Wednesday 19 February 2014

40 Years of Adventure

My job has been exceptionally busy over the last few weeks and as a result I have had very little opportunity to write anything for the Blog or paint anything for the Analogue Challenge. I'm still very busy but I am slowly getting to grips with my suddenly increased workload and hopefully things will return to some sort of equilibrium over the next couple of weeks. I'm hoping to have a new entry for the Challenge by the end of the week (I've already submitted my Casualty bonus entry) and I am trying to catch up on the huge back load of Blog Posts that I haven't had a chance to read. I'll get there eventually, but it may take a couple of weeks! 


D&D Red Box - My Introduction to Adventure
One event that almost passed me by unnoticed was the 40th anniversary of the Dungeons and Dragons roleplaying game. My own involvement with this game started over 30 years ago when I was about 12 or 13. I was first introduced to D&D through a friend - after a very brief apprenticeship in fantasy gaming through the Fighting Fantasy solo gaming books by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. It was a short step from these adventure books to proper roleplaying when I and some of my friends bought the now famous Frank Mentzer 'Red Box' rulebooks. We played the sample scenario given in the Dungeon Masters booklet and I still vividly remember my first combat victory against a Carrion CrawlerMy character was a stereotypical Barbarian hero called Vulcan the Slayer (facepalm!) and that first game was a simple monster bashing adventure, but I loved it, and I was instantly hooked for life.

This was also the time when I painted my first model - a Knight in black armour with gold edging - using the only paints I had available at the time, some Humbrol enamels. It was an awful paint job but at the time I was very proud of it. I was one of only a handful of player's to use a fully painted miniature in those early games and although the techniques and materials I use have changed a lot since then, I still hold true to the principle that I never game with naked metal! Unfortunately that first mini was lost a long time ago and its only now I look back and wished I had realised that this was a special possession marking the start of a lifelong hobby. I can't remember where I even bought the model, but back then there seemed to be plenty of small independent games shops to choose from. 

A picture of me before I became 'BigLee' circa 1985
(clearly 'Selfies' are not a new phenomenon!)
Our small group consisted mostly of friends from school and although the composition of the group changed a bit over the years the core members continued to play together for nearly three decades more. In the early years we would meet for games at least once a week and we even ran a charity game in school with some of the teachers joining in! When University or jobs beckoned we played less often but for many years we still managed bi-weekly games and it was D&D that kept us in touch with each other more than anything else.

Most of the group have run games over the years and I have twice adopted the role of Dungeon Master for short campaigns. This picture shows me preparing for a game sometime around 1985. We were still using the red box 'basic' rules at the time but we had also bought the Blue 'Expert' box and the Black 'Master' boxes as they became available. I would happily spend hours planning out huge underground complexes, stocking them with all manner of monsters, traps and treasures.

Most of the time we would create our own 'dungeons' but we would also reach for inspiration in the pages of Dragon magazine and even the earlier editions of White Dwarf. One such dungeon complex I developed was based on an article in WD43 called The Hive of the Hrrr'l which featured creatures called the Flymen. I expanded the original maps into a huge complex of rooms and chambers which kept us busy for many many weeks. In later years, using the 3rd edition rules I designed an entire world setting called The Isles of Ethos and my players fought their way through two long story arcs before we moved on to the 4th Edition rules.

Nearly all the members of my first D&D group are
pictured here. 
D&D and painting inevitably and rapidly led to our involvement in other games and our first flirtation with wargaming in the form of Warhammer Fantasy Battle, WH40k, and Epic 40k. This of course was in the days when my friends and I still had disposable incomes (student loans mostly!) and before careers and families nibbled away at our spare time. For a long time we wargames and roleplayed simultaneously depending on who could attend a game and where we were playing. If we had space to lay out a wargame on a floor we would play WFB and if we didn't we could happily pick up where we left off in our D&D campaigns. 


Over the years many of my early gaming buddies have moved on and moved away and as far as I know I'm the only one still playing with toy soldiers on a regular basis. But although we are not gaming on a regular basis most of us still keep in touch - through the wonders of social media - and we still occasionally gather for an impromptu board game or one off RPG game. I credit the strength and endurance of our friendships entirely down to the hours we spent 'adventuring' together as young adults. Yes we were socially awkward geeks but through the enduring power of collaborative roleplaying games like D&D we became slightly less socially awkward adults... and I wouldn't trade a minute of it for anything else. 

27 comments:

  1. Very nostalgic, BL! I played some AD&D around 3 years back, it was hugely enjoyable. Nice to have the old photos!

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    1. I'm 'old school' and definately prefered the games we had using the basic rules. They were simple and fun and were not overcomplicated by a dozen rulebooks and supplements!

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  2. I also played a loooot of D&D when I was a teenager and still have my Ral Partha and Citadel minis stored somewhere in my parents' house. We were a minority in Spain, as the hobby was basically limited to those (few) of us lucky enough to go to the UK or the USA during the summers to learn English, and the lack of translated books. Many of my friends thought I was a lunatic fighting monsters and painting little metal figures during my holidays and weekends

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    1. Ah yes, back in the day before the Internet made purchasing mini's from another country easy! All my early purchases of mini's and rules were from local shops...but living on the edge of London did give me access to many more retailers than most people I guess.

