Friday, October 21, 2011

Is it okay to steal someone elses nostalgia?

This arrived for me in the post yesterday, a solid chunk of old school goodness...

My new precious
The AD&D battlesystem's little punk kid skirmishes.  I grabbed a 2nd edition copy for small change, as I wanted to check out all the Skirmish systems out there and see how my pet project Skulldred was holding up.  The moment I started flicking through the book I remembered just how horribly technically over complicated AD&D was... even trimmed down for skirmish play, such horrors as thac0 (to hit armor class zero) and saving throw vs. petrification tables dwell within.

I am sure its fun enough, but it leaves me cold, and I never really liked the expressionless and stiff looking Ral Partha figures.  However, ten minutes in and I couldn't help but get nostalgic.  What??  How could I get nostalgic about something I never had or was into?  Is this sensation psudeoonostalgia? or some form of nostalgia reflex my brain kicks into when it sees something just a little bit crappy and old?  Hmmm.  Strange.
It may have something to do with the spray fixative I have been zapping my board with.

Anyway, if you see this book, grab it.  Not to play... oh heavens no... just for the chockablock old school looking minis and a vibe that's really 1980s (even though, somewhat embarrassingly, its a 1990's publication).  There is just so much charm oozing from the pictures, and there is not one illustration in sight... its all colour photos.
So here I am, inexplicably, drooling for old Ral Partha and full of inspiration for scenery and a fresher look at base decorations.

It has been just the ticket to set me back onto my righteous path of completing my skirmish board and wagon raid project... though at the moment its looking more like a game of 'nick the donkeys'.

Anyway, back with more painted old school goodness soon.

4 comments:

  1. Cool find, Dave. I can get the same type of nostalgia (very real nostalgia though, definitely not the pseudo kind) looking at the old Star Wars Miniatures Battles rulebook, too. I was wondering- are there any advertisements inside your book that say something like "Pre-painted, incredibly-undetailed-but-still-outrageously-expensive plastic miniatures coming soon!"? Probably not, as this was still TSR-era, so Wizards hadn't yet converted AD&D from a game line into a line item on a balance sheet. . .I digress.

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  3. I vividly remember seeing this in the Dillons bookshop in Exeter when I was a lad after Christmas in the early nineties and, although I didn't buy it (I bought a book about Kursk instead. Don't ask, I was a weird kid!), it's very nostalgic for me to. Certainly one to pick up at some point.

    And high street bookshops certainly don't carry titles like this any more, more's the pity!

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  4. I can totally relate to your post. I have experienced what feels like nostalgia for things that I was completely unaware of in my youth. It is an odd thing. I think it's more of a feeling about a period of time rather than the specific items themselves. Right now I'm collecting Archive and Asgard miniatures that were really a little before my time, but their appeal has the air of nostalgia to it.

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