Bill the barbarian Posted February 2, 2023 Share Posted February 2, 2023 (edited) 7 minutes ago, Atgxtg said: I wish these things got more of a in store presence though. I think they really could have been a good intro set. It sold Warhammer and Battle Tech in my neighbourhood in the 80s! Kids would see the minis and the whole 3d thing and go gaga! Their parents and older siblings too! Edited February 2, 2023 by Bill the barbarian Quote ... remember, with a TARDIS, one is never late for breakfast! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
g33k Posted February 2, 2023 Share Posted February 2, 2023 1 hour ago, Bill the barbarian said: It sold Warhammer and Battle Tech in my neighbourhood in the 80s! Kids would see the minis and the whole 3d thing and go gaga! Their parents and older siblings too! But the WH/BT lines have these impressive ginormous "minis" that really grab the attention. They're sexy. 28mm semi-historical RQ mini's look (to the muggle eye) like they're overage-nerd-in-a-parents-basement fare... YGMV Quote C'es ne pas un .sig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
g33k Posted February 2, 2023 Share Posted February 2, 2023 On 2/1/2023 at 9:43 AM, Atgxtg said: ... Each box would come with a set of the BRP rules and a short adventure that made up of the map tiles. THe adventure would also have a rudimentary version of RuneQuest Battle Magic spells, and BRP stats for whatever new creatures were used in the adventure. THe set would even include some cardboard counters specific to the adventure ... Like many gamers "of a certain age," I too recall the advertising, the displays in FLGS's. I don't think I ever realized they contained rules & adventures... that might have tipped me over into buying them! Quote C'es ne pas un .sig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mugen Posted February 3, 2023 Share Posted February 3, 2023 14 hours ago, Bill the barbarian said: It sold Warhammer and Battle Tech in my neighbourhood in the 80s! Kids would see the minis and the whole 3d thing and go gaga! Their parents and older siblings too! I think we lost a lot of potential roleplayers when GW realized they couid sell way more miniatures if they focused on selling fantasy armies rather tran fantasy RPG miniatures... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joerg Posted February 3, 2023 Share Posted February 3, 2023 6 hours ago, Mugen said: I think we lost a lot of potential roleplayers when GW realized they couid sell way more miniatures if they focused on selling fantasy armies rather tran fantasy RPG miniatures... The UK definitely lost a lot of FLGS dedicated to roleplaying in the turnover. In 1990, I found only a few GW stores worth visiting for roleplaying material other than WH. 1 Quote Telling how it is excessive verbis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atgxtg Posted February 3, 2023 Share Posted February 3, 2023 20 hours ago, g33k said: Like many gamers "of a certain age," I too recall the advertising, the displays in FLGS's. I saw the ads for them all the time in the various gaming magazines of the day (i.e. Dragon, Different Worlds, White Dwarf, Space Gamer) but didn't realize they were anything that I would have been interested in until I saw them up close. 20 hours ago, g33k said: I don't think I ever realized they contained rules & adventures... that might have tipped me over into buying them! I didn't either until I saw them at a convention and notice the "Includes basic role-playing" bit on the boxes. That intrigued me enough to buy them, and once I got a look inside I was so pleased with the content. I mean, back in 1981 RQ content either came from Chaosium, Judges Guild, or an article in one of the gaming mags of the day, so this was a quite a pleasant surprise. Quote Chaos stalks my world, but she's a big girl and can take of herself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atgxtg Posted February 3, 2023 Share Posted February 3, 2023 22 hours ago, Bill the barbarian said: It sold Warhammer and Battle Tech in my neighbourhood in the 80s! Kids would see the minis and the whole 3d thing and go gaga! Ugh! I consider that to be the decline of Games Workshop.Before that they were a good little gaming company with soem games and an independent magazine that gave Dragon a run for it's money. ONce Warhammer came out GW just turned into pushing overprices lead (and later plastic) minis in a highly fantasy punk style that I never got into. Somehow draws with rainbow coloured mohawks hefting oversized weapons to big for them to wield, wearing inch think plate armour loaded with so many spikes that even a glancing blow would catch, just didn't fit the more realistic vibe I was going for. 22 hours ago, Bill the barbarian said: Their parents and older siblings too! Oh yeah, I knew quite a few people who really got into the minis and painting. So much so that they spent way more time paining minis than they did gaming. 1 Quote Chaos stalks my world, but she's a big girl and can take of herself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qizilbashwoman Posted February 3, 2023 Share Posted February 3, 2023 11 minutes ago, Atgxtg said: just didn't fit the more realistic vibe I was going for the point of Warhammer was absolutely never realism 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joerg Posted February 3, 2023 Share Posted February 3, 2023 Warhammer fantasy battle was a fairly good (though too deadly) skirmish game that you could use as backdrop or cutout for your fantasy campaign. It predated the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying game by at least a decade, IIRC. Whether it was about fantasy realism I won't say, but on the whole it provided a fun-enough-to-play game to decide struggles on warband level. Warhammer FRP provided a humorous grimdark setting loaning from medieval Germany, with a couple of excellent campaigns to it. Somewhat less simulationist than RQ3 but similar enough. The high fantasy punk crept in around this time, though, but it really manifested in the 40k setting, and my experience of the Moorcockian games by Chaosium wasn't too far away from WH FRP in game style. 