UK RPG magazines - getting there!!

 

Following on from the last post, here's a recent buy. Luckily for me condition is not something I worry about as long as they're complete.

I have done a (very) vague collection goal for UK mags and once again am wondering why I am bothering!

So I need (pretty subjective word bearing in mind we are talking about magazines that are generally between twenty and thirty years old) the following.

White Dwarf from 20-100

All 31 Imagines,

AND Valkyries, Fantasy Chronicles, Role Player Independent, Games Master international,GM Independent, Adventurer,Arcane and Gamesman.

There are probably more but I need to limit myself a bit, though there was a UK mag that I had a couple of copies that came with a plastic binding spine that I cannot remember the name of for the life of me!!

As we speak I need roughly a hundred more magazines, as well as a corresponding amount if really useful boxes to put them in.

Reading through these can be really interesting particularly as I have no actual gaming history between about 1989 and the present day - who knew LARPing and Vampire were a real thing that normal(ish) people got involved in!!

Happy days though, onward and upward.

Time flies, but got some stuff

 

Slow yesr but got some time on my hands. 

The Chainmail and Holmes basic book are both shot to pieces but doesnt stop me loving them, and they definitely fill a gap in the collection. 

I remember Hellgate Keep being a great later Forgotten Realms midule and its near the top of my to read pile. 

The double adventures are a mysteey to me, I dont even think I ever owned one back in the day and I certainly have no recollection of ever reading them.

Nore to come, maybe

Carl

2021 collecting goals

 So, a new year has dawned, with more of the same to look forward to it seems.

Nothing huge to say really, just continuing on my  quest to buy back all the stuff I sold a few years ago. 

10 years ago my goal was - every standard Forgotten Realms RPG item, every Traveller LBB era item and a complete OD&D collection.

I gave it a good go and was almost there but for 'reasons' it all had to go.

So now I'm back to it, and of course the price of most of this stuff has increased pretty much exponentially. Never mind, I'm in no hurry and don't really have a plan of any kind except hoping for the best. 

The OD&D is an issue- I have had 3 white boxes over the years and all the supplements but the prices on these are now ridiculous. I have 3 of the supplements that cost me around 25-30 quid each but I fear the box set may be my white whale. Hey ho, the rules are a bit crap anyway! I have just read a little of my Gods Demigods and Heroes book and it is truly awful. Layout and formatting are a joke and the foreword concerning Monty Hall games has to be read to be believed, truly a book of its time.

Anyway that's it for now, 

Later

First post of the new year and I haven't got a great deal to say, so just a brief stream of consciousness to get things going.

Part 1


I recently purchased a copy of Fr16 The Shining South from ebay which is a great item, just so you know. At the moment I am slowly but surely rebuying all of the Forgotten Realms items that I once owned and foolishly sold. I brought this for a fairly acceptable amount and when it arrived it turned out to be a softback reprint. This was my bad -the  auction clearly stated that it was a new reprint, I just hadn't read the description properly. The moral of this story is to pay attention - I have no issue with the seller and left positive feedback, after all he had done nothing wrong. However the same seller got a little bit of flak on a forum that I frequent which I felt was unfair. Without going into too many details why I generally don't use forums as much any more just because people are idiots - your thoughts??!!

Part 2

On KODT. Check out the Kickstarter and it's creator Ken Whitman for the Live Action videos.
Hours of endless fun for all the family and a great example of why kickstarter is potentially a bloody disaster!!

Part 3

I still haven't painted any of my miniatures - definitely this year, definitely.

Part 4

Looking for some new podcasts to listen too so any recommendations gratefully received.
(BTW please listen to the Grognard Files and the Smart Party, can't recommend either one enough.)

Part 5

There is no part 5.


Keep on gaming, or not if you're me!

Take Care

Carl

ST1 Up The Garden Path - A question of worth vs value

It's one of the holy grails of D&D collecting - ST1 Up the Garden Path. It is a matter of some debate how many survive, a few have been auctioned over the years and I'm pretty sure that the same ones have come up more than once. Photographs of them are common on t'internet and it's pretty easy to get hold of a "reading copy"(wink wink), if you can be bothered to look.


