India, Oct. 18 -- There wasn't a lot going on in the world of tabletop gaming in the early 1990s.

Most games seemed to fall into familiar patterns. Classics such as Scrabble thrived in social gatherings, yet at its core, this was a game of individual pursuit. Being a real-estate tycoon in the eternally popular Monopoly was exhilarating, until the hours dragged on and resentment grew. For a niche few, role-playing tabletop games such as Dungeons & Dragons and World of Darkness offered an escape into immersive storytelling. In miniature war games such as Warhammer 40,000, hobbyists meticulously assembled armies and battlefields from pieces that were first made of metal and later of plastic.

Around this time, frustrated by his exhausting 1...