This made me laugh a lot as it rings so true:
http://www.newsbiscuit.com/2016/05/05/nerds-named-and-shamed-in-latest-internet-hack/ (http://www.newsbiscuit.com/2016/05/05/nerds-named-and-shamed-in-latest-internet-hack/)
I know of a wargamer whose wife was so ashamed of his hobby that she didn't dare tell her friends what he did. So are you a wargamer and proud of it? I am and often get some good natured stick about it at work.
Out and proud ... wargames wise :)
Working in Libraries and then in IT there were enough nerds around that I was more likely to be asked for advice than sniggered at.
"Badly painted"! I am offended on behalf of the rest of the wargamer world. >:( >:(
As for me, I resemble that remark. :-[
Out and proud!
Why ex wife was ashamed to tell people I painted models. Last I heard she was with a guy big into fishing.....
One of the guys who used to go to our club was married for three years before he told his wife he was a wargamer!
Benefits to your wife of you being a wargamer:-
1 Your are at home when painting / organising most of the time. (So you cant be seeing another woman) WHOOPS! Failed
2 Its a cheap hobby (if your not a megalomaniac) WHOOPS! Failed
3 You are unlikely to go on Lads hobby related Holidays WHOOPS ! Failed
Perhaps I had better stop this list
An Out and Proud Wargamer. :-bd :-bd
Out and proud :) :-bd
We quite often go to BBQs on a Saturday that start mid afternoon and finish late. It is now expected that I disappear at about 7 for our regular game :)
This evening is a friend's 50th Birthday and I have 'decided' that I won't be ducking out early ;)
Everyone I know around here knows I make little soldiers....Does that count ? ;)
Cheers - Phil
I never had a problem with being a wargamer, everyone can know.
I am who i am, no point in concealing...
My wife can sometimes complain about the amount of stuff i gather, but in the end, it's all good.
Quote from: Techno on 06 May 2016, 07:40:31 PM
Everyone I know around here knows I make little soldiers....Does that count ? ;)
Cheers - Phil
Especially the ER crew
I'm so out that I occasionally troll the known wargamer bars!
Quote from: petercooman on 06 May 2016, 07:42:27 PM
I never had a problem with being a wargamer, everyone can know.
I am who i am, no point in concealing...
My wife can sometimes complain about the amount of stuff i gather, but in the end, it's all good.
Agreed Peter.
Mrs Shy is reasonably understanding as she is a ardent patchworker with shelves of material - but very useful if you need a new basecloth made up ;D
I did have to quickly correct her once many years ago when she told someone that I "played with little men" >:(
Can't game in a closet!
Quote from: Techno on 06 May 2016, 07:40:31 PM
Everyone I know around here knows I make little soldiers....Does that count ? ;)
Cheers - Phil
I can't do that; had a vasectomy decades ago.
My ex-wife once complained that I loved my little men more than I loved her.
Not bothered about that article. What GW does isn't wargaming as far as I'm concerned.
I don't promote it, but don't deny it if asked.
I find it a difficult hobby to describe, so tend not to get into the discussion.
Out and proud, most of my friends think I'm a little strange anyway.
Now when I was 14 or 15 my mother and father took my toy solders away saying I was to old to be playing with them. You can imagine there surprise when I started playing with them again in my late 20s. When I discovered wargaming clubs.
Take care
Andy
I remember my father's warning me that if I wanted to get anywhere in my studies I needed to stop messing about with toy soldiers. Strange. A few years later, I found Cambridge was full of wargamers.
I keep it a secret. Even going so far as to use a fake name on the internet so people who know me, where I live, don't find out.
Why? Embarrassment. Definitely don't know how I'd approach the subject should I ever decide to get a girlfriend.
Saying that. I've Play By Mailed wargames since 1998 and I'd quite happily publicise that :-\
Pen and paper, okay. 'Toy soldiers', die of embarrassment.
