10-19-2007, 12:57 AM
The Paper Time Machine
Where WAYNE finds himself trapped for several hours in the world of games gone past ...
IT HAPPENED so suddenly, so immediately, that I still can't believe it. Some people call it 'alien abduction', others call it a 'time slip', but all I can tell you is that one minute I was attempting to pull down shelves in my living-room and the next I was transported to an age gone by, long, long ago. This was a place where the time-line continually swirled and twisted, so all sense of linear time was lost. I emerged from this world-gone-by almost five hours later, an emotional and mental wreck, but it is my duty to report what I experienced, so please read on ...
The place I was transported to was a world where roleplaying and PBM overlapped. Here the likes of Bob Bost, Al Tabor, John Rayment and Judith Proctor were still writing intelligent, incisive PBM reviews: JJ Clink was still wearing an anorak and playing (and reviewing) complicated PBM games, while John Dent enlightened and entertained us all with graphic descriptions of what his latest, long-legged, big-busted, voluptuous female character was up to in a hand-moderated game.
In the RPG world, Joe Dever worked in a role-playing shop in Tottenham Court Road, London, W1 with various other people who were destined to make it big in the role-playing world: Dungeons and Dragons rulebooks were A5 in size, miniature pure-lead figures cost 20p each while war gamers were decrying the fact that E Gary Gygax's new D&D game was the end of the war-gaming hobby as they knew it.
Back in PBM land Mo Holkar was playing evil, back stabbing characters in Saturnalia; Nick Palmer MP was plain Nicky Palmer, the man who surely must have been slowly killing himself writing anything up to four reviews an issue for Flagship: the Shulkinds (Phil and Dee) kept the hobby on its toes with outspoken opinion and unflinching criticism, while Bob Middleton was running Keys of Medoch. Midgard was the 'in' PBM game to play, being dominated by the fiendishly clever and ultimate diplomat, Alan 'The Getham' Crump, while John 'The Banner' Dent was secretly playing The Cult of The Dark One and stitching up all and sundry, especially his best mate!
In the meantime, Hilary Hayes and Ashley Perryman were writing challenging PBM reviews and enjoyable letters to Flagship. In these heady times, PBM pub-meets grew and flourished eventually turning into bi-annual PBM conventions in both London and Sheffield organised by the BPBMA. These were the times when John Woodall, Ken Borer and Ken Mulholland were still with us, each impacting with PBM hobby in his own inimitable and individual way, with discussion/disagreement being an enjoyable, not-to-say thought-provoking, part of the hobby.
At this time White Dwarf was a roleplaying magazine, covering such up and coming games as Traveller, Rune-Quest and Call of Cuthulu. Indeed at this time two young firebrands were shaking up the RPG market - one Greg Stafford and Steve Jackson (US version). Here Don Turnbull and Marcus L Rowland were expanding on new roleplaying rules and roles, and rumours were rife that a new 'Advanced' form of Dungeons and Dragons was soon to be forthcoming.
RPG 'Meets' were all the rage at this time, with the biggest and baddest meet of all being 'Dragonmeet' at the Horticultural Hall, just off Victoria, London W1. Everyone went, played loads of games, chatted and got blind drunk. Friendships were made, games discussed and gaming groups formed. The place was packed and some companies made a killing - so much so that at one late 80s Games Workshop-organised con, some young spirited blond-haired punk-rocker managed to make his way to the microphone, as everyone was being forced to leave, and made the now-legendary announcement 'We've got your money now f**k off home!!!'
PBM, never a backwards organisation, soon made use of these RPG-meets. They went along, advertised their wares and attracted a new audience. Soon individual companies were having their own meets - Sat-meets (Saturnalia) Crasi-meets (Crasimoff's World) and Hunt-meets (The Hunting). These meets introduced us (in the flesh) to such PBM luminaries as Kevin Cropper, Nigel Mitchell, Andy Smith (Crasimoff's World): Neil Packer, Simon Letts (Saturnalia) and Dave Cooksey (The Hunting). Legendary days passed - Kevin Cropper smashing a full beer can over his head in tune with Gary Glitter's Rock and Roll: Part II, John Woodall's drop kick to a parking meter, low punch to the slot machine and reverse peristalsis into a pint glass, managing to fill it completely to the brim with vomit; the four-hour version of the Mad boardgame played by 24 people, where everyone sat in a marquis at Blackpool beach one cold, November Saturday with their shirts off and their pants on their head! These images go on ...
There were times when Alan Crump, a man of letters, enlightened us with his view of the PBM world, and challenged our preconceptions of the hobby. Fanzines (Totally Zane and Start-up and Two Free Turns) had massive circulations and Martin Webb and Peter Thornhill were regular, entertaining and humorous contributors to Flagship, bringing us their enjoyable view on current games.
Then the pace of my time travel speeded up: various old and defunct periodicals flew by: The Adventurer, Fantasy Chronicles, Imagine, Gamesman, The Last Province, Games Master and Games Master International and then with a mental bang I was brought back to the current time-line, the current version of Flagship laying closed and limp in my hand.
Five hours had gone by, an untidy mountainous-range of old magazines was strewn across the floor and my shelves were still as sturdy and as upright as ever. That will teach me to sit down and read piles of old magazines instead of getting on with the job at hand. Mind you it was good fun and brought back great memories of games, people, places and events from times gone by. I must remember to get into my paper time machine and fly back to the past more often!
