The new millennium was upon us and gaming was about to become an even bigger part of my life…
I’d been playing Star Wars CCG for a couple of years and my collection was getting rather large. I played regularly with friends and time just flew when we played or just sat there building decks. On a personal level, things were changing. I ended up moving away eventually ending up in the Chester/North Wales area. I hardly knew anyone so asked at local shops if there were any gaming clubs around I could join (I needed my gaming fix). I was directed to a few places but a comic shop in Rhyl ended up being where I spent my days off. There was a back room which specialised in selling card games especially SWCCG. A guy that worked there was very good at the game. Ok that’s selling it short, he was brilliant at it so much that he’d actually taken part in tournaments in America. I learnt more about the game and strategy from him but could not beat him (I still haven’t beaten him to the day). I was introduced to more players and felt welcomed by the community. I was invited to tournaments they ran although I couldn’t always go. I really wanted to go to a big tournament just for the experience so booked with a friend to go to GenCon UK in 2001. It was amazing. We spent the night before tweaking and testing our decks for the tournament. The tournament itself was fun, I think I came 28th out of 32 but that was alright I didn’t come last. One of the highlights of the day was meeting a couple of guests that the games company had organised. Dwight Schultz (Murdoch from the A Team/Barclay from Star Trek) was there to promote the Star Trek CCG and Warwick Davis (yes, that Warwick Davis from so many films) was there to promote SWCCG. They were friendly and it was my first proper taste of going to a convention and meeting guests. I had previously met Dave Prowse (Darth Vader) who had signed my ultra rare foil Darth Vader card which did not get used in games. It wasn’t long after that, Decipher announced they were cancelling the game due to losing the licence to Wizards of the Coast. I was gutted. I could still play but with no new releases coming it wouldn’t be the same. It wasn’t long after that I temporarily stopped playing it. There was something new coming from Decipher based on a now famous trilogy of films, The Lord of the Rings…
The Lord of the Rings TCG was another brilliant game. It was totally different from SWCCG but was easy to learn. Again, there was lots of deck building involved, opening of boosters and trading excess cards that others needed. I was spending days off in Rhyl again playing at least three or four games each time, it even had a multiplayer so up to four people could play. We had regular tournaments, met up to play at the gaming club at Airbus and generally had loads of fun. I’d even started dabbling in the Buffy CCG but never really got many cards for it. Then things were going to change again and I was off to Belfast to live so once again I had to find people that played LotR or even SWCCG.
I was in a new city and I wanted to play games. Luckily, the local uni had a gaming club, Dragonslayers, where even the general public could join. I joined but nobody played anything I did so I joined up with some board gamers to play some random games. It was there that I was introduced to Munchkin and Zombies!!! I really enjoyed playing them and it was different from playing card games. I went every week and ended up playing a variety of games, some I liked, some I didn’t. I generally had a great time there. I got invited to parties, barbecues, trips the pub, I was making loads of new friends. Then it came round to their once a year event, Q-Con, a gaming convention and it was huge. I’d just found out about another gaming club TableTopNorth which I joined and started making more new friends who were also going to Q-Con. We met up, played games and got involved with what was going on. It was my first gaming convention and I didn’t know what to expect but I ended up having so much fun and wanted to go to more. Over the next year, I was introduced to lots of different board and card games. I found a Star Wars Miniatures game so invested heavily in it and got to play it every week. I was also reintroduced to some Games Workshop games I’d previously looked at, Mordheim, Necromunda and Blood Bowl (I even named my team after biscuits). I wanted to go back into miniature gaming and this is what started it all off. Belfast had a Games Workshop and I paid it a visit and ended up walking away with a Warhammer 40k rule book, Eldar codex, an Eldar battleforce and a Farseer. My gaming habits were about to change again…
Tabletop Tales 