So, HG Wells might have invented tabletop roleplaying. He wrote Little Wars [1] in 1913.
The full text of the book is available online [2] for those that want to read it.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Wars
@minimaldotclick Early in the text he mentions Floor Games: https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks15/1500561h.html
@rjrjr thanks for the link. I’m going to read it now!