Though, I'd also be fine being known as someone who naval wargames :-\ :-\
I really need to see someone! ;D
When I was in my early teens my mother apparently said to my father that she was concerned about my playing with toy soldiers. My father assured her it was a fad and I'd grow out of it. He's still waiting. :)
Quote from: Ithoriel on 07 May 2016, 08:12:58 AM
When I was in my early teens my mother apparently said to my father that she was concerned about my playing with toy soldiers. My father assured her it was a fad and I'd grow out of it. He's still waiting. :)
Cool
Take care
Andy
If asked I usually tell people I play with toy soldiers - nobody outside the hobby knows what wargaming is anyway! ;)
Weird parents you lot. When I was thirteen my parents gave me a war-games room. I actually didn't war-game at uni. Too busy studying and partying. Soon as I started work I took it up again and ran a club at the schools I taught in for the next 34 years, only stopping when the results machine made finding the time impossible. Joined my club in 1990, had girlfriends and a wife who bought me figures, books etc. Now, if I'd played with fairies and goblins it might have been an altogether sadder story.
When I was thirteen my parents bought me a deactivated .303 Mk1 Bren Light Machine Gun.
Came down on my birthday and there it was, laid out on its bi-pod, on the sitting-room carpet in front of the gas fire.
Year after I got a deactivated PPSH-41.
As an incentive-cum-bribe to go to the dentists for some treatment (when I was a teen and suffering from a previous, horrendous dental incident) they bought me a .22 air rifle.
I have cool parents! ;D
Nowadays, if offered, I'd want as least to do with firearms as possible.
We best get back to talking wargaming now, otherwise I've derailed the thread :-[
Only revealed my 'dark secret' to my best friends at the tail end of last year - figured at my age that it would be easier for them to accept that I will never grow up!. Brought out my collection at a house party we were hosting and received many compliments - mind you, it probably helped that their vision was blurred having imbibed a good number of drinks by that point in the evening! At the same time, my pal's wife mentioned she had a doll's house - I've subsequently seen this and I can tell you, the detail is fantastic and would put many a wargamer (me included) to shame! Hidden talent, indeed! Been trying to get my pals to war-game ever since but probably left it too late - can't teach old dogs new tricks? (I don't think there was any chance anyway). :)
Note: had to modify the post there - bloody autpcorrectr - what! now why didn't it correct that? :o
Now everybody's opening up they feel much better about themselves. What's preferable; researching history, painting figures up as accurately as possible, then using them to recreate an historical event, or going out to get drunk and have a fight?
Be fair, Leman. This evening's drunken brawl is the next generation's nostalgic skirmish role-play. ;)
I can imagine this forum in a century or two.... "When is the new Fierce Kitty figure going to be ready? Will it be armed with an infinitive-restructurer? And how about some female sidekicks?"..."Leonatus, my Techno set has just arrived, but every figure has a missing limb. I thought modern researchers agreed that he had sustained only minor dremel damage at the time of the forum bar fight, and the great mutilation wasn't until July 2017?" ...."Why is the Marie figure only available in zombie-apocalypse-survivor tatters?"...."I don't like the Nobby figure. It seems to be chewing a pair of trousers."....Damn, I want a set myself; after the Aztecs are ready, please, Techno.
;D ;D ;D ;D - I'm wetting misled here. More Utherine problems.
Quote from: Leman on 07 May 2016, 04:46:23 PM
Now everybody's opening up they feel much better about themselves. What's preferable; researching history, painting figures up as accurately as possible, then using them to recreate an historical event, or going out to get drunk and have a fight?
Not a fan of the drunken fight ;)
But love the interaction of the 3 parts of the hobby:
- research
- modeling / painting
- playing / socialising
It has been suggested that I sometimes go a 'little too far' on the research side ;)
The background for my Free French force in Tunisia in March 1943 runs to 40 pages, gives the name of each crewman in each position in each tank's crew, and brief biographies of all the officers and senior NCOs :o :-[
Quote from: fsn on 07 May 2016, 06:02:11 AM
My ex-wife once complained that I loved my little men more than I loved her.
Seems she may have had a point ;)
Cheers
Ian
A girlfriend once remarked that she'd become interested in me through seeing how affectionate I was with my cats; she added wryly that if she'd realised that she'd never be able to compete with them....