1 Quote Telling how it is excessive verbis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mugen Posted February 4, 2023 Share Posted February 4, 2023 22 hours ago, Joerg said: It predated the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying game by at least a decade, IIRC. Only 3 years. 1983 for the wargame, 1986 for the RPG. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atgxtg Posted February 4, 2023 Share Posted February 4, 2023 On 2/3/2023 at 11:35 AM, Qizilbashwoman said: the point of Warhammer was absolutely never realism I'd say the point was to push lead and later plastic, which it did. Highly stylized art that brought in a following. 1 Quote Chaos stalks my world, but she's a big girl and can take of herself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RSDean Posted February 5, 2023 Author Share Posted February 5, 2023 (edited) I mentioned my unfortunate collector genes; I also recently acquired a Warhammer 1st edition and Forces of Fantasy supplement all tucked into the FoF box. This is also on my list to try out as part of the “Game Like it’s the 1980s” “thing” I seem to be doing. Edited February 5, 2023 by RSDean Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qizilbashwoman Posted February 5, 2023 Share Posted February 5, 2023 2 minutes ago, RSDean said: I mentioned my unfortunate collector genes; I also recently acquired a Warhammer 1st edition and Forces of Fantasy supplement all tucked into the FoF box. This is also on my list to try out as part of the “Game Like it’s the 1980s” “thing” I seem to be doing. do you get to paint the modern models? the sigmar models are pretty as heck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RSDean Posted February 5, 2023 Author Share Posted February 5, 2023 41 minutes ago, Qizilbashwoman said: do you get to paint the modern models? the sigmar models are pretty as heck Well, it’s my project/initiative, so I guess I get to make the rules to suit myself, so I could. But, practically, I have about 1600 small/true/vintage 25mm fantasy figures already painted and based, so it seems most likely that I will set something up with those. I noted upthread that I had gotten copies of RQ3 Vikings and Griffin Island from my FLGS recently. I stopped in Friday to see what else was left. Here’s the RuneQuest shelf… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RSDean Posted February 5, 2023 Author Share Posted February 5, 2023 Shopping there can be dangerous to your wallet. Last summer I, um, adopted a stray Pendragon 1st: The 1980s were a pretty good time for gaming … 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
g33k Posted February 5, 2023 Share Posted February 5, 2023 5 hours ago, RSDean said: ... I stopped in Friday to see what else was left. Here’s the RuneQuest shelf… That's a stunning selection of older material... is it typical of them, or did they just recently buy out somebody's collection? 1 Quote C'es ne pas un .sig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qizilbashwoman Posted February 6, 2023 Share Posted February 6, 2023 12 hours ago, RSDean said: I noted upthread that I had gotten copies of RQ3 Vikings and Griffin Island from my FLGS recently. I stopped in Friday to see what else was left. Here’s the RuneQuest shelf… they have a plastic-wrapped copy of aeroduel? that was released 33 years ago 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SDLeary Posted February 6, 2023 Share Posted February 6, 2023 2 hours ago, Qizilbashwoman said: they have a plastic-wrapped copy of aeroduel? that was released 33 years ago Some of the seams are a bit askew... looks like they have their own shrink supplies. Still though, boxes look in remarkably fine condition! SDLeary Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
g33k Posted February 6, 2023 Share Posted February 6, 2023 2 hours ago, Qizilbashwoman said: they have a plastic-wrapped copy of aeroduel? that was released 33 years ago Some years ago, at a different FLGS to what's local to me now, I knew an FLGS to have their own shrinkwrap machine. AFAIK, they were always honest about new-vs-used; they just wanted to keep the already-worn stuff from getting trashed by the very-many curious fingers. Quote C'es ne pas un .sig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SDLeary Posted February 6, 2023 Share Posted February 6, 2023 Oh, no doubt. They probably wouldn't be in business otherwise, at least not with a curated hoard like that one. I seriously haven't seen multiples of those boxes anywhere (outside photos of Ricks collection) in ages! SDLeary Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RSDean Posted February 6, 2023 Author Share Posted February 6, 2023 I’m pretty sure they do have a shrink wrap machine; personally, I always buy something intending to use/read it, so I’d just as soon that someone had checked the contents. BITD, my SPI games needed parts or replacements for bad die cutting a couple of times, and you’d have no way of knowing if you were getting a good/complete copy without opening it. If anyone needs any of that, the store is Days of Knights in Newark, Delaware, and they’ve been in business since 1981. They do have a web presence, but not much (if any) of the vintage stash is listed. One of the founding owners passed away a couple of years ago, so I’m not sure how much of the vintage stuff is preserved old stock vs. recent buys vs. part of John’s estate sale. The RQ3 stuff I bought last week, and that Pendragon were all super crisp, I’ll say. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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