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    2. It's strange isn't it, on the one hand the internet has made buying miniatures so much easier but "back in the day" when those small independents were around the was no greater treat than going off to choose some figures and getting the instant satisfaction of ownership followed by dashing home and slapping an amateurish coat of enamel on them, I've still got some of my originals and the paintwork is scarily bad! Ahh happy days! I started on original Runequest and like you it was with a group of mates from school I believe I'm the only one from that group still gaming as well.

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    3. I've stripped and repainted a fair few of my original miniatures in just the last few years. When I've done it though, I've been careful to be true to the original scheme, just updating the materials and techniques. The difference in materials and finish is amazing and reflects how far I've come from flat colours and enamel paints.

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    4. Simon - When I started gaming there were four Independents in my local area, and a couple of chains that stocked a limited range of mini's and games as well. Some went out of business and some were bought by GW who subsequently closed them. If it were not for the Internet I would have little choice but to go into London to find a retailer to buy from.
      Michael - Unfortunately none of my very early models have survived in my possession. I deeply regret not keeping hold of them now.

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  3. Never had a chance to play it and feel I missed out, that picture of you has freaked me out!

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    1. Yes, I was young once, and slim.

      I was just lucky to have a group of friends that all discovered the game together and were able to form a gaming group quite easily. At the time there were no roleplaying clubs in my home town and the later club that did spring up died out after just a few years.

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    2. Not just slim, you didn't have such a big middle parting either!!!!

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    3. I lament the loss of my hair almost as much as I lament the loss of my youth.

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  4. I've played D&D since 1978, glad to see these pics and to read that...a bit of nostalgie! This was a great time for me too, thanks for this post!

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  5. Excellent memories Lee, your post virtually mirrors directly my own start in the hobby, though I was never much of a DM/GM... thanks for sharing...
    ...early pictures eh? Cor, was I ever that young!?

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    1. I wish I had taken more photo's back in the old days. Hmmm... Maybe its time I put out the call to all my old gaming buddies to see if they have any pictures from back then to add to the collection.

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  6. What a cracking post. Thanks for sharing that Lee. I feel exactly the same way about the fun I've had and the lifelong friends I've made. Our path is very similar and it seems plenty of others too including Scott B.

    I'm currently running a Red Box D&D campaign and loving every minute of it. One of the mates playing I've known and gamed with for 30+ years.

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    1. I still have my Red Box and occassionally run a game for my kids

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  7. The 80's...can't beat 'em...1985? I was bouncing up and down the drill square at the Guards Depot, Pirbright... yikes!!!

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  8. SNAP! Red box D&D and Fighting Fantasy is the same place I started. Next came Grenadier miniatures and Humbrol paints. Battletech was discovered and years later WHFB. Wow...what a journey.
    Thanks for the reminder. Might have to echo your post and share my own history of gaming.
    Cheers Lee

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  9. I remember playing that back in the day! Didn't it come with Keep on the Borderlands? Anyhow, I think that was the first adventure I did. Even though I'm a tabletop wargamer these many years now, my gaming roots were started in D&D. Not really surprising as I lived in Minneapolis MN in my youth so finding a gaming group was not much of a problem!:-)

    Christopher

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    1. I think Keep on the Borderlands was included in an earlier version of the Basic Set. By the time I bought the Mentzer edition of the Basic Rules - the Red Box - it was being sold as a seperate adventure module ('B2' I belive).

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  10. Really amazing how D&D has been such a gateway and touchstone for so many of us around the world. One can't help but wonder how much that little game has influenced world culture. On one hand it is undeniably a very geeky thing that many people even today in the age of the geek, are still a little ashamed to admit they've participated in. Yet it is so undeniably culturally influential and important.

    Great post btw! As always your blog is top notch sir!

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    1. It is ironic that D&D Roleplaying developed from a skirmish wargame (Chainmail) and in turn inspired a whole new generation of gamers who eventaully found their way back to wargames.

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  11. The Red Box...I remember it...I played it...sometimes...since I' m a wargamer, or better, a miniature player... :-)

    Marzio.

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  12. Really, really fantastic post, Lee. So very much of this is very familiar to me! The friendships I made at school and at my local wargames club have stayed with me a lifetime. So much of the early 1980s I can remember because of which role playing game we were playing, or which wargame we were painting figures for. Very special times indeed so so many wargamers ..... I loved your post - it's good to be nostalgic sometimes!

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  13. Gosh a time machine. Took me straight back to my first adventures. D&D bar room brawl.

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  14. I agree with you the olde Skhool rules were much more fun to play with fewer supplements and less complicated.

    My earliest memories were playing D&D in a club set up in Swansea University, I must have been around the same age as you and we used self drawn character sheets and plastic figures.

    Later I built a White Board with graph paper under stick-back-plastic and we had a real time gaming board.

    Great memories.

    Tony

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