The past couple of years most of my miniatures gaming has been historical, with a focus on WWII. As a Warhammer 40K player since the Rogue Trader era though, I periodically get pulled back into it. Maybe 7 or 8 months ago Rick and I were invited to come play once a month with a group of guys downtown. Their office, it turns out, was full of 40K players. For many months we were doing one off battles, but with 10-12 players it was only a matter of time before we started a campaign. So now the forces of order and the forces of destruction are fighting it out in a city campaign and it’s been pretty fun so far.
What’s funny about this group is that it turned into a case study of “it’s a small world in the gaming industry.” Two of them, Sean and Kyle, were friends of mine from the WotC days and Super Unicorn. Haven’t seen much of them in recent years though, so it’s been good to hang out. Once we started playing I also discovered that two of the other regulars, Chris and Todd, were two-thirds of the team behind still hilarious RPG HOL (Human Occupied Landfill). When they were running their company, Dirt Merchant, they were at 5 Mossland St in Somerville, MA. When I started the original Ronin Publishing with my brother and friend Neal, we moved into an apartment on 3 Mossland St. And somehow Todd, Chris, and I all ended up in Seattle. To cap all this coincidence off, last night Flying Lab came up and another guy, Glen, asked what my connection was to FLS. When I told him it was my day job, he said, “Really? I wrote the Prima strategy guide for Pirates of the Burning Sea.” Wacky.
Speaking of FLS and the grim darkness of the 41st millennium, I also seem to have inadvertently started a 40K league there. Folks were talking about trying the beta of the new Dawn of War 40K computer game from Relic. I said, “We could do that, or we could play some real 40K.” Turns out there was a lot of interest in this idea, so I posted the rules for 40K in 40 minutes so can do some games over lunch. Now people are building armies and painting minis. I’m getting comments like, “I spent $100 this weekend because of you.” I tell them that I might have shown them the junk, but putting the lead spike into their veins was their own decision. Anyway, looks like we have about a dozen players for that, so that should liven up lunch at the lab.