Remember that crap in High School where the "Jocks" made fun of the guys (and girls) that played RPGs and Wargames?

 At the store , we get a LOT of military folk shopping and buying stuff.
About 2 years ago , when I first started to notice this trend  one of them admitted something.
There was a soldier on leave from a tour in Afghanistan who was shopping for D&D books.  I asked him how long he'd been playing the game. He said he just learned Dungeons and Dragons within the past year while in Afghanistan. He loves it...having a good time with it. MANY of his fellow soldiers and Marines were trying RPGs for the first time while in either Afghanistan or Iraq.

 Here was he admitted to : He used to make fun of the gamers in High School, now he sort of feels bad about that because he's loving the game. He was considering looking up some of same kids (now adults) and asking to join their game or start a group - when he's actually back home.

 It was good to hear someone admitting that they were wrong and had changed their mind about something.

- Ed C.

That's cool.  I have heard that RPGs are a popular pastime in the armed forces.  I could be wrong but factors like the entertainment value verses cost and being portable could help...no special place or electricity needed along with having some disposable income (especially for the ones without families to support) could also be other reasons.

In any case, good for the guy who wants to make amends.

One of the servicemen who shops at the store told me that one time he was in battle - the only thing on him that wasn't government issue was his folded up D&D character sheet and his dice.

- Ed C.

Ziggurat Con 2007, held in June, was the first gaming convention held in a warzone (in Camp Adder/Tallil Airbase in Iraq), and got lots of support from all sorts of publishers -- WotC, mid-tier, and indie.

Well, the military is full of nerds. Nerds with heavy weaponry who can kill you, but still nerds.


/former Army 98G

Quote from: KoltarOne of the servicemen who shops at the store told me that one time he was in battle - the only thing on him that wasn't government issue was his folded up D&D character sheet and his dice.

Years ago (mid-1980s), a high school friend joined the army and he talked about the games they played and it seemed like the focus at the time was semi-realistic military-focused games like Traveller or Twilight 2000.  While it's difficult to draw any solid conclusions from a few points of anectoday evidence, I do wonder if now, that many of these soldiers are seeing real combat, that their tastes are more fantastic and less gritty.

Quote from: Abyssal MawWell, the military is full of nerds. Nerds with heavy weaponry who can kill you, but still nerds.


/former Army 98G

Yep.

Former Army 11B/97B

-Marco

I'm getting all of you blogs.

Quote from: jhkimZiggurat Con 2007, held in June, was the first gaming convention held in a warzone (in Camp Adder/Tallil Airbase in Iraq), and got lots of support from all sorts of publishers -- WotC, mid-tier, and indie.

I sent them 60 copies of GURPS LITE 4/e, boxes of DICE, GURPS:TRAVELLER, a few other books...also from our store, the manager & his friends did another box or 2 full of  gaming stuff.

- Ed C.

I was in the army in the 80's
besides D&D we played Recon (the original from RPG games)
traveller, twighlight 2000. Our XO was our DM most of the time. about 30% of our unit (MP Company) were gamers.

Later when I moved to Hawaii I joined a gaming club and 80% of our membership were guys from Schofield, Pearl habor, Hickam and Kaneohe MCB.

Former USAF and veteran here.  My career field in the service was FULL of gamers.  We had a pool of 12-15 of us in the NCO dorms when I was in Korea.

And yeah, there are a goodly amount of gamers in the armed services--at least, there were at most all of my assignments.

Quote from: KoltarRemember that crap in High School where the "Jocks" made fun of the guys (and girls) that played RPGs and Wargames?

Not my experience.  The guys I learned to play from were jocks, the people I played with were jocks, and I myself was a jock.  

It is awesome to hear that the military is playing on deployments.  I don't get to hear a lot about that from the people I work with.  They know of guys but they don't or won't admit playing themselves.  I think I'd piss myself if I overheard one of the Majors, Colonels, First Sergeants, or Sergeant Majors discussing feats, crits, or attacks of opportunities.  Actually, I'd probably start giggling and yell "NERDS!" in my best Ogre impersonation at them.

Quote from: Abyssal Maw/former Army 98G

Cryptologic linguist?

Quote from: GunslingerNot my experience.  The guys I learned to play from were jocks, the people I played with were jocks, and I myself was a jock.  

It is awesome to hear that the military is playing on deployments.  I don't get to hear a lot about that from the people I work with.  They know of guys but they don't or won't admit playing themselves.  I think I'd piss myself if I overheard one of the Majors, Colonels, First Sergeants, or Sergeant Majors discussing feats, crits, or attacks of opportunities.  Actually, I'd probably start giggling and yell "NERDS!" in my best Ogre impersonation at them.


Cryptologic linguist?

Yes. Mandarin Chinese.

When I used to be in Tenessee, the guy that ran the local game store  (the War Room), while looking like a total geek/wuss getting on in age was actually a former LRSD recon guy.  He also GM'd the least violent warhammer fantasy rpg game I've ever heard of (and no, we weren't investigating either... my character actually bought the bar and set up shop as a businessman... weird, but fun in it's own way).


When I was in Iraq I was playing with some guys who had gotten free books from WOTC for D&D. The GM was the only old school player, the rest were just bored. Nightly games. Suckass GM, but nightly games... haven't had that since...well... ever.

I was a jock, and a nerd, and a math geek, a 'hessian' and a boy scout. Then I went all punk (as best as I could as a poor air force brat). I was always, always, a gamer.