When I started wargaming in 1971, wargaming was most definitely a fringe hobby that was just starting to gain a bit of interest from the press, albeit mildly patronising and the use of the phrases 'frustrated general' or 'armchair general' were being bandied about. Consequently, I wasn't too keen to share with strangers what I did in my spare time. However, time moves on, people grow older and now I couldn't really give a rats a*se what people think of me or my hobby. Ma Subs started out a bit wary and incredulous, then went all sceptical, then mildly tolerant but now it's just a part of me that she has come to accept. After all, I am in complete acceptance of her interest in the ever-increasing paranormal dross on the tv (means I can write or paint) and her knitting (which also means I can write or paint). Win win.
I think everyone who knows me - even people I work beside I've only ever talked to on the phone - know I play with toy soldiers. For that mater, I used to run around in the woods dressed as an elf, casting magic spells & hitting people over the head with a rubber sword.
And that's exactly how I describe my hobbies too!
Well, it's better than watching grown men running around a field in short trousers...
Quote from: Wulf on 10 May 2016, 03:15:47 PM
I think everyone who knows me - even people I work beside I've only ever talked to on the phone - know I play with toy soldiers. For that mater, I used to run around in the woods dressed as an elf, casting magic spells & hitting people over the head with a rubber sword.
Pictures, or it didn't happen!
Ahhh, good old cross country pantomime! TBH I don't miss it, but I did enjoy it at the time :)
I'm pretty open about playing with toy soldiers, taking things too seriously just makes you look embarrassed!
Quote from: toxicpixie on 10 May 2016, 03:34:26 PMI'm pretty open about playing with toy soldiers, taking things too seriously just makes you look embarrassed!
There are LARPers and even tabletop RPG players who claim it's 'Improvisational Theatre' which I think is even worse...
I've done many kinds of LARP before, including with people who get very upset at LARP instead of LRP, so I know well the heated nature of peoples terminology for it :D
I blame Minds Eye Theatre :D
Quote from: FierceKitty on 10 May 2016, 03:26:52 PM
Pictures, or it didn't happen!
Sadly, it seems, it's been so long since I was active in LARP that most of my pics have disappeared off the web. There are these two...
https://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic1355673_md.jpg
https://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic1355672_md.jpg
I thought this thread was about wargaming. What the f**k is LARP or LRP? Oh hold on - Live Action Role Play - Jeez, how f**king Californian!
My one foray into LARP was enough to persuade me that Fridays night round the dining table with friends, wine, crisps, miniatures, a rulebook and a pad of character sheets* was more my style of role-play.
That said, I could kind of see the attraction.
*I took the George R R Martin approach to character survival in my campaign :)
Quote from: Leman on 10 May 2016, 06:24:05 PM
I thought this thread was about wargaming. What the f**k is LARP or LRP? Oh hold on - Live Action Role Play - Jeez, how f**king Californian!
Your definition of wargaming is clearly rather narrower than mine :-)
I once had to do a presentation skills course, which the opening day you had to do a 5 minute presentation about yourself including your qualifications job role and a bit about yourself outside of work.
Not being a very confident speaker at the time I was going through my presentation and noticed people looking bored so I ended the presentation with this:
"Out of work I enjoy taking part in table top reenactments of strategic, historical, fantasy or science fiction conflicts.........but to those of you who haven't a clue what I am talking about it is simply grown men playing with toy soldiers" ;D
This got a laugh from the (captive) audience and the lady who was running the course said the ending was brilliant as it made people remember me.
:-bd :-bd
Mrs Orcs used to think the figures looked really good but thought wargaming was a bit "weird"
I said that lots of things are "wierd if you don't understand them .
Golf - walking round a field Hitting a ball with a stick into a hole? often in the pouring rain ! ( her ex was a golfer ) I also pointed out he did this in preference to spending time with his own children so they don't have much to do with him
It also cost him his marriage. For which I suppose I should be eternally grateful to the game :D
At which she conceded the point.
