Middle Age As A Gateway Drug To Hardcore 'Class A' Gaming
I realised the other day - not for the first time- that I am not getting any younger.
With just 5 weeks until I hit my half-century, I thought I'd go back through my 40 years of gaming and look at some of the games I'd missed out on playing, ignored or just simply snubbed, out of a sense of youthful arrogance.
The one thing I did raise in doings so, and upon reflection, was that my peers were a pretty staid and boring bunch when it came to gaming. Nice chaps for the most part, but so many of them played a single or maybe two systems, at a time when there were so many games you could all own half a dozen different systems and be pretty certain that you'd get a game.
Now, some of my friends, such as Roger and Leccy were as addicted as I to all forms of gaming. Hell, if it involved dice, figures and a tape measure, we were 'up for it'. Darren, was also pretty game for a game, but the majority were either historical gamers of the old school, D&D or Runequest players, who might, might, tackle the odd board game.
This meant that I ended up with a 6 foot pile of rules systems next to my bed by the time I was 15 and very few of them actually got played because of those miserable bastards.
Twilight 2000 had a good following at the wargames club, so we did get a few sessions in before people drifted away, unable to see the possibilities for a 'real world' setting. Ring world made a good attempt, but the pace of the game and detail killed it off, but not before Darren lost his pet hamster in the game, to the surly Kzin, played by Togs Bamford whose inventive use of the food processing unit on his flycycle was a benchmark in gaming as far as I am concerned. And Darren a vegetarian in real life... TUT!
Anyway, I realised last weekend that I really miss White Dwarf (yes I do have them all in electronic format but it's just not the same), Star Frontiers; would rather like to try Golden Heroes again and after reading a few old books on RPGs from the era, fancied Commando and Gangster. There's a hankering for Gamma World too - God forgive me!
6 days later, and I have located and purchased two sets of White Dwarf 1-100. I won't go any higher because they are piss poor beyond that point, and are well and truly GW catalogues and nothing more. Hell, it was pretty shaky in the top of the 90-somethings, but 100's a good round number.
I bought about 30 copies from an eBay seller who listed them as sold as seen... Alas having seen them today, they are going back. I line my budgie cage with better paper - honestly. There'll be a bit of a skirmish but I'm pretty confident that I'll get a refund in the end.
On the subject of the games listed, I have managed to get Gangster (tatty on the box but for £2?), Command (looks untouched at £6) and Star Frontiers and Knight Hawks for £26 (fair even in reasonable condition).
And then, because you always decide you want something else (well, I do) I was reminiscing about Games Of Liverpool, a truly fantastic shop in it's day that blew even an old style GW out of the water, when I recalled the cellars full of Grenadier boxed sets, with their evocative covers and Andrew Chernak sculpts. Uh oh...
Well I remembered the Secret Agents & Spies sets which comprised two 12 figure boxes. One was spies and agents of various types and the other was mercenaries and command types. All of them were wonderfully attired in that late 70s to early 80s, action movie style. I never bought them because frankly I never thought I need them and besides, I had a lot of Platoon 20 models back then, also purchased from Games for the most part.
Well, you know how this is going to end up... I bought a set of the agents and two boxes of the Mercenaries on eBay, complete with original boxes and al the equipment sprues.
This means that I am now going to have to run Mercenaries, Spies & Private Eyes or Top Secret , this leading to another mini spending spree, but that's OK, because it's now or never I think.
I guess, I'll also need to buy a set of Imagine and Sorcerer's Apprentice magazines won't I? And what about Car Wars?
And to cap it off, I also want to play Paranoia. One of the worst sessions of any game I ever endured was when Darren ran Paranoia 'by the book' and I went through characters faster than girlfriends, that week. It was hell, and thus I really need to revisit it and become reacquainted with it.
Oh dear! Am I starting to froth? I fear I am...
TTFN
PS: I have also now realised that I need Lords Of Creation and Star Ace... DAMN!
