So, here goes:
In the beginning…
…Miniatures
I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t interested in miniature figures of one sort or another – whether it was my Play People Knights of the Round Table, my very first Star Wars figures (bizarrely Obi Wan and Princess Leia), 18mm Desert Rats and Vikings – just about anything. It was on holiday to Morecambe about age 11 that I first came across “proper” metal minis – very early Dungeons and Dragons figures and from there, wherever Glasgow’s pretty limited metal figures shopping opportunities and White Dwarf’s sometimes-bizarre mail order options permitted I hoovered up just about everything I came across – metals, plastics and a little resin from just about any scale and genre. God bless Citadel Miniatures, Grenadier, Prince August (and some early attempts at home smeltry) and Ral Partha. I still do to some extent – I am still as likely to pick up a Marvel Heroclick as a Night Elf thief as a Space Marine, although the scale has pretty much settled at 25-35mm.
…Gaming
My gaming life has had three or four big phases. First aged 14-16ish there was the D&D phase (though in fact we played using GW’s Warhammer 1st Edition – a truly lovely mash up of roleplay and wargame). Then, if it can be described as a phase there was the “no gaming at all” phase between 16 and maybe 35, although during that whole time I never truly lost interest, still picking up the odd rule or source book, magazine or scenario. Then came the 40k phase, as PSD and I re-discovered a love for things that went “dakka dakka dakka”.
In time PSD’s chum Briogenese joined us and our gaming interest widened a smidgeon. In particular, Bri awoke in me an interest not in roleplay per se, but certainly in narrative skirmish games: from this, came Throne Agent, my first skirmish game and from there Dr Who The Game, a narrative minis game written for my daughter Molly (who was then nine) and which focusses on story and character over shooting and punching – we still play and I still love writing scenarios (we are now up to about Episode 20, so it has some staying power!).
Finally, Robert (Attica’s TechnoR!ab) joined our wee gaming group and his interest in card and boardgames as well as more rules-driven gaming (a la Malifaux) added probably the final element to our gaming sessions. Robert and PSD have since become ‘Faux-ists extraordinaire. I am yet to see the light.
