Grognardia has been running a series of posts on 1970’s roleplaying which have prompted my memories of encountering D&D.
His post showing the No7 edition of white dwarf took me back 5 decades to that moment when D&D took off – well arrived in my backyard.
Here are some figures I have never been able to part with – perhaps it is just the memories of fun attached to them? Well except for one…..
Grognardia reflects on various aspects of D&D and notably the split between historical gamers and fantasy gamers. I was lucky – I started historical and never lost my interest and I also enjoyed those first few years of D&D. And we gamers played anything fantasy/historical no one cared as I recall.
When I returned to the hobby in the 1990’s I felt Fantasy had gone off in a different direction and created a completely new industry. Whereas I could still connect with Historical.
The fantasy world of Warhammer, Gameshop etc. is fantastic but just like sci fi, naval or air warfare it is just a theme. You pick your theme and play the games you like. For a more nuanced and dare I say it very intelligent analysis of fantasy gaming, Grognardia gives you detailed posts in spades.
Finally – painted at the same time minifigs 25mm ECW figures – all podgy faced and extremely well fed to the point of being bloated. The ancestors of todays 28mm monsters?
The Wargaming Erratic 
7 replies on “Grognardia: Dungeons and Dragons reflections”
Takes me back! 🙂 I was never a really a fantasy or D&D type of guy, but did play games that others ran from time to time when I was at high school and it’s nice to see figures that I recognise from (very) old adverts!
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Yes these are proper oldies now, some of the airfix chaps have broken legs and my warrior metals like hinchliffe have weak ankles but otherwise they are in fine condition. I still don’t like the mini figs bloaters yet seem to have bought plenty. Oh well.
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Nice post! Just yesterday I was ruminating about a ‘how did I get started’ post. It’s always fun to think about how that journey happened and what sort of things influenced me. Ral Partha had some really great sculpts. I think my brother still has that Footpad and I believe I posted him up on my blog.
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Thanks for posting-funny thing memories , as I recall the wizard was a natural like the warrior- I don’t recall the gang ( about ten of us) deciding I was a thief 😂 but that was my D&D career 😉
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Sure thing. I miss those days of getting together with friends to make up wild stories for hours on end. Just can’t find the time for that these days, but I guess there’s always the memories! 😀
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One thing I remember was that AD&D and the DM handbooks flooded the space with information. At the time it seemed a great thing but actually killed us. The group fell apart. I think it was the original simple ruleset plus as you say people making up the wild stories that drove the real pleasure. That got replaced by discussing the rules………made by others.🤔
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Totally agree, in later years we abandoned D&D for games with simpler rules and/or cobble together our own. It took me a long time to learn that it wasn’t the rules that made the game great, it was the storytelling aspects.
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