1830: Railways and Robber Barons B&O Charter Board

This small board is used in 1830 by the president of the Baltimore & Ohio; there is one such board for each public company. Its purpose is to store company assets, such as trains and money, and keep them separate from the player's personal assets. It does not in fact have anything in common with an actual corporate charter. It is essentially a physical mnemonic device, and there are no rules governing its use: experienced players could easily play without using charters.

 This lack of associated rules means the object does not fall  on the event-process spectrum. Further, there is nothing of concrete historical detail on the charter. However, it is included here as an example of how board games can use art assets and other thematic elements to give a game an air of the historic. The charter does so via the illustrations of old steam locmotives (which may or may not be based in reality), and the off-yellow color which suggests old paper. These elements contribute to the game's overall historical theme, a sense of connection to the simulated events and period, even though they are not necessarily grounded in identifiable historical fact.