Showing posts with label IFW. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IFW. Show all posts
Thursday, August 19, 2010
IFW Topic on Boardgame Geek
One of our authors and my friend (Wargamer204) sent me this link to discussion and pictures on Boardgame Geek here. Enjoy them as I did back in the day.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Possibilities Marching On
I learned quite a lot in a very short time period as a young lad of 13 years and while associating with the adult males of the LGTSA (Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association) and IFW (International Federation of Wargamers); then too the Midwest Military Simulation Association members whom I grew to know as they associated with the LGTSA, and by helping maintain the Castle & Crusade Society, where more friendships made only expanded my travels upon the roads of comradeship and perception.
New vistas were opened for me by association and friendship shared with intellects whose wide-ranging imaginative stance on life were impressed upon my own; and this exposed to me its many possibilities, not only in the games we played and designed, but thus in thought in general. I had become a student of life in "high gear" and I soaked up things, as Jeff Perren once said of me, "as a sponge does water." Tactical Studies Rules (TSR) and GENCON grew out of this, for sure; and this is where people today seem to tread in studying this part of history that is for the most part clouded by the very fact that it was hobbyist in nature.
The rise of anything great does not stand upon just a single set of shoulders, or even multiple sets thereof, but upon many so grouped to maintain the weight and thus the direction of such greatness. Within that shared experience is where I found the continued march of possibilities amongst its members' mindsets; and this too was forwarded on with me through my youthful days at TSR and thus in the continued and expanding growth of the hobby.
Thus the continuance of our many-faceted hobby of games today is not forwarded by any one single person (nor by a single concept), who in sudden realization exclaims, "By Jove, I have it!" Indeed, this wellspring has fed us all, and originates chapter by chapter, verse by verse, person by person, and stretches all the way back in times as far removed from us now as it was in thought then. It is through the distillation of philosophical treatment given over to the historical wherein truth is discovered for the wagon of the mind to continue its progress along the road of possibilities and so as not to become wrested from its ancient course by one of its spinning wheels.
It is a great pleasure for me to announce that I have invited several people well known to me from those days and times to participate in our expanding discussions here: game designers, historians, educators, and others who all have in common a single point of view as I do: to share in the wellspring of thought and to continue exposing in different ways the roads of possibilities inherent to our singular and grouped experiences as gamers. I hope you find their thoughts as enlightening as I found them in my youth.
New vistas were opened for me by association and friendship shared with intellects whose wide-ranging imaginative stance on life were impressed upon my own; and this exposed to me its many possibilities, not only in the games we played and designed, but thus in thought in general. I had become a student of life in "high gear" and I soaked up things, as Jeff Perren once said of me, "as a sponge does water." Tactical Studies Rules (TSR) and GENCON grew out of this, for sure; and this is where people today seem to tread in studying this part of history that is for the most part clouded by the very fact that it was hobbyist in nature.
The rise of anything great does not stand upon just a single set of shoulders, or even multiple sets thereof, but upon many so grouped to maintain the weight and thus the direction of such greatness. Within that shared experience is where I found the continued march of possibilities amongst its members' mindsets; and this too was forwarded on with me through my youthful days at TSR and thus in the continued and expanding growth of the hobby.
Thus the continuance of our many-faceted hobby of games today is not forwarded by any one single person (nor by a single concept), who in sudden realization exclaims, "By Jove, I have it!" Indeed, this wellspring has fed us all, and originates chapter by chapter, verse by verse, person by person, and stretches all the way back in times as far removed from us now as it was in thought then. It is through the distillation of philosophical treatment given over to the historical wherein truth is discovered for the wagon of the mind to continue its progress along the road of possibilities and so as not to become wrested from its ancient course by one of its spinning wheels.
It is a great pleasure for me to announce that I have invited several people well known to me from those days and times to participate in our expanding discussions here: game designers, historians, educators, and others who all have in common a single point of view as I do: to share in the wellspring of thought and to continue exposing in different ways the roads of possibilities inherent to our singular and grouped experiences as gamers. I hope you find their thoughts as enlightening as I found them in my youth.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
From Stratego to Sieges
I include two pictures here: one of Ernie Gygax playing the red side and I the blue, in Stratego, snapped by John Bobek (see below) in Chicago 1968-1969, at the same convention I first played "Little Wars" at; and then at Lake Geneva Gaming Convention #1, where the members of the Castle & Crusades Society and honored guests and friends had gathered for Paul Stormberg's scenario, using the Chainmail rules, the Siege of the Moat House (as recreated from the Temple of Elemental Evil).
I'm the blonde-haired lad in the "Monkey's" boots opposite Ernie Gygax at the table; and the next picture, left to right: John Bobek (IFW Alumnus, Game Designer) being rabbit-eared by Bill Hoyer (IFW Alumnus, former President IFW, former employee of the RPGA/TSR); myself with Castle & Crusade shirt with King's COA (IFW Alumnus, etc., somewhat paunchy, have lost a lot of weight since); in blue and glasses, Jim Lurvey, former editor of the Great Plains Game Players Newsletter; next to him, Martin Wright the "Scanmaster" (may he rest in peace); in front of him Ernie Gygax (the one and only Tenser); and Paul Stormberg, who had the moat house constructed as seen at great personal expense, and who judged the event, a very good man indeed.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
