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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ariosto" data-source="post: 4837911" data-attributes="member: 80487">MadMaligor seems to be getting into all sorts of contortions here. To avoid obfuscation with straw men, let us submit that:(A) The original D&D set was advertised as "rules for fantastic medieval wargames campaigns playable with paper and pencil and miniature figures". The expected audience was made up of people already acquainted with wargaming in miniature, map games (including those with limited information a la Kriegsspiel), Diplomacy, and "Braunstein"-type scenarios. Arneson and Gygax would hardly be dismayed to find players employing figurines, or even scale models of dungeons, villages, and so on.and(B) The visual appeal and potential utility of figurines were mentioned in every edition of the game.If MadMaligor's assertion is no more than the above, then I think it is trivially true -- and nothing with which any of us who have been playing for 30+ years are likely to take issue. End of thread, I should think.So, why all this contentiousness?The real controversy appears to be over whether to grant that WotC's designs brought in a new emphasis on the table top."The game remains the same" has been a recurring theme in 4E evangelism/ validation (in my view, a recurrence of a perennial nerdy neurosis that was called One True Wayism in the days of the "internet by mimeograph" of Alarums and Excursions, et al).</blockquote>