With just 5 weeks until I hit my half-century, I thought I'd go back through my 40 years of gaming and look at some of the games I'd missed out on playing, ignored or just simply snubbed, out of a sense of youthful arrogance.
The one thing I did raise in doings so, and upon reflection, was that my peers were a pretty staid and boring bunch when it came to gaming. Nice chaps for the most part, but so many of them played a single or maybe two systems, at a time when there were so many games you could all own half a dozen different systems and be pretty certain that you'd get a game.
Now, some of my friends, such as Roger and Leccy were as addicted as I to all forms of gaming. Hell, if it involved dice, figures and a tape measure, we were 'up for it'. Darren, was also pretty game for a game, but the majority were either historical gamers of the old school, D&D or Runequest players, who might, might, tackle the odd board game.
This meant that I ended up with a 6 foot pile of rules systems next to my bed by the time I was 15 and very few of them actually got played because of those miserable bastards.
Twilight 2000 had a good following at the wargames club, so we did get a few sessions in before people drifted away, unable to see the possibilities for a 'real world' setting. Ring world made a good attempt, but the pace of the game and detail killed it off, but not before Darren lost his pet hamster in the game, to the surly Kzin, played by Togs Bamford whose inventive use of the food processing unit on his flycycle was a benchmark in gaming as far as I am concerned. And Darren a vegetarian in real life... TUT!
Anyway, I realised last weekend that I really miss White Dwarf (yes I do have them all in electronic format but it's just not the same), Star Frontiers; would rather like to try Golden Heroes again and after reading a few old books on RPGs from the era, fancied Commando and Gangster. There's a hankering for Gamma World too - God forgive me!
6 days later, and I have located and purchased two sets of White Dwarf 1-100. I won't go any higher because they are piss poor beyond that point, and are well and truly GW catalogues and nothing more. Hell, it was pretty shaky in the top of the 90-somethings, but 100's a good round number.
I bought about 30 copies from an eBay seller who listed them as sold as seen... Alas having seen them today, they are going back. I line my budgie cage with better paper - honestly. There'll be a bit of a skirmish but I'm pretty confident that I'll get a refund in the end.
On the subject of the games listed, I have managed to get Gangster (tatty on the box but for £2?), Command (looks untouched at £6) and Star Frontiers and Knight Hawks for £26 (fair even in reasonable condition).
And then, because you always decide you want something else (well, I do) I was reminiscing about Games Of Liverpool, a truly fantastic shop in it's day that blew even an old style GW out of the water, when I recalled the cellars full of Grenadier boxed sets, with their evocative covers and Andrew Chernak sculpts. Uh oh...
Well I remembered the Secret Agents & Spies sets which comprised two 12 figure boxes. One was spies and agents of various types and the other was mercenaries and command types. All of them were wonderfully attired in that late 70s to early 80s, action movie style. I never bought them because frankly I never thought I need them and besides, I had a lot of Platoon 20 models back then, also purchased from Games for the most part.
Well, you know how this is going to end up... I bought a set of the agents and two boxes of the Mercenaries on eBay, complete with original boxes and al the equipment sprues.
This means that I am now going to have to run Mercenaries, Spies & Private Eyes or Top Secret , this leading to another mini spending spree, but that's OK, because it's now or never I think.
I guess, I'll also need to buy a set of Imagine and Sorcerer's Apprentice magazines won't I? And what about Car Wars?
And to cap it off, I also want to play Paranoia. One of the worst sessions of any game I ever endured was when Darren ran Paranoia 'by the book' and I went through characters faster than girlfriends, that week. It was hell, and thus I really need to revisit it and become reacquainted with it.
Oh dear! Am I starting to froth? I fear I am...
TTFN
PS: I have also now realised that I need Lords Of Creation and Star Ace... DAMN!
Give in to your urges and froth to your heart’s content!
ReplyDelete