It's 05:32 and after being awoken by our eldest dog who is now diabetic and blind, I'm wide awake and partaking of a fruit tea (mixed berry, no sweetening) and listening to 'The Sleeping Forecast' from Radio 3 Unwind, which is rapidly becoming a 'go to' when I want to mentally unwind or simply allow my mind to drift in the aether. The March 16th edition is particularly excellent - go and listen to it. It's been a busy week, and made moreso by the fact that Nothern Powergrid are cutting power to our close for 6 hours today, meaning that I will be unable to work. This has meant I've had to put in extra hours to cover it, this week, but it also means I'm taking a long weekend, which means I can spend the day at Chatsworth House and see the latest exhibition followed by a nice lunch. It's now late March and by design, I've not been to a wargames show since the rather abysmal Vapnartak in January. Hammerhead passed without notice and Partizan is ...

 Good lord, it's two and a half weeks since last I put finger to keyboard... I have been busy with getting to grips with one of the 4 Scottish Terriers who doss down here and sometimes pay their way with cuddles or ironic looks, going blind in a matter of days due to diabetes and thereby needing twice-daily insulin shots , as well as a really intense month at work.  So, please forgive me - or don't as you see fit. I have given much thought to the roots of my gaming and indeed, the way that gaming is largely nothing like it was, back when it was a subversive, underground subculture instead of the faux-nerd fashion icon it is today. Shiny, everything is shiny and bright, but much of it is a polished turd, to be honest, so much inconsequential rubbish and flabby (like so many of thoseindulging in it) rulebooks which don't actually do anything more than fulfill the 'GW Standard Template' for rulebooks. Oh, for a company that could come up with a no-nonsense set of rules...

 OK, before I start, let's get the groundwork laid out.  I was lucky to 'come up' right at the start of the 'breakout' of gaming, beginning as I did in 1981 - It's 45 years ago, but feels still, like just a few months have passed. I am not your typical 'old fart' in cardigan, crimpolene trousers and comb over. At almost 58, I have long hair becuse I can and because that's who I am, I favour bright coloured t shirts, collect leather jackets (if leather offends you - deal with it) and outrageously bright footwwear, accessorising with 'women's' scarves and floral scents because - yes, I can, and because it is counter to the cultural norms for a hetrosexual man of my years. I rub people the wrong way aesthetically... This is nothing new. This is right and proper... I was the eldest child in a very traditional and staid family, which as a child with imaginative overkill syndrome, could make life difficult.   At age 12, in a school of a thousan...

 I've been so busy with things that frankly, I've not had much time on my hands for the contemplation of the hobby. One thing I have realised however, is that I don't really need to go to shows anymore. For the first time in years, yesterday, I didn't bother going to Hammerhead. Instead we popped into the Crucible Theatre for a light and excellent lunch, followed by a peek in the Millennium Galleries and an excellent exhibition on the subject of Storms in the Ruskin Gallery. This came after two consequetive nights at the Crucible Playhouse listening to a concert fro two pianos on Thursday and then, on Friday a blistering jazz performance from the Denys Baptiste Quartet, whose young pianist, Sultan Stevenson is outstanding. Even if Jazz is not your thing, have a listen to his own albums - they're excellent. Well, we are into March and the year is blisteringly busy. I do want to crack on with a few more trips down memory lane, but I need to find a bit more time for th...

 Finding the hobby was something I'll always be thankful for. As I remarked to Roger just last night, if I'd had the kind of conversations in the early 80s with school friends, that I've had recently with those same people, I'd probably have never discovered or got into gaming at all. An odd and somewhat unsettling thought, but I'm sure that would have been the outcome.  Thus, I'd not have been talking to Roger... When I got that first Holmes edit of the D&D rules from Hopkinson's Toys on The Gallery in Sheffield, I quickly absorbed the wjhole rulebook in a way I must can't do today.  I was totally hooked and being a kid and not put off by the incompatbility of things, I bought T1 Village of Hommlet and worked around the lack of Rangers in Basic D&D with Alan and Harvey getting stuck into the scenario with gusto. My very first dungeon was the one included at the back of the Holmes rules, and the players came a cropper with a Black Pudding, lurkin...

 Satanic Panic miniatures launch the start of a truly massive new range of Chaotic minis on Kickstarter in March 2026 with 135 Champions of Misrule and 15 shields with which to customise them even further for a unique army -  your  army. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/satanicpanic/champions-of-misrule-28mm-metal-old-school-fantasy-figures