Charles Swann Roberts (February 3, 1930 – August 20, 2010,

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

) was a

wargame A wargame is a strategy game in which two or more players command opposing armed forces in a realistic simulation of an armed conflict. Wargaming may be played for recreation, to train military officers in the art of strategic thinking, or to s ...

designer A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exp ...

, railroad historian, and businessman. He is renowned as "The Father of Board Wargaming", having created the first commercially successful modern wargame in 1952 (''

Tactics Tactic(s) or Tactical may refer to: * Tactic (method), a conceptual action implemented as one or more specific tasks ** Military tactics, the disposition and maneuver of units on a particular sea or battlefield ** Chess tactics ** Political tact ...

''), the first wargaming company in 1954 (

Avalon Hill Avalon Hill Games Inc. is a game company that publishes wargames and strategic board games. It has also published miniature wargaming rules, role-playing games and sports simulations. It is a subsidiary of Hasbro, and operates under the company ...

), and designed the first board wargame based upon an actual historical battle ('' Gettysburg''). He is also the author of a series of books on railroad history, published by the small publishing firm, ''Barnard, Roberts, and Company, Inc.''

As a wargame designer

In 1952, Charles S. Roberts created the first mass market board wargame, ''

'', from his house in the Avalon neighborhood of Catonsville, Maryland. In 1954, he began selling it via mail-order as The Avalon Game Company; and Roberts formed gaming company

in 1958 to publish the next incarnation, '' Tactics II'' (1958). ''Tactics II'' improved on the basic game design of his earlier effort, and formed the genesis for the concept of the

combat results table A Combat results table or a CRT is used in wargaming to determine the outcome of a clash between individual units within a larger battle. The attacker and defender typically compare the relative strengths of the units involved in the clash and ...

. In 1958 he published '' Gettysburg'', considered to be the first board wargame based upon an actual historical battle, with subsequent versions in 1961 and 1964. Hard hit by a recession, Roberts turned over Avalon Hill to one of his creditors, Eric Dott of Monarch Services, in December 1963. Tom Shaw, a longtime friend of Roberts and the last holdover from the original company, ran the company during Avalon Hill's successful 1963-1982 period. After six years in Roberts home, the company moved to a dedicated building in the Parkville neighborhood of Baltimore. Starting in 1988, Roberts' name was given to the Charles S. Roberts Awards, given for excellence in the historical wargaming hobby. He was a charter member of the Charles Roberts Awards Hall of Fame. In 1999 ''

Pyramid A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilat ...

'' magazine named Charles S. Roberts as one of ''The Millennium's Most Influential Persons'' "at least in the realm of adventure gaming."

As a railroad historian

Following the sale of his wargame company, Avalon Hill, Charles Roberts held various positions in the publishing industry. In 1973, he founded a small press, Barnard, Roberts, and Company, which he has described as "publishing to the Catholic market", even though Roberts himself was not a Catholic. Over time, the company's emphasis shifted away from religious publications and toward railroad history. Roberts took pride in coming from a long line of railroaders. One of his great great uncles was

Thomas Swann Thomas Swann (February 3, 1809 – July 24, 1883) was an American lawyer and politician who also was President of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad as it completed track to Wheeling and gained access to the Ohio River Valley. Initially a Know-No ...

, president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad from 1848 to 1853. Roberts' father and grandfather (also named Charles Swann Roberts) had long careers with the Baltimore and Ohio. In one of his books, Roberts reminisced about childhood trips with his father to observe the operations of the Pennsylvania Railroad, of which Roberts had always been an enthusiast. The firm of Barnard, Roberts, and Company published numerous books about railroad history, many written by Charles Roberts himself. Earlier volumes focused on the Baltimore and Ohio, and later books documented the Pennsylvania Railroad. The first in this series was ''Triumph I: Altoona to Pitcairn: 1846-1996'', and the last was ''Triumph IX: Salt Sea to Bays, Valleys, Dells, and Firestorms: 1927-2007''. In ''Triumph IX'', Roberts includes reminiscences about his life and movingly pays tribute to his late first wife, Patricia.

References

External links

Charles S. Roberts Awards

biography.

Barnard, Roberts, and Company, Inc.
*
Baltimore Observed: The Art of War
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Charles S. 1930 births 2010 deaths American company founders American game designers Board game designers People from Carroll County, Maryland People from Catonsville, Maryland Railway historians Writers from Baltimore