After forty-odd years of pushing cardboard counters across hex maps, I didn’t expect roleplaying games to grab me the way they have. But the longer I play, the clearer the throughline gets. The things that make a great wargame — meaningful decisions, real consequences, and a system that models something true — are exactly what a good RPG delivers. It’s just pointed at people instead of armies.
Same instincts, different scale
Wargaming trains you to read a situation: weigh the odds, spot the decisive point, and accept that a plan only survives until contact. An RPG asks a smaller, sharper version of the same question — not “where does the division attack,” but “what does this person do next, and what does it cost them.” If you already think in terms of tempo, risk, and consequence, you’re most of the way there.
Solo play is the bridge
I came to RPGs the way a lot of wargamers do: through solo play. A solo session of Traveller or Twilight: 2000 scratches the same itch as a solo wargame. You set the situation, the system pushes back, and the story falls out of decisions made under pressure. No group to schedule, no table to referee — just you, the rules, and the dice telling you how badly your clever idea went.
The systems I keep returning to lean tactical for exactly that reason. Traveller and Twilight: 2000 reward planning, logistics, and knowing when a fight isn’t worth having. Those are grognard instincts, and they translate cleanly.
If you’ve been wargaming for years and quietly told yourself RPGs “aren’t for you,” this is the video where I make the case that they might be. Give it a watch, then come argue with me.
Hexed & Countered covers solo-friendly wargames and RPGs — first looks, full playthroughs, and campaign journals, several times a week.