RPGs or Tabletop Battle Games?

I was lucky to be the right age when D&D first came to the UK in the mid-late 1970s. A couple of school friends introduced me to the game (Basic D&D - the Blue books), but also many gaming clubs formed in local church halls etc. at around the same time. These venues allowed like-minded teenagers to get together and play in the realms of our imaginations with the plethora of Role Playing Games (RPGs) that then came out at that time.

It was with my school friends and at local clubs (where I met some very dear friends) where I played a huge variety of those RPGs; mainly D&D, Runequest and Traveller. I tried others, but these were the main three I stuck with.

Advanced Dungeons and Dragons

So, although I generally played in games classed as RPGs, where most of the action took place in what is now termed "Theatre of the Mind", occasionally with a handful of miniatures thrown down on a hand drawn map, I became aware of others playing what were termed "wargames", where dozens or even hundreds of miniatures were laid out on what were to me as realistic a table as could be made at the time.

I have played many iterations of wargames over the last few decades, from small skirmish level games (5-10 figures on a table) up to battalion level wargames that involved several hundreds of miniatures. I was always drawn towards the spectacle of the big games with all that wonderful eye-candy, but found I kept coming back to the smaller games. I guess that this was due to a number of reasons; I was used to small-scale gaming with RPGs, I could only afford a handful of figures a week on my pocket money allowance and a game could be got going if fewer miniatures were required, and finally, the prep for large-scale games must have been mountainous what with all the cleaning, glueing, painting and basing that had to be done for the miniatures, not forgetting all that wonderful scenery that had to be purchased or made.

So, as time wore on, and real life got in the way (work, family etc.), my exposure to gaming gradually decreased to the occasional play-by email game often set up by one of my earliest gaming buddies from the first wargames club I attended; although I managed to run a few games during that time too. I also kept up a long distance rapport with a few friends via weekly emails where we would chat about gaming and other related subjects.

Once I had become a dad, I often thought about gaming with my kids but the opportunity never really arose until the Lord of the Rings trilogy of films came out and a new game was released and supported by Games Workshop via the Battle Games in Middle Earth monthly part magazine. I bought a copy each time one was released and subsequently built up a large collection of figures. This prompted me to (re)paint a horde of my old RPG figures, which meant that I was able to play a few tabletop wargames with my kids.

This re-introduction to gaming led me to eventually join a local gaming club where I started to get back into RPGs (mainly D&D) again, but I didn't really get into playing any wargames other than Lord of the Rings at home. Since then I have moved away from that area, but losing one RPG gaming group was remedied recently by joining a new one. So, my RPG gaming itch is being scratched. However, I still hanker after playing with miniatures on the tabletop.

I like all aspects of tabletop gaming but due to my current situation, I am only really able to play online RPGs and, on occasion, a wargame or two with my sons when they come to visit. A lot of my sparse free time is spent procrastinating and playing solo games, of which thankfully there are now quite a number (Five Leagues from the Borderlands, Rangers of Shadowdeep, and game books like Lone Wolf and so on). I have also started a sporadic Midgard campaign (yes it is still running in the background but it takes a lot of prep, so I have to choose my days to play carefully), and I keep toying with Frostgrave and its stable of companion games amended for solo play.

I think that most of my game style choice is circumstance, but despite that, over the years, I have also tended to gravitate more towards RPGs and smaller skirmish tabletop games where progression of troops and characters plays an important part in building a narrative rather than the more static emphasis on troop and leader stats in wargames that tend to re-enact certain historical battles - although large wargames do use command and control it is at a more over-arching level. I guess I want to be a hero in my gaming experiences rather than seeing if I was a better general than an historical counterpart? My large-scale wargames therefore tended to be more along the lines of "What if?" scenarios that do not involve famous generals or battles.

This blog post started out as just a random idea and I just splurged my thoughts onto the page. I haven't really gone into the whys and wherefores of the various aspects of each style of gaming as that was not really my aim. I guess this is just a procrastination piece, trying to develop an argument as to why I like both styles of game and how I got to the situation of having to choose between the different styles.

Summary? Purely from my own perspective, large-scale tabletop wargames are great if you belong to a club and/or have a circle of friends and family that wish to play continually in order to get some value from the preparation and numbers of minis required, whereas RPGs excel for small groups of friends to get together anywhere (including online) and begin to play as literally nothing is required except a character sheet, a few dice and maybe a copy of some kind of Player's guide. I guess I am kind of in the middle with my current situation, playing mainly RPGs and small scale tabletop wargames. That said, I guess it all depends upon personal circumstances and not any real preferences as to game type?