As a wargame designer
In 1952, Charles S. Roberts began working on the first mass market board wargame, Tactics, from his house in the Avalon neighborhood of Catonsville, Maryland.[8][9] It was a revolutionary design in many ways that Roberts recalled confounded new players more accustomed to rules like chess and checkers.[10]
In 1954, he began selling it via mail-order as The Avalon Game Company. In 1958, Roberts formed gaming company Avalon Hill to publish the next incarnation, Tactics II (1958).[8][9] 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,[11] considered to be the first board wargame based upon an actual historical battle,[12] with subsequent versions in 1961 and 1964.
In December 1963, Roberts turned over Avalon Hill to one of his creditors, Eric Dott of Monarch Services,[8] after being hard hit by a recession.[9] 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.[8] 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 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 magazine named Charles S. Roberts as one of The Millennium's Most Influential Persons "at least in the realm of adventure gaming."[13]
