In this episode we discover the seven ages of White Dwarf with @DailyDwarf and the First Last and everything from Nick Edwards.
We also bang on a bit about the Patreon which has got some new goals.
Episode 29 (Part 2) White Dwarf the RPG years
In this episode we discover the seven ages of White Dwarf with @DailyDwarf and the First Last and everything from Nick Edwards.
We also bang on a bit about the Patreon which has got some new goals.
Ah gosh how your bit about the adverts got to me.
Esdevium Games were and still are (though they’re now called Asmodee and are also into publishing games) primarily the chief distributor of imported games in the UK so naturally they had everything. I assume the adverts in WD were to boost their postal business.
Games of Liverpool was a pretty good shop but not spectacular when I was in the city doing Children’s Theatre in the late seventies. But what really impressed me about the Liverpool gaming scene was the fact that their largest club had some sort of lease on a derelict office building just around the corner from Games of Liverpool where they held all day meetings every Saturday.
Thanks for the mention of Not Just Stamps. Ah the hours and the money I wasted there! I was broken hearted when it went out of business.
And postal games! All those early computer moderated postal games on dot matrix printed paper with holes at the side to feed them through the printers. They were always too rigid in the types of things your character/tribe/spaceship could do but some people loved them. And then there were the hand moderated postal games which were high art but impossible to make any money on: I know because I tried.
Happy days! EN GARDE and WHERE LIES THE POWER and TRIBES OF CRANE… Part of the hobby that doesn’t happen any more.
Asmodee do Talisman Digital Edition, which is now on Android, and currently consuming many unrecoverable hours
As always loving the episode. All of the names and games that were a huge part of my life growing up. Like many I used to devour the ads, I would read so much into just the title of a book that I might never see in the wild – even then I was living vicariously with a head full of nonsense and daydreams.
Couple of things – what was with the white print on black background in some full page adverts. Luckily my eyesight was great back then; now I’m struggling a bit.
And lastly, NOT JUST STAMPS, my local(ish) LGS got a mention. With hindsight you weren’t missing much by not visiting but for a number of years I made semi regular pilgrimages there. I’d love to see photos or hear more stories of the place but the Internet is not helping me much.
Anyway, thanks to all involved in the podcast etc, keep on rambling.
Carl
Another spiffing episode, keeping up the quality. My own memories of White Dwarf start to fade at the “first Golden Age”, I only really remember the early editions, as my group was AD&D we faded into Imagine, Dragon and Dungeon. And the onset of computer gaming took hold as my group split up (I still have my Spectrum 48).
I fondly remember Cardboard Heroes (SJ Games), although at the time my group had amassed a large combined collection of metal figurines. Recently I wanted to get back into face to face games and didn’t fancy remortgaging my house for a decent collection, not to mention the odious and endless painting, so I managed to get a ton of 2D figurines as PDFs, which means you can print as many as you want (hello Skeleton/Goblin army), even some original Cardboard Heroes that were on sale, but my favourite has to be Rich Burlew’s (Order of the Stick) cartoony sets, all for less than a dozen figurines!
Strange the obsession with adverts with lists, but back in my pre-RPG wargamer days I used to gaze longingly at the advert for SPI games in Airfix Magazine that just included an index of products, saving my pocket money and choosing one, and, just like in adulthood with a cocktail menu, hoping to work my way through them.
I fully understand Dirk’s “white noise” comment, i had the same back in the day with … (looks for speedy exit) … Runequest!
P.S. that B7 outtro sounded like someone got a Casio VL Tone for Christmas, check out the bestest.cover.ever by Geoff Love’s Big Disco Sound (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLM0VoTy8q4).
I think I played “It’s a Crime” once – had no idea what was going on, didn’t much enjoy it, didn’t play again. Otherwise I found the advertisements fascinating, but I don’t think I responded to any of the others.
As I remember it now, most of the articles in Dwarf got mined for ideas rather than used directly in my games…
Nostalgia can be a good thing.
Great episode. Love the WD analysis. Did i hear right? Irillian to be covered in the pod!? Looking forward to that.
Those poor coconuts – ‘you’re doing Esdevium wrong!’ smash.
I particularly remember the merchant npc and the Houri. (?)
Wonderful podcast yet again! I’m very behind and playing catch up!
Listening to yours and Blythy’s thoughts on the ads was great! You describe my emotions when I look through old copies of the magazines exactly! What a magical time it was! Time travel made real!
I remember taking a trip half way across London as a boy to visit Games Workshop and Games people play! It was like entering a Secret Aladdin’s cave………the map and guide being a well thumbed copy of White Dwarf!
Last of the Analogue Childhoods!
There seemed to be a Gaming shop in every Town back then
Thank you for spreading the Joy!
ISabrini.