Warhammer Fantasy Role Play

The Champions game at World of Comics must have lasted 6 months. It had to be 6 months or a year, and I don't think it was a whole year. The reason that I say, 6 months or a year is because of my lease at the Brownstones. You may remember that my sister Sally took over that lease. Well, Sally moves into a house in Broken Arrow before the Champions game ends. That means that the Champions game lasted a whole year, and I just don't think it did. So, the alternative is that my lease at the Brownstones was only a 6 month lease. I'm going with that.

As I mentioned the Champions game had grown beyond a sustainable size. Doug who had started the game was the one to suggest an alternative. It was at the end of one of the game sessions. Doug and I were always the last to leave, because Doug would stay to lock up the store and I would stay because Doug always gave me a ride home. Ever since the play, Dave would stick around to chat and so would his friend Robert. It was an evening like this when Doug put forth a plan.

  

  

Doug wanted to play a game called Warhammer Fantasy Role Play. He even offered to run the game for the three of us. The catch was that we couldn't play at the store. People would see cars in front of the store and ask questions. He didn't like excluding people and he would rather just avoid the whole problem by playing somewhere else. I suggested my apartment. I was the one who didn't have transportation. This way no one would have to drive me back home after the game.

In an instant a plan was forged. In the next days Doug called people and told them that the Champions game had ended. It was just too big and neither myself or Dave wanted to run the sessions anymore. I don't know if other people offered to run the game, but if they did Doug politely declined and the Champions game was put to rest.

The next Wednesday we met for our first Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay game at my apartment. During the game there was a knock at my door. It was two of the folks from the Champions game, Rolland and Mindy. I tried to stop them at the door, but they had seen Doug's car and were curious. Robert greeted them cheerfully and told them what was going on. I suppose in hindsight, honesty is the best policy, but the situation was uncomfortable.

Inviting Roland and Mindy to play would open the floodgates. It's not that we didn't want to include everyone. It just wasn't tenable. Roland and Mindy said their goodbyes. We didn't play. We talked about playing, and we talked about what to do. Robert didn't see a problem. He thought that people would understand. (Robert always thought the best of people.) Doug was very concerned. He didn't like excluding anyone, and he knew people would feel slighted if they weren't included.

We needed a place to play that was "out of sight" … off everyone's radar. That way at least the perceived "slight" would be lessened. We prescribed to the theory, "Out of sight. Out of mind." My sister Sally had just moved into a new house in Broken Arrow. I would ask her if we could play there. She was at work when we would normally play. We wouldn't be in her way. It was a plan, that worked out.

For a while we played at Sally's new house in Broken Arrow. Doug felt guilty about the deception and quit after a few weeks. Robert didn't believe in deception and just told everyone what was going on openly. Me, I didn't really run in the same circles at the time. The only time I saw Dave and Robert was at my sister's house to play the game. The "deception" such as it was, didn't really affect me.

When Doug quit, Dave took over running the game. Dave and Robert and I kept playing, first Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, then AD&D, then other games. The three of us became closer and closer as friends. It was the beginning of something that persists to this day, over 30 years later. (But, there have been a few notable bumps in the road. Bumps of my making.)