"How did 4'x6' become the 'standard' table?" Topic

As other have said 4x8 because that the size of sheet plywood. I also built two floating tables 2x4 each. They were on wheels and could be positioned as needed around the main table. Since then, I cut down to one 2x4 and one 2x2 as a dice table. Most times the 2x4 is only used as a holding area for off board troops and the 2x2 gets pushed around the table to where the action is.

Apparently you and I yearn for different things …

Deep down I know that you want the 12' by 6' table. :)
It is a universal desire like wanting to breath and eating good food etc..

IF you have to yearn or desire to breathe, you may want to skip the 12'x6' and invest in some really good health care.

12 x 6 is ok for skirmish games, my 20 x 8 table in the shed is a real mans table!!

Tally Ho!

Murphy said"

1: Two standard 2 X 6 folding tables side by side."

Here in the US the standard 6' folding tables you can buy at Walmart or Staples or Office Depot are 6'x2.5', so two of those makes 6'x5'. The only 2' wide folding tables I've found are 4'x2'.

… so you need three instead of two?

Our club's old game table was 5'x10'. Worked well for 28mm. Colonials. When I became the host of our group in 2008 my workshop became the new location and the table became a 4'x7.5'. The conventions we run at Fort Meigs fortmeigs.org have 30"x 6' and 30"x8' tables. I prefer GMs to use 5x6 or 5x8 but larger games are still allowed. The answer to all of the questions is personal needs or available space. (Less if you are married.)

As Martin Goddard wrote WRG and Phil Barker but I think it had to do with DBA and then DBM, DBMM…

Precision placing of items over 3ft from am edge, is to me not practical, so a table wider than 6 ft would make no sence at all.

Pushers (used move items 0n a map of a large section of the UK during the battke of Britain) would only be practical if there were no significan terrain in the way and no terrain, just flat board beyond 3 ft, again the real world may not agree to conform to such fantasy rules.

For shorter folk or folk with less mobility even a 3 ft stretch may bee tough, 4ft has a lot going for it. For thre will come a time when perhaps I wont as I'm 69 now.

Arm reach and creaky backs.

Who says 4 X 6 is the standard? My games are usually 5 x 6 or larger. I wasn't aware of a standard size.

The 4x8 plywood sheet table was one of the "standard" table sizes, and in my experience, many people would move the terrain pieces towards the center to allow either a 12 inch per side or a 24 inch on one side area for rulebooks, dice rolling, reinforcements, casualties, etc.
4x4 worked well for small games, but people didn't like playing two small games on a shared 4x8 table.
Since people were usually only really using 4x6 of a 4x8 table, and you can fit more 4x6 tables into the same space, it seems to have become a workable compromise.

Since the center of a 4 foot table can usually be reached from either side, you can put two together for large games (6x8) or even three for really large games (6x12) – both of which I have done for multiplayer/team FoW games.

Just a casual observation, all of my kitchen tables over the last 40-50 years have been 4x6.

When I built my modular table the MDF sheets I used for the table tops were within a couple of millimetres of 2 feet x 4 feet. Bolting three together gives a 6 x 4 playing surface. I'm guessing that the size of commonly available materials has an impact as does the maximum board size you can get into a family car. Not everyone has a Transit van available!

dining rooms

My wild guess is its based on the type of folding tables common in church halls back in the 1970-1990's in the UK, and I suppose the US. This tended to be slightly more than 2ft by 6ft, so two gave you a playing area of about 4x6. In metric countries most tables were a similar size. Today the standard table sizes have changed, at least in metric countries, but is still rather close to 6x4', if a bit deeper and not as long.

Just a casual observation, all of my kitchen tables over the last 40-50 years have been 4x6.

The other theory is its the size of dinning room tables.

Joedog has it correct. 4' by 6' tables gives the optimum options for configuring a gaming space. You can play a game using one table or combine two to get 8' by 6' or three to get a 12' by 6' table. It is the versatility that makes this approach so useful. Of course, the foundation of it all is the 4' by 8' sheet of plywood.

There are also logistic issues with some playing area sizes, basically being able to comfortable reach over the entire playing area. This video covers this in more detail;
youtu.be/5urqxyvqpO8

Because these days i don't like lines in my playing area i base it on a 4'x3' MDF sheet. One gives me most of the games i play these days and two gives me a 4'x6' playing area, which is a common size for low scale rules. For group games i keep it at 4' deep and make it as wide as necessary.

As for tables, i use three fold out tables, each are about 90cm deep (3') by about 180cm wide (6'). These three tables can generally give me whatever size i need, with some space for charts and tables. I normally game in my garage so i need to be able to setup and pack away quickly.