Despite my journeys up and down the country I never met anyone who said to me:
"Yes Doug I would like to hear more exciting tales about when you used to play roleplaying games. D&D sounds like so much fun."
Playing About On The Internet
For some reason I never really used the Internet for RPGs. Most searches were limited to searching for solutions for Jap RPGs. By this time I had given up all hope of finding a gaming group in the backwoods of Scotland. Also many of the gaming clubs with presences on the internet seemed to be connected to Universities. Students in marge numbers did not appeal.
A Mysterious Shoppe
[caption id="attachment_689" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The Hope Chest (Image from Google)"]
[/caption]You know those stories when someone finds a mysterious shop I had an experience like that. Needing a gift for an elderly relative I thought I would wander into the shop pictured above. An excellent shop for gifts for all ages. Browsing idly around I found myself loitering at the back of the shop idly chatting to a nice lady. Then my eyes finally got through to my brain and I began to notice what I was seeing.
It was a wall of Warhammer!
Models, rules, books, novels, painting supplies and more. I looked behind me at the novelty china gifts, then in front again. Somehow these two things managed to coexist in the same shop. Despite having returned many times I am still amazed. I got chatting to the nice lady who told me there was actually an active wargaming club somewhere in Kirkcaldy. But with other factors like work and fatherhood I never really had a chance to follow it up. Also Warhammer was never really my thing. I did notice that Warhammer 40k was no longer subtitled Rogue Trader.
Another Shop, Not Mysterious but Marred by my Inability to Perceive Reality
Some few years later I was driven past the following scene (I was obviously delirious):
[caption id="attachment_690" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Kingdom of Adventure"]
[/caption]Somehow the subtitle missed me. I saw a shop front called Kingdom of Adventure and thought to myself;
"That sounds like a soft play area for kids."
It was a little under a year before I was back out in that direction (just off the high street) and actually looked at it.
I eventually summoned up the courage to enter. It was not a soft play area for kids! It was a full fledged gaming shop, except nicely laid out and not smelling of mysterious musty smells.
They ran D&D (which has changed a lot), they sold comics, they sold board games (which I was beginning to discover) it was my dream shop and it was in Kirkcaldy!
This time I was now one of the old, fat RPG people gently grumbling about 'the old days'
Next. Return to RPGs VI: I Missed The Third Edition
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