This is Rosalin of Toron, one of my characters in Echoes in the Black. More on her another time.
Around 1983, I remember getting my first role playing game. In Stoke on Trent, we had an amazing shop called Fantasy World. Upstairs it was a scary place, full of heavy metal posters, some clothing, blokes in leather and mostly thousands of American comics, both new and old ones in plastic sleeves for collectors.
But downstairs, it was all Avalon Hill board games, early metal fantasy miniatures (pre-slotta GWAsgard I suppose) and best of all role playing games. My memory tells me there was just about everything TSR ever published, along with all of the other companies. The one that stood out to me was Runequest.
Now I came from a very poor background that was abusive and controlling. Althogh I didn’t know it at the time, Fantasy World and role playing games would be my safe place and escape from the grim realities of my childhood. The version of Runequest above was that escape. I didn’t know anybody who played role playing games. I did not know what a role playing game was if truth be told.
But look at that art on the cover of the rulebook. Who was that woman? What was that monster she was fighting? Why was she fighting something that looked like it was an extra from an early Tom Baker Dr Who episode?
I stared at that cover for hours. I read as much of the book as made sense, which to be honest, wasn’t an awful lot. Where was the board? How did you win? Where was Glorantha!?
So many questions, and no one to answer them.
Soon after, in my English lesson at middle school, I got caught chatting to a friend when I sholdn’t have been. I was stood next to the book trolley in the corner of the room and quickly took a book from it and sat down, feigning innocence.
I kid you not…that book was Citadel of Chaos.
It is no exaggeration to say that THIS is the book that launched a life time passion for fantasy, books, gaming and escapism. Alongside Runequest, which I’d bought with some money I’d saved from a paper round, this book became a constant companion. I soon after realised there were more and I avidly sat down at every opportunity with a die found in a draw and a pencil and played through these choose your own adventre books. They taught me what a role playing game was and gradually, the Runequest book began to make sense.
A year or so later, I moved to High School, and a new set of friends. As tends to happen, I gravitated towards the geeky crowd, despite being pretty good at sport. A lunch time was spent playing Tunnels and Trolls and it was like the fog had lifted. There were no winners! I could do what I wanted with my sword and back pack. Go where I wanted! Say what I wanted! And the dice would decide.
I can’t recall how I became aware of Dungeons and Dragons, but the basic red box set quickly came into my possession ,followed by an incredible gift of the PHB, DMG and Monster Manual for AD&D. They were gifted to me by a friend whose brother didn’t want them anymore. I think I gave my friend a football in return…so not REALLY a gift - but as good as.
I then discovered a group of boys who lived around the corner whom I could hang ot with rather than sit at home. One of them mentioned that they wanted to play Dungeons and Dragons, but no one had the books. What? I have them books! I know how to play!
Suddenly, I was a dungeon master, sitting on the cold garage floor of my mates house with 4 other lads, rolling dice, laughing and getting lost in our own fantasy worlds. More boys came to see what the fuss was abot. At one point there were around a dozen of us playing, but we qickly settled into a gorup of 5 with me as DM.
The only D20 we had was from the Red Box set. I can’t recall whether it was just made from a softer plastic, but rolling it on that hard garage floor, it became practically round. But we didn’t care.
I ran Keep on the Borderlands, The Rainbow Mounds, adapted from Runequest, The Temple of Elemental Evil, I6 Ravenloft…and many, many more. That summer holidays, we played practically every day, morning until night. We soon discovered the other TSR games that Fantasy World sold and we’d all catch the bus up into Hanley and spend all afternoon in there arguing over which game to play next.
Boot Hill, Gangbusters, Star Frontiers, Top Secret, Gamma World. We played them all. We branched out into DC Heroes, James Bond the RPG (a bit wierd having four 00 characters, but we didn’t care!) West End Games Star Wars, Conan, Indiana Jones, Paranoia , Shadowrun…it seems an endless list of games with us eventually moving into the warmth and comfort of the local village pub for our gaming.
It all came to an abrupt end when I moved away to university. I gradually lost contact with all of my mates…all my fault. My mental health was in tatters, though I didn’t know it at the time. Role playing games were forgotten about. I still was an avid reader, mostly of fantasy and sci fi as my method of coping and escapsim. But those heady days of excitement, wonder and friendship were gone.
I did get heavily into tabletop wargaming and found a new crowd to hang out with. I played fantasy and historical wargames and through a couple of failed marriages, and one moderately succesful career found peace and harmony in life when I married my current wife and we had a daughter 15 years ago.
Amongst my wargaming mates we often recalled playing RPG’s in our youth, but somehow never found time to give it a go together…until somehow we did. Jst prior to COVID, we began playing D&D together. That lasted through COVID and beyond, but as sometimes happens, it came to an ancrimonius end for unspecified reasons, and I’m once again left with a heap of RPG’s, and no one to play with.
I’m currently trying to get the band back together - but I’m afraid artistic differences are making it difficult. Hence this substack and my intention to go solo and launch the Echoes in the Black podcast.
I’m no stranger to podcasting having run a wargaming podcast and producing around 50 odd episodes. I’m enjoying the creative process, the actual rolling of dice and the imagination it is sparking. How long it lasts, I’m not sure? Should my RPG group crack and get back together again, will I feel the need to solo, post here and produce a podcast, I don’t know.
But for now, this is me and my outlet to once again tread fantastical paths with a D20, a pencil and some scrap paper by my side!
