Tabletop is a game played on a table, as well as the art or craft of assembling miniatures. Tabletop games take time to set up. Depending on the complexity of the game you have in mind, setup can take hours, days, weeks, or months to build (some veterans take a full year to build their ultimate tabletop games). The layout process is a combination of creativity and logic. The more extreme tabletop enthusiasts may even graph the entire layout on a computer before ever touching the table. But this is hardly necessary just to have a good time role-playing with your friends.

Tabletop Styles

Tabletop doesn’t have to be a fantasy-adventure game. Football, soccer, race cars, off road racing, stunt vehicles, or even the old soldier figurines can run the gamut of your tabletop role-playing experience. All that is needed is a set of established rules that everyone will agree to play by. Some rule books are available for purchase, but you don’t need to follow the rules stringently. Rules are only good for tabletop if they present a challenge of strategy to the players without reducing the game’s potential for fun and imagination. Reducing the game down to rules makes following the rules the objective of the game–something to be absolutely avoided in role-playing of any sort. Remember it is not a game objective to see who can follow the rules the best. Tabletop is a game intended to share imagination and have a collaborative experience in fantasy, adventure, or any other genre you can role-play.

Tables and Surfaces

Tabletops can be expensive to build. A standard folding table should support your terrain, models, and figurines well enough. For a more lavish game, a wooden or marble table will do the trick. Tabletops do not have to be permanent. You can set up your table top on a pool table quite easily. Just layout your models and figures on the table. One of the advantages of using a pool table is that you’re less likely to roll your dice off the table and lose your dice to that terrible void known as reality (somewhere in the corner of the garage).

Selecting a Terrain for Tabletop

Terrain is the landscape in your tabletop game. Foam boards work fine since tabletop games usually take place indoors. However, there’s no rule preventing anyone from setting up a tabletop game outback (By all means, do as you like. But for the most part, tabletop is played indoors). You’ll have a lot of other choices for the medium that you’ll use to represent the terrain on your tabletop. The type of terrain is entirely up to your imagination.

There are some nice terrains on the market available to gamers and hobbyists, but the selection is limited (Despair not, for some of the best tabletop games have been constructed entirely from items at home, in the garage, or scavenged from old models, and even other games). You’ll probably do best purchasing some fake grass, a few buildings (fortresses and castles), and some rocky terrain for setting up barriers.

Personally, I like to create a subterranean style labyrinth for my friends’ tabletop games. Creating a labyrinth only requires that you measure the space you have to work with (the surface area of the table), and choose a medium to create your maze structure. Most hobby stores have soft wood boards, chips, doll houses, or paintbrush cases made of wood. These soft woods are easy to pull apart and cut through. Simply do a quick layout with your wooden pieces on the tabletop surface. Once you know the formation you want, start gluing the pieces together with a hot glue gun. If you don’t like cutting wood, then use foam boards, cones, spheres, and blocks from a crafts store. You can paint the foam any color you like, or glue computer printouts for more interesting wallpaper designs (Example: Print out screen shots from a computer game for wallpapering your maze). You can even cut out holes in the side of wood to insert a bulb socket to add a futuristic lighting setup. At the heart of your maze, add something like a lava lamp or other electronic medium for a central landmark point in your maze.

Real grass and gravel are fun, but you’ll probably get your models and figurines dirty. Your dice may end up in the garden pond or swimming pool if you try to set up a game outdoors. Raw materials can also be purchased. Just select some clean rocks, marbles, or crystals from a gardening store. You may even lay a piece of glass or transparent plastic over water ponds or fissures–depending on whether or not you want to use real water in your table top games. To create moving water, simply stick an air hose from a fish tank pump in the water.

Figurines

Figurines are the heart of the game. Whether you’re playing a tabletop game or a role-playing campaign, the character’s avatar is going to run the game. Terrain is nice, but without figurines there isn’t any representation for your game characters. Figurines are purchased from a special role-playing hobby store, game store, or comic book shop. Plan on spending a hundred dollars or more over the course of building up a good collection of figurines. Even the smaller character pieces can cost $20 to $40 dollars at some game shops. Other figures sell cheaper. You’ll just have to shop around. Remember that you are in no way limited to the popular figurines sold on today’s market. Using old models, toys, or sculptures/ wood carvings can substitute for tabletop merchandise. So, take your time and have fun building up your tabletop game.