I am George from NY, arriving here after encountering RPG Pundit on YouTube and Twitter.

I'm a creaking antiquity from the dawn of RPGdom - well, the late 70s anyway. I grew up around (and inside of) Waterloo Hobbies in Stony Brook, NY which was run by Fantasy Games Unlimited owner Scott Bizar and host to the usual wretched hive of scum and villainy. 

I'm also a New Wave kid (WLIR forever!) and video game antediluvian, being old enough to have played Computer Space in a bar on family vacation in SoCal sometime in 1973.

First RPGs: Redbook Chivalry & Sorcery & LBB Traveller

So, hail and well met and various other annoying RenFest-ish expressions.

Other Long Islanders: I frequent Fourth World Comics in Smithtown and Men at Arms Hobbies in Middle Island.

Quote from: GeorgeFromNY on July 09, 2023, 04:04:26 PM
I am George from NY, arriving here after encountering RPG Pundit on YouTube and Twitter.

I'm a creaking antiquity from the dawn of RPGdom - well, the late 70s anyway. I grew up around (and inside of) Waterloo Hobbies in Stony Brook, NY which was run by Fantasy Games Unlimited owner Scott Bizar and host to the usual wretched hive of scum and villainy. 

I'm also a New Wave kid (WLIR forever!) and video game antediluvian, being old enough to have played Computer Space in a bar on family vacation in SoCal sometime in 1973.

First RPGs: Redbook Chivalry & Sorcery & LBB Traveller

So, hail and well met and various other annoying RenFest-ish expressions.

Other Long Islanders: I frequent Fourth World Comics in Smithtown and Men at Arms Hobbies in Middle Island.

Sunday, July 9, 2023

Greetings!

Welcome, GeorgeFromNY!

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Hi there!  What are your current gaming interests?

I haven't been in a TTRPG group since 2010, so I'm just knocking about "the scene" to see what's going on.

Hi George. I used to play down at Waterloo. Scott's mom would bake cookies sometimes.  That was my favorite FLGS. We played original Chivalry and Sorcery at the store!  I had no idea that Scott was that Scot until I was an adult. It is a shame that it is no longer there. Is WLIR still around?  Your intro was enough to make me break lurker status and register.

Hi George. I dated a girl from LI. Be very careful.

Welcome to the Mos Eisley of the TTRPG gaming world. No droids allowed.

Quote from: GeorgeFromNY on July 15, 2023, 05:27:40 PM
I haven't been in a TTRPG group since 2010, so I'm just knocking about "the scene" to see what's going on.

ditto

p.s. hello there >_>

Quote from: eruditeredux on July 15, 2023, 06:24:45 PM
Hi George. I used to play down at Waterloo. Scott's mom would bake cookies sometimes.  That was my favorite FLGS. We played original Chivalry and Sorcery at the store!  I had no idea that Scott was that Scot until I was an adult. It is a shame that it is no longer there. Is WLIR still around?  Your intro was enough to make me break lurker status and register.

I remember the cookies... Now the real question - how many Station Pizza slices did you polish off?

Were you Rusty-era C&S or afterwards in the group that Brad (I think) got going?

WLIR's golden age went from 1982 to 1987 when they lost their station ID (call letters) in some weird FCC hassle that had been going on for years. We listeners had no idea of this and were shocked and confused when the axe fell. The station reincarnated, more or less, as WDRE elsewhere on the FM dial and went on for a bit... but the WLIR we knew, Dare to be Different, etc... was gone just as the 80s it defined for us also passed into history.

Waterloo Stony Brook also closed abruptly in '87 when Scott B. decamped for Arizona. The other one, "Waterloo 2" lingered on in Mineola for a few years but that was never THE Waterloo for me.

So... 1987 was the year of endings.



Update: There is an excellent WLIR documentary out. Strongly recommended as pharma-grade 80s New Wave nostalgia.

  Hello GeorgefromNY! We are a friendly bunch here in RPG Mos Eisley.

Your reminiscence with others is entertaining. I'm old enough to remember video game cocktail cabinets (like Pac Man), but you have intriguing older and regional stories. I'm just gonna listen as you and others travel down memory lane.

Be sure to add to the game tax in your topics in this forum. Have fun! 

Ye Olde Storyes - The Beginning

Herewith my tale of discovery of the much-loved and -missed Waterloo Hobbies in Stony Brook, NY.

Like all the storied, uh, stores from days of yore, Waterloo was an armory of weapons-grade weirdness. On my first visit, my 12th birthday in 1979, I walked in to find two enormous fat guys crouched over a small folding table, facing each other, playing PanzerBlitz. (I could see the name on the nearby box cover.)

One was bald as an egg, the other sported a mane of reddish, mad-scientist hair. The bald one had a Tangerine Dream t-shirt several sizes too small - thus I became aware of Tangerine Dream and that whole genre of music. As I watched, the other one, the redhead, suddenly bellowed, "You don't understand Rommel! You're no wargamer! Go paint a dragon!" & stood so abruptly that his ample middle up-ended the table & sent tiny game counters flying everywhere.

"Knock it off! And clean that up," yelled the man behind the counter. "Hey, kid... You lost?" he said to me. "We don't sell games like Monopoly here."

That's how I met Scott Bizar of FGU. I spent the next six years at that place. I learned PanzerBlitz, Squad Leader, CL&S, WRG, all the FGU stuff, TFT, RuneQuest and so much else. I read Space Gamer, Different Worlds, JTAS & SA and began my lifelong addiction to Osprey books. Thanks to Ral Partha and Minifigs I absorbed more lead than the plumbers at Hadrian's palace.

The social cost was catastrophic. I learned to relate to weird adults better than I ever could to my peers. I didn't know a thing about sports but could name a dozen types of polearms on command. The less said about dating, the better.

And I painted plenty of dragons. Oh yes.

No school like the old school. Regret level: Zero.

Greatly enjoying your reminiscences of the "good old days," George.

Welcome George,

I am an ex New Yorker myself.  Grew up in Queens and started playing in '81.  Nice to meet another veteran player.