She accepts it part of me and appreciates that at least I am at home. She also has worked out that painting helps me switch off. Often she now says " I think you need to go and paint"
Excellent, Skywalker :D
Wulf, your kit suggests your fantasy larp days were of a slightly later era than mine, as the kit Is rather better :D
Ithorial, I try to slacken the Paranoia/Tomb of Horrors approach these days. Though we did have a Rolemaster campaign where several players just added "the second/third/fourth" to the end of their characters names :D
Quote from: toxicpixie on 10 May 2016, 06:51:01 PMWulf, your kit suggests your fantasy larp days were of a slightly later era than mine, as the kit Is rather better :D
Those were about 12-15 years ago. The mailshirt & tin hat were actually reenactment, and so steel... The beastman kit is helped along by a professionally made bow & leather goods. I did make the rest, even the trousers...
Quote from: Ithoriel on 10 May 2016, 06:31:50 PM
Your definition of wargaming is clearly rather narrower than mine :-)
Cosiderably. It starts about 4000BC and ends about 1930 and involves military history and tabletop figures. That said I reckon nye on 6000 years of stuff is enough to keep me both busy and satisfied.
i don't think I've waved a rubber sword around since pre-millennium :D I did pretend to be a vampire rather later but even that's pretty long ago!
Leman - I tend to blur between role play and Wargaming as much depending on mood as figure count an period, whether it be hard core simulation historical or Wierd tentacled sci fi ;)
Quote from: Wulf on 10 May 2016, 07:56:10 PM
Those were about 12-15 years ago. The mailshirt & tin hat were actually reenactment, and so steel... The beastman kit is helped along by a professionally made bow & leather goods. I did make the rest, even the trousers...
Tin hats are made of steel, are they? What a strange language we speak! ;D ;D
Never had a problem. I simply tell anyone who asks that it's like chess but more colourful and without the strictly prescribed moves. My wife recognises it as a way I could relax after work and much prefers I do that than spend every night in the pub. When we first met she would sometimes paint a few figures for me.
My son plays a lot of board games once a month and his partner enjoys them too. With a 2 year old daughter it helps them both relax from the life's pressures.
Quote from: toxicpixie on 10 May 2016, 08:35:29 PM
i don't think I've waved a rubber sword around since pre-millennium :D I did pretend to be a vampire rather later but even that's pretty long ago!
Leman - I tend to blur between role play and Wargaming as much depending on mood as figure count an period, whether it be hard core simulation historical or Wierd tentacled sci fi ;)
Yes, well, hands up; it's a fair cop! I've just bought Sharp Practice and Science versus Pluck, so looks like I've got a little bit of the role player in my after all. You can at least teach this old dog a couple of new tricks.
My wife is generally very understanding, realising it's a much cheaper and less intrusive hobby than spending every Saturday at a footy match and every Saturday night in the pub talking about Footy and every Sunday reading the Footy bits of the papers.
However she lives in mortal fear of some of her work mates finding out and generally describes what I do 'History Stuff' which is enough to stop most people from enquiring further. Also we do a lot of walking and climbing so anytime I get away for a weekend and someone asks she just says 'Oh he's off up a hill somewhere' which is enough to head off any further enquiries.
She just doesn't say that you're defending that hill with fifty veterans but only twenty rounds left per man?
Quote from: Leman on 11 May 2016, 08:22:37 AMYes, well, hands up; it's a fair cop! I've just bought Sharp Practice and Science versus Pluck, so looks like I've got a little bit of the role player in my after all. You can at least teach this old dog a couple of new tricks.
And that's how Dungeons & Dragons was started... wargamers with a bit of personality in their leaders.
Wife says to her husband that she thinks things are getting a little stale in the bedroom and that she wants to try role play to spice things up.
You can all see where this is going... :D
(https://lasin11.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/image31.jpg)
Not that I can speak. I once dressed up as a WW2 Tommy and ran around the woods pretending to shoot 'the Germans.' [it didn't work - there was more 'German' reenactors than Brit/US and they worked as a complete unit to kick our backsides. Got to say, seeing thirty chaps all dressed up and following orders in German, and going through the woods as if in actual combat, was something worth seeing ... even if I was doing the watching while pretending to be 'dead'.]