About Reality Wargames
Hi, I’m Brendan.
I’m a programmer and tabletop gamer. There is usually code on my screen, a half-painted miniature nearby, a guitar within reach, and a record playing.
More games than I have room for
There are so many miniatures, armies, and scenarios I want to collect and play. I also know I will never have the time to build and paint all of them—or enough shelves to store them if I did. I love painting miniatures, and I don’t want virtual ones to replace that part of the hobby. I just don’t want time and storage space to decide which battles I get to try.
I still want to play around a table
I would also like to play tabletop games with friends when we cannot be in the same room. A conventional virtual tabletop solves the distance problem, but it loses some of what I enjoy: pieces that occupy space, looking at the battlefield from different angles, and sharing a table instead of a screen.
Mixed reality feels like a bridge between those things. It can keep the spatial, physical feeling of a tabletop while giving us the flexibility of a virtual one. That is the basic idea behind Reality Tabletop.
Things the physical table cannot do
Once the miniatures and battlefield are virtual, they do not have to behave exactly like plastic and cardboard. Miniatures could animate. The environment could change during a scenario. Hidden movement could remain genuinely hidden, and the table could check line of sight when the answer is unclear.
I don’t know yet which of those ideas will make games better and which will just get in the way. Part of the reason I’m building Reality Tabletop is to find out.
Where it is right now
Reality Tabletop is in pre-alpha, and I’m still working through the fundamentals. It is not ready to download or properly playtest yet. I’m getting close to being able to show a useful demo, but I want that demo to include bringing in your own maps and game pieces and returning to a saved sandbox. Until that feels solid, I would rather keep building than pretend there is more to announce.
Playing remotely, animated miniatures, dynamic environments, and automated tabletop tools are goals—not current features. First I need to make the basic table work well.
Reality Wargames
Reality Wargames is the name I’ve given this project and my YouTube channel. The channel also has board-game reviews and gameplay because I like talking about games and playing them, not just making software. This site is where Reality Tabletop will live as it becomes ready to share.