Miniatures games are a form of
tabletop game
Tabletop games or tabletops are games that are normally played on a Table (furniture), table or other flat surface, such as board games, card games, dice games, miniature wargames, Tabletop role-playing game, tabletop role-playing games, or ti ...
which prominently features the use of
miniature models or figures.
War games
One of the oldest and most popular miniatures game genres is that of
war games, where figures are arranged into competing "armies", with figures that represent ranks of troops or individual combatants.
Naval wargaming is a variation of play where figures represents ships and do battle on the seas. Early
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 ...
s were focused on faithfully recreating historical battles with units represented by chips, blocks, and other abstract markers. The modern genre has expanded to include fantasy and science-fiction settings, often using intricately detailed and
painted miniature figures.
Miniatures in role-playing games
Tabletop
role-playing game
A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, or abbreviated as RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out ...
s evolved from miniatures games, and the two genres have continued to be linked in varying degrees. One of the most cited examples of this connection is ''
Dungeons & Dragons
''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...
'', which developed from a 1971 medieval miniature wargame called ''
Chainmail
Mail (sometimes spelled maille and, since the 18th century, colloquially referred to as chain mail, chainmail or chain-mail) is a type of armour consisting of small metal rings linked together in a pattern to form a mesh. It was in common milita ...
''.
The first line of official ''Dungeons & Dragons'' miniatures was produced by
MiniFigs in 1976, and included iconic creatures such as
Demogorgon. While the early editions of ''Dungeons & Dragons'' reduced or eliminated the use of miniatures, later versions reestablished their use as a core mechanism of the combat system.
This even led full-circle into the development of ''
Dungeons & Dragons Miniatures Game'' which acted as a stand-alone skirmish game without role-playing elements and as a set of accessories which could be used during ''Dungeons & Dragons'' play.
Collectible miniatures games
As a result of the popularity of the
collectible card game
A collectible card game (CCG), also called a trading card game (TCG) among other names, is a type of card game that mixes strategy game, strategic deck building elements with features of trading cards. The genre was introduced with ''Magic: The G ...
(CCG) genre starting in the 1990s,
collectible miniatures games were developed that made use of elements of CCGs, such as selling miniature figures in randomized packs, with certain figures being assigned different rarities. This led to a secondary market where figures were resold and valued based on either their utility for play or rarity as a collectible.
References
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