Where WAYNE finds himself trapped for several hours in the world of games gone past ...
IT HAPPENED so suddenly, so immediately, that I still can't believe it. Some people call it 'alien abduction', others call it a 'time slip', but all I can tell you is that one minute I was attempting to pull down shelves in my living-room and the next I was transported to an age gone by, long, long ago. This was a place where the time-line continually swirled and twisted, so all sense of linear time was lost. I emerged from this world-gone-by almost five hours later, an emotional and mental wreck, but it is my duty to report what I experienced, so please read on ...
The place I was transported to was a world where roleplaying and PBM overlapped. Here the likes of Bob Bost, Al Tabor, John Rayment and Judith Proctor were still writing intelligent, incisive PBM reviews: JJ Clink was still wearing an anorak and playing (and reviewing) complicated PBM games, while John Dent enlightened and entertained us all with graphic descriptions of what his latest, long-legged, big-busted, voluptuous female character was up to in a hand-moderated game.
In the RPG world, Joe Dever worked in a role-playing shop in Tottenham Court Road, London, W1 with various other people who were destined to make it big in the role-playing world: Dungeons and Dragons rulebooks were A5 in size, miniature pure-lead figures cost 20p each while war gamers were decrying the fact that E Gary Gygax's new D&D game was the end of the war-gaming hobby as they knew it.
Back in PBM land Mo Holkar was playing evil, back stabbing characters in Saturnalia; Nick Palmer MP was plain Nicky Palmer, the man who surely must have been slowly killing himself writing anything up to four reviews an issue for Flagship: the Shulkinds (Phil and Dee) kept the hobby on its toes with outspoken opinion and unflinching criticism, while Bob Middleton was running Keys of Medoch. Midgard was the 'in' PBM game to play, being dominated by the fiendishly clever and ultimate diplomat, Alan 'The Getham' Crump, while John 'The Banner' Dent was secretly playing The Cult of The Dark One and stitching up all and sundry, especially his best mate!
In the meantime, Hilary Hayes and Ashley Perryman were writing challenging PBM reviews and enjoyable letters to Flagship. In these heady times, PBM pub-meets grew and flourished eventually turning into bi-annual PBM conventions in both London and Sheffield organised by the BPBMA. These were the times when John Woodall, Ken Borer and Ken Mulholland were still with us, each impacting with PBM hobby in his own inimitable and individual way, with discussion/disagreement being an enjoyable, not-to-say thought-provoking, part of the hobby.
At this time White Dwarf was a roleplaying magazine, covering such up and coming games as Traveller, Rune-Quest and Call of Cuthulu. Indeed at this time two young firebrands were shaking up the RPG market - one Greg Stafford and Steve Jackson (US version). Here Don Turnbull and Marcus L Rowland were expanding on new roleplaying rules and roles, and rumours were rife that a new 'Advanced' form of Dungeons and Dragons was soon to be forthcoming.
RPG 'Meets' were all the rage at this time, with the biggest and baddest meet of all being 'Dragonmeet' at the Horticultural Hall, just off Victoria, London W1. Everyone went, played loads of games, chatted and got blind drunk. Friendships were made, games discussed and gaming groups formed. The place was packed and some companies made a killing - so much so that at one late 80s Games Workshop-organised con, some young spirited blond-haired punk-rocker managed to make his way to the microphone, as everyone was being forced to leave, and made the now-legendary announcement 'We've got your money now f**k off home!!!'
PBM, never a backwards organisation, soon made use of these RPG-meets. They went along, advertised their wares and attracted a new audience. Soon individual companies were having their own meets - Sat-meets (Saturnalia) Crasi-meets (Crasimoff's World) and Hunt-meets (The Hunting). These meets introduced us (in the flesh) to such PBM luminaries as Kevin Cropper, Nigel Mitchell, Andy Smith (Crasimoff's World): Neil Packer, Simon Letts (Saturnalia) and Dave Cooksey (The Hunting). Legendary days passed - Kevin Cropper smashing a full beer can over his head in tune with Gary Glitter's Rock and Roll: Part II, John Woodall's drop kick to a parking meter, low punch to the slot machine and reverse peristalsis into a pint glass, managing to fill it completely to the brim with vomit; the four-hour version of the Mad boardgame played by 24 people, where everyone sat in a marquis at Blackpool beach one cold, November Saturday with their shirts off and their pants on their head! These images go on ...
There were times when Alan Crump, a man of letters, enlightened us with his view of the PBM world, and challenged our preconceptions of the hobby. Fanzines (Totally Zane and Start-up and Two Free Turns) had massive circulations and Martin Webb and Peter Thornhill were regular, entertaining and humorous contributors to Flagship, bringing us their enjoyable view on current games.
Then the pace of my time travel speeded up: various old and defunct periodicals flew by: The Adventurer, Fantasy Chronicles, Imagine, Gamesman, The Last Province, Games Master and Games Master International and then with a mental bang I was brought back to the current time-line, the current version of Flagship laying closed and limp in my hand.
Five hours had gone by, an untidy mountainous-range of old magazines was strewn across the floor and my shelves were still as sturdy and as upright as ever. That will teach me to sit down and read piles of old magazines instead of getting on with the job at hand. Mind you it was good fun and brought back great memories of games, people, places and events from times gone by. I must remember to get into my paper time machine and fly back to the past more often!
Wayne
2004-12-06
2004-12-06
