing military forces that are represented by miniatures. A fantasy wargame is one that features fantasy elements such as non-historical or even non-human troop types, such as Tolkienesque orcs or dragons.
Wargaming, and specifically fantasy wargaming, is the ancestral hobby to role-playing games. The original edition of Dungeons & Dragons grew directly out of existing fantasy wargames such as Chainmail and Braunstein, which had begun the tradition of players sometimes chosing a specific heroic character as their avatar. Dungeons & Dragons therefore began as both a fantasy wargame (building on the existing tradition) and a role-playing game (the first of a new hobby).
Some typical components of role-playing games since the release of Dungeons & Dragons have their roots in wargaming. For example, wizards with their long-range, highly desctructive spells are based on artillery units; larger monsters like dragons are derived from the seige units from historical wargaming. Rules around morale were directly derived from wargaming.
There continues to significant cross-over between surviving wargames and role-playing games. One of the most popular surviving fantasy wargames is Games Workshop's Warhammer (aka Warhammer Fantasy or Warhammer Fantasy Battle), which has an associated role-playing game called Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. Several other companies, e.g. Fantasy Flight Games, produce both role-playing games and miniatures games in the same settings.
The distinguishing characteristics of a role-playing game are the player's adoption of a specific character as their persona and the idea that a character can take any plausible action rather than just specific maneuvers delineated in the rules (the freedom principle). Traditional wargames have neither of these traits. However, fantasy wargaming, as defined in the early 1980s, included many activities that would now be considered role-playing games.
External links[]
- Wargame at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
- Miniature wargame at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.