Memory Lane - Part 11

 I have done a lot in the hobby at all levels, but those early days were probably the best, as, along with Alan, we groped around and found out about this still young and formative hobby, with all the wonders it brought.

We were a long, long way from drawing together all the threads, probably 6 months at least, but we didn't know that we were literally 'there' at the point where gaming was becoming something, albeit a deliciously underground something, and at the point where Games Workshop, really was just that.

We felt like kings, with around 50 figures between us, and a few D6, playing the 4 Heritage mini-games time and time again, often mixing the encounters from one with those from others or (and remember that we had not yet discovered White Dwarf or any mags beyond Military Modelling) using the characters from each, in a similar way.

While my family watched the wedding of Charles & Diana, I sat in the dining area in the family caravan (it was a bank holiday) and took a sheet of A3 20mm hex paper (you could buy it by the sheet back then) and drew out two encounter maps for my two minigames. I divided the sheet into four bands and in each, drew on the features oof the encounters described. 

You see, at that time, we needed a board to give us a focus. There were no guidelines for this in the little rulebooks, it just sort of seemed logical to created the boards that were obviously not going to be included in such a tiny box, which contained, figures, rules, dice, paints and brush.

But, beyond these few accoutrements of war, we were completely fucking clueless. And, initially, we didn't go back down to The Moor for a while.

After all, Sheffield was a busy and interesting place in 1981with May Day marches, massive CND protests, because Sheffield has always had more than it's fair share of Leftist loafers, and as a result, the city centre was often 'off limits' to us by parental dictat at weekends, and it would not be unti later in the year that we worked out the 'after school dash'method of shopping (see the previous posts)

 

But, eventually we were walking down The Moor, one sunny morning, clad in the 'Pilot' jackets so beloved of the time (the embroidered denim jackets and obsession with growing some serious hair were still a year away) when we noticed a long, LONG queue outside Games Workshop, with loads of wonderfully costumed people, talking up the crowd. Now, I never found out who these were, but we did have a few sci-fi societies back than and these were what would now be called cosplayers. The originality in these costumes was amazing.

If you were there, you'll know what I mean.

It does seem that other GW openings (for this is what it was) had similar marauding bands. Anyway, in we went when the queue started moving and this would be when I probably first ran into Lisa, AKA 'The YOPpit' - You either know or you don't, and if you don't wou were born too late and will have to ask Lisa, who, on that day od wondrous bargains, sold me - a D20 and a sheet of hex paper, along with a badge. Not a large spend, but remember, we had beaten the crowd and done our shopping ages ago :)

And yes, I still have the D20 and the badge...

You can see a couple of pictures of the opening day in the excellent 'The Dice Men' book , including Lisa's sparro-like legs and obligatory 80s knitwear, but she was so short arsed that she was blocked out by the towering Peter Berry (yes, he of Baccus 6mm fame).

We also bagged the Sheffield Samurai opening day figure (and a load more a week later when they were sold off in 3s for about 75p. The Sheffield Samurai is probably the worst store opening figure ever, and I think the Perrys must have been having a bad day when they came up with that one... Why couldn't we have a Dwarven blacksmith instead of that fucking god-awful samurai?

However, this really marked the start of the descent into wargames, rioleplaying and a wasted life.

So, I'll leave the tale here for now as it's a Bank Holiday and I want to go and find a rather good seafood restaurant that Yorkshire Life was raving about last month.

 

TTFN