A New Challenge

[fsn]

I will admit to doing some Tunnel & Trolls in my youth, but I was young; it was the 80's; I drank vodka, I was on my first fiancee*. When I got my first job I concentrated on Peter Laing's Marlburians, switched to whisky and met my second fiancee**.

Truisms are truisms because they are true. Women on average have smaller muscles than men, Asians on average tend to be brighter than the rest of us and (look at the surveys) Fantasy gaming is preferred by younger gamers. The switch comes at about the age of 40. Whether that's because fantasy as a genre became popular at some point, and we will see that age rise as we older historical gamers die off, or there is some sort of brain switch that clicks into the off position with our 40th birthdays and turns us towards other genres, I cannot say.

I am not against fantasy per se, I like many red blooded men enjoyed watching Jason Momoa as Conan, but I have recently re-read some of the books I enjoyed as a youth (Elric, LoTR) and my boat remains firmly unfloated.

Anyway, if you want a real heated debate, why not ask what colour is butternut, or suggest non-standard basing is OK, or argue that Colonialisation was good for Africa and all those little wars were justified.

* So was someone else, but that's a different story.
* Who was a twin, and that's also a different story.

[Leman]

Some very interesting points there - a double hickey from twins when you're 14 is pretty good. Still not sure about the age 40 switch off. A good few of the faerie players in Liverpool are past 40. I never got into fantasy because it didn't exist when I started wargaming - it was purely historical, and I remember the horror on the faces of my friends when somebody decided WWIII would be a fun idea, and manufacturers actually started to make the models. LOTR definitely kicked off the fantasy thing, along with D&D (although that's not even vaguely a wargame). Personally I think fantasy wargaming (as opposed to the much more pertinent title fantasy gaming) appeared because it was wargaming figure makers who satisfied the demand for figures (and who can blame them - at the end of the day they are businesses in a capitalist economy) - as far as I can remember Minifigs produced the first LOTR range in the mid-70s - I even bought some mounted Saxons/Vikings, although they were not described as such in the catalogue (remember them?). As an historical wargamer I also like the idea of imaginative or alternative historical games, i.e. Leonardo's machines or VSF machines - no magic, super beings or the like, just a different direction in human endeavour.

[FierceKitty]

I will admit to doing some Tunnel & Trolls in my youth, but I was young; it was the 80's; I drank vodka, I was on my first fiancee* . When I got my first job I concentrated on Peter Laing's Marlburians, switched to whisky and met my second fiancee**.

Truisms are truisms because they are true. Women on average have smaller muscles than men, Asians on average tend to be brighter than the rest of us && and (look at the surveys) Fantasy gaming is preferred by younger gamers. The switch comes at about the age of 40. Whether that's because fantasy as a genre became popular at some point, and we will see that age rise as we older historical gamers die off, or there is some sort of brain switch that clicks into the off position with our 40th birthdays and turns us towards other genres, I cannot say.

I am not against fantasy per se, I like many red blooded men enjoyed watching Jason Momoa as Conan, but I have recently re-read some of the books I enjoyed as a youth (Elric, LoTR) and my boat remains firmly unfloated.

Anyway, if you want a real heated debate, why not ask what colour is butternut, or suggest non-standard basing is OK, or argue that Colonialisation was good for Africa and all those little wars were justified. &&&

* So was someone else, but that's a different story.  &
* Who was a twin, and that's also a different story.

&   At the same time?  

&&  NOT if my students are anything to go by!

&&& ...or whether balrogs have wings.

[Ithoriel]

I'm 65. So ever so slightly older than 40.

Started fantasy gaming sometime around 1970.

The king from the Airfix "Sheriff of Nottingham" set acquired a paper cloak and an all black paint job to become a Nazgul.

A roughly two foot tower, constructed of cardboard tubes and papier mache, was variously Dol Guldur, Minas Morgul or Barad-dûr.

Sauron's dastardly Sheriff of Nottingham's troops fought the somewhat unconvincing "elves" of Robin Hood. A converted Britains baby elephant became an oliphaunt or mûmakil.

No fiancées were involved

[Westmarcher]

* So was someone else, but that's a different story.
* Who was a twin, and that's also a different story.

 

Interest piqued. So which of the above was the "first fiancee*" and which one the "second fiancee**?"

Or were they both the "first fiancée*?" Oh, oh .... wait .... were they both twins? Go on, tell us. ...... pleeeezzze.

[Or did you simply miss out the second asterisk ...... ?]

[fsn]

I missed the second asterisk. 

The first fiancee was my school sweetheart.

The 2nd fiancee was a twin.

The 3rd was Indian.

The 4th is th ex-wife.

[Matt J]

My God, 4 times! Did you have shares in H.Samuels!

[fsn]

 

Never had one thrown back at me for re-use.

[Ben Waterhouse]

No they are not. My pre-pubescent wargaming days involved the ACW, WWI, WWII, cavalry and Indians and the Wars of the Roses. Faeries and sprites were for girls.

Hear him! And smelly uni type hippies who did D&D. I modelled my self on Jason King when I was 13, who was a historical wargamer, long with Ewa WooWoo

[Leman]

And Derrick Guyler - there were a few famous faces back in the late 60s/early 70s giving historical gaming a respectable face. then there was ET - no wonder I couldn't see the point of D&D.

[Orcs]

The first fiancee was my school sweetheart.

The 2nd fiancee was a twin.

The 3rd was Indian.

The 4th is th ex-wife.

I don't know weather to admire your persistence or feel sorry for your bad luck, or was it a case of your over-active libido overruling your common sense ? 

[Last Hussar]

Pot, meet kettle. 

[Orcs]

Pot, meet kettle.  

So given your current situation are you the pot or the kettle?

[FierceKitty]

I don't know weather to admire your persistence or feel sorry for your bad luck, or was it a case of your over-active libido overruling your common sense ? 

I've never met an over-40 who didn't express a wish that he or she had let libido have more say in making the decisions of youth (possibly excluding the idiots who still manage to get carelessly knocked up in this day and age).

[fsn]

It was my misfortune to be everything that a girl's mother wanted for her.

Anyway, this isn't getting Orcs a locked thread.