The guy with the curls and moustache is Albie Fiore, whose name older RPGers will remember. He was a regular contributor to White Dwarf magazine, writing scenarios and editing the column 'Fiend Factory', among many other works in the hobby. Sadly, he passed away in 2009.
Well the joke's on us all taking the piss as the guy interviewed at 3:50 on is Steve Jackson who went on to write the millions selling Fighting Fantasy books and Co-founded Games Workshop/Warhammer.
he at the start as well - I thought he looked familiar - yes I liked all that Fighting Fantasy / and Talisman boardgame et al when I was younger. As someone that didn't like reading I found the short paragraphs of the adventure gamebooks easy to digest, and there were many different themes. I enjoyed Citadel of Chaos and there is a bit where if you think of cheating and backtracking, the other option leads also to your demise! Maybe somewhere near the Ganjees - but haven't read it for a long time now.
1980: The JOY of ROLE-PLAYING GAMES | Heart of the Matter | Retro Gaming | BBC Archive 1148am 6.10.24 hey man, i have never taken the piss of those role players or fantasy warhammer gaming/gamers... i mean, it's cool and is a perfect outlet for those frustrated with the fractures and fissures of contemporaneous living. great for one's imagination. and imaginations are where it's at. sadly these guys sound so banal and not in keeping with their characterizations that yer left thinking: we might as well be back in the office.... i knew folk who dressed up as vikings of a weekend and went at in fields with their foes... they have their own hierarchy so i'd be useless... unless cast a Loki................... you kindda feel there's a lot of sorrow for the fallen leader when you find those dudes who loved what they did re: (fantasy) gaming have given it a miss or stopped attending their weekly fantasy bash... another lamb to the slaughter, so to speak. the wife and contemporary living strikes another blow etc etce etc etc etc...
All the early reports on this genre of game had a smug reporter and the usual comments (made by the anchor man/woman in the studio) that they were socially inept people. Apart from the guy talking about the possibility of being being violent on the streets, if he didn't role play at a table, the players all presented themselves well. They even dressed in suits! I don't think British RPGers were like that at home in the early 80s.
Cool to see how people were doing it back in the day, and that no where in the interview did it seem that they were being mocked. Good for them and thanks for posting this blast from the past.
this is from a time when Europe (the UK was part of Europe at the time) was usually a about ten years behind the US on having the dumbest possible take on everything.
Man, they were genuinely good times. What was interesting was that you could be involved in D&D AND still be in with the breakdance and BMX scene. It was all acceptable and everyone was involved. Good Times! I bought the re-elease of Heroquest recently and play it with my little boy, he loves it!❤❤
There's a wonderful story on the internet about a GM running a game in the Star Wars universe. There was a section played out in the Rebel base on Hoth during the Imperial assault. The players escaped the base in their star ship, and for a bit of extra flavour the GM told them that as they flew away, Darth Vader emerged from the base and shook his fist at them. It wasn't supposed to mean anything, but the players immediately wanted nothing more than to fight Darth Vader. Against the GM's plan they abandoned their quest and insisted on flying back to the Rebel base, which they searched from top to bottom, looking for Darth Vader to fight.
@@cb361 First time I played Star Wars D20, we were told up front "don't go hunting for autographs. If you go looking for Darth Vader, you WILL find him and you will NOT live"
Seeing this brought back happy memories of when me and my brother used to play these games back in the early 80s and there used to be a group that used to be at our school that used to play them including one of our teachers and it was our teacher that had the idea of doing a 24 hour role playing game event to raise money for a charity and my brother and I was some of those people that was in that charity event but I can't remember how much we raised or even the charity the money was going to for it has been so long ago but we enjoyed it.
I wish I was just a little older in 1980 to have been in this mix. I was a little young and the version we played wasn’t nearly as fleshed out as this. These blokes are having a proper time of it. Glad to still be playing in 2024. The scene is alive and well.
This video does bring back some good memories of the late 70's and early lead figures of the time, before 25mm was a victim of scale creep. I still have all the figures in the video except for the Darth Vader and ral partha dwarf, which I used to have (actually several) but traded away about 20 years ago. I also had lots of the boardgames on Steve Jackson's shelf. Very amusing.
House of Hell really freaked me out, the illustrations like the old corpse falling out of the cupboard. It was difficult to finish alive without cheating a bit😅
@@simonw1252 yeah he was really testing us on that one! you've got to take info from a failed run to be able to succeed, which i think is the first in the series to do that??
The dungeon made the game come ALIVE. I’d love to get involved in a role-play game like this in person but this day and age everything is so online and not the same.
There's a store right by a supermarket here where you can go in and play all these old games. It's filled with young people playing these games and not a phone or other device to be seen. This is in Upland, Ca.
Board games are still popular, and there's a thriving community of enthusiasts. Thanks to the internet, it's become much easier to get in contact with like-minded people.
Have you been living under a rock? This scene is very much alive and well, problem is though a lot of these sorts of things are run by two horrendous mega corps known as games workshop and wizards of the coast, HOWEVER funnily enough there is a booming independent role playing and wargaming scene leveraging off of alternative companies and 3d printing of miniatures, alongside one page rules systems. Just type up 'alternatives to d&d' or 'alternatives to games workshop' and find your way and what's being played locally from there.
It’s never been more alive than it is right now. Dungeons & Dragons has never been bigger. It’s one of the core brands of a major international company traded on the stock market. Entire industries have sprung up around it. My niece plays. My sister plays. We have a game this Saturday. Our friends run a D&D group at the school they teach at. It couldn’t be a better time to find a game.
