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

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

) was a

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

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 exper ...

, 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 In chess, a tac ...

''), 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 compan ...

), 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 began working on the first mass market board wargame, ''

'', from his house in the Avalon neighborhood of

Catonsville, Maryland Catonsville () is a census-designated place (CDP) in Baltimore County, Maryland, Baltimore County, Maryland. The population was 44,701 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 US Census. The community is a streetcar suburb of Baltimore along the cit ...

. It was a revolutionary design in many ways that Roberts recalled confounded new players more accustomed to rules like chess and checkers. 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. 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's name was given to the

Charles S. Roberts Award The Charles S. Roberts Awards (or CSR Awards) is an annual award for excellence in manual, tabletop games, with a focus on "conflict simulations", which includes simulations of non-military as well as military conflicts. From its founding in 1975 ...

s, given for excellence in the historical wargaming hobby. He was a charter member of the

Charles Roberts Awards Hall of Fame The Charles S. Roberts Awards Hall of Fame, formally known as the Clausewitz Award Hall of Fame, is named after legendary military writer Carl von Clausewitz. The recipients of this award have made an important contribution and left their mark on th ...

. In 1999 ''

Pyramid A pyramid () is a structure whose visible surfaces are triangular in broad outline and converge toward the top, making the appearance roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be of any polygon shape, such as trian ...

'' 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, president of the

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the oldest railroads in North America, oldest railroad in the United States and the first steam engine, steam-operated common carrier. Construction of the line began in 1828, and it operated as B&O from 1830 ...

from 1848 to 1853. Roberts's 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 The Pennsylvania Railroad ( reporting mark PRR), legal name as the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, also known as the "Pennsy," was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At its ...

, 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 board game designers People from Carroll County, Maryland People from Catonsville, Maryland Railway historians Wargame designers Writers from Baltimore