I did have a copy of this which I got in an auction for a Silver Anniversary box set along with a copy of R1 To the Aid of Falx as freebie extras. It was a bit of a heartstopping moment as I'm sure you can imagine. Sadly my heart restarted again as I quickly realised these were literal copies - presumably done on a colour photocopier at someone's place of work!


I remember seeing one of these advertised for £200 (iirc) in a second hand games flyer about 17 or 18 years ago and thinking that it was daylight robbery - hindsight is, of course, a wonderful thing.


When I first considered this blogpost I was going to do an in-depth comparative review between ST1 and X1 - rarest against the most common, but on reading ST1 I decided not to bother - to sum up just go and buy Isle of Dread and play that, your players will thank you.


The thing that strikes me most about Up the Garden Path is that it is remarkably "English" - it couldn't be more English if it was wearing a bowler hat, eating fish and chips in a queue while complaining about the weather.
The puns and in jokes abound, names and descriptions are often cringeworthy and the overall affect is all a bit self indulgent.

That been said it is reasonably written, has good layout and a very professional overall finish - If it was designed as a one off bit of nonsense it certainly fits the brief. It could be a companion piece to EX1 & 2 from the other side of the pond, though I didn't much like those either.

That's it really, no surprises or spoilers here, just a fan pointing out the obvious to those already in the know. (And if anyone does want to sell one I have £200 ready and waiting!!)

I would be interested in what the going rate for one of these is as the price for rares seems to be shooting up.

A few links for your delectation

A decent blog here.

https://ttgamingdiary.wordpress.com/2016/12/02/going-up-the-garden-path/

The Acaeum - you knew this already.

https://www.acaeum.com/ddindexes/modpages/st.html

Me - it's all about me!

A brief introduction may be in order. I am Carl, a 48 year old from the South of England.
I have a huge fondness for RPGs as well as most other type of analogue games. My game playing is limited to a very small amount of Monopoly with my daughter - simply put I do not have the time or the freedom to play and enjoy games so I have restricted myself to enjoying them in a kind of sideways fashion by listening to podcasts, watching Youtube videos and reading a load of RPG books, as I once again expand my collection of game books.
I buy and sell a bit on Ebay in order to get this stuff, that way it doesn't impact the household finances. This also means that I get to look over loads of books that I most definitely won't be keeping for one reason or another. I am trying to be quite strict on what I keep as there is most certainly the risk of collection "creep". Over the years my collection has literally come and gone; my original stuff went many years ago, and I built up a reasonable amount up until about 4 or 5 years ago when I sold everything off. Whether or not this will be the last time is yet to be seen. (More on what I am collecting in a later entry).


So just a couple of other small points for this entry, as an idea of my interests and the type of thing I like.


Media I follow - again, I'll post more of my reasoning behind these at a later date.


The Grognard Files - podcast.
The Secret Cabal - podcast & Youtube Channel
Game Classy - podcast.
Shut Up & Sit Down - Podcast.
Real Lifes a B****er - blog
The Acaeum Forums - Website.
Lead Adventure Forums - Website
Watch it Played - Youtube Channel


And finally - this is the first RPG book I ever bought (not the actual copy - that's long gone).
From memory I got this in a beach shop in West Wittering(which seems odd even now) in around 1980. It's actually a fine book but I took a bit of stick back then because it wasn't the latest iteration of  the daddy of all RPGs.

Holmes Basic Rules



Humble Beginnings

This is it, a new blog for musings and nonsense about games and gaming.




Not that I am a gamer, I'm just involved in the hobby vicariously through assorted websites, podcasts and forums (with just a small collection of RPG books and magazines safely boxed away in the garage!)




I will probably immediately neglect this though there is a small chance that I might put a bit of content on here. I'm really only doing this for my own benefit - a kind of journaling if you will, but who knows where it might lead.