You were hanging with the wrong crowd. This was the era of punk, the sports casual, the Rastafarian and the occasional hippy., there was no good reason to look like this!!
Jackson had already graduated by the time he founded Games Workshop in 1975 and opened the first Games Workshop in 1978 in Hammersmith. So there aren't any teenagers here, just the odd proto millionaire. He and Ian Livingstone used to deliver TSR imports in person from the back of a van during 1976/7. I know this because I worked for Avalon Hill (UK) at Tally Ho Games North Finchley. In return we sold them those board games you can see at 3:07, until Games Workshop went exclusively fantasy around 1986.
So fascinating that it evolved into such a massive billion dollar industry in modern day. Complete with movies, animated shows, televised D&D campaigns that draw in millions of viewers a week. As well as a massive amount of successful D&D adjacent games which do very well for themselves. It's funny how it was mocked back then, similar to the social trajectory videogames had. Which is now one the dominant forms of entertainment.
@@MisterStuzy UK is the third highest worldwide in terms of industry value/revenue so there are tonnes of people who lean into it. I suppose it depends on your age, level of social deficiencies, creative capacity and internet proficiency. Never said it was not opened to being mocked :)
Who watching this has the time and money to go on a six month trip to a foreign land? Well D&D and the like can get you there in six Saturdays and back to work on Monday. Who here has just been asked to star in a 30 billion dollar movie? That is the attraction of the game.
I mean, they live in a land of castles that are spooky ruins and ones that are pleasantly inhabited, King Arthur is a national mythical origin story, history is filled with knights in battle, and Tolkien elevated a history of epic storytelling to incredible levels; why WOULD NOT British youth be playing D&D? It is very-much a thinking-man's game and helps channel one's imagination in good clean fun... with pint of ale at hand. (and no unexpected pregnancies or relationship dramas!)
I remember going to the og Games Workshop in the late 70s early 80s. I could be wrong but I tbink the gentleman with the beard is Steve Jackson, one of the original founders of GW (along with Ian Livingstone). I am sure thf somewhere crusty old gamer will correct me if I sm wromg
And now its more like 25%. And that's just the way the government and corporations want us - self-indulgent and stupid with our money...even if you've been living off others your entire life.
I didn't know that Phil Lynott from Thin Lizzy was into playing D&D back in the day. On a more serious note, I believe that's Steve Jackson 3:48 one of the founders of Games Workshop but the question is, was this footage filmed in the Hammersmith Games Workshop (the very first Games Workshop high street shop) ??? or was it some other shop that you may know about ? I absolutely love wargaming and gaming shop history and oh what I would give to travel back in time there and buy up some of those retro games. (big miniatures wargamer fan that I am). Thanks BBC for digging this out.
@@armitageshanks4614 yeah I'm pretty much certain that this is the very first Hammersmith Games Workshop in this video if you look up on PInterest there's an old photo of Steven Jackson and I think Ian Livingstone stood up (same camera direction but looking further down the shop on the same side) and you can see those same 3 wooden display cabinets/shelves on the left hand side in the same order.
4:22 what he said was actually quite respectful but rather foreboding going by his looks it seems like this game saved him from being the possible “Serial killer” 😮💨💀 scary
He may also have been aware of the negative press D&D was getting in the US because of the case of a student, who played D&D, who'd committed suicide the year before. The media was in a frenzy over there and perhaps that British player was keen to show how cathartic gaming is (although it comes across as weird).
Yes or it just encourages you to be more pleasant in general to people in the everyday world as your frustrations and fantasies have been all been worked out in an imaginary world and don’t need to affect your behaviour in subtle ways - a sly remark, a mean look, a broken promise. Small things make big differences.
My friends and I were playing war games with 1/72 scale AirFix soldiers at this time (we would have been a decade younger then these players) and going by this clip we had a lot more fun doing so then they seem to be having. We also used rules (anyone remember the AirFix War Games book?) and dice.
Got a question for you, as I'm interested in miniature wargaming history in the UK, everything from (Marcus) Hinton Miniatures in the 1960s to everything just after that and before - including what guys did in their garden sheds with lead moulds making miniatures. Question is: besides AirFix War Games, what other miniature wargame rule sets or hobby kits were around in the early to late 1970s ? were there any fantasy wargames out there with miniatures ? or was Games Workshop the first ?
@@RolandoRatas There were several companies making toy soldier play sets but the only 'proper' war game sets that I can recall were ones based around the Waterloo period (never had an interest in that period), Dungeons and Dragons (again, neither my friends nor I had any interest in this) and a Cold War wargame called The Fulda Gap. This came out in the late 1970s and involved a confrontation between NATO and the Warsaw Pact. Of course, there was a board game called RISK which I suppose could be termed a war game set. My friends and I just used basic Airfix soldiers and there were several books on war games that we could borrow from the library.
@@ThisOldGuy1965 many thanks. Never heard of The Fulda Gap before. It has an amazing history 'table top' gaming in whatever form it may take and it's always fascinating to hear of 'what came before my time' early 80s that is. H.G. Wells wrote Little Wars in 1913 I believe and I guess there were war gaming rule books or rule sets around before that time.
Well, that’s correct. If your character dies it’s generally it for that character you have to make another. There aren’t many other games where that occurs.
What he meant is that due to the amount of backstory and time that can go into creating a character in an RPG, which is far more extensive than you would get in most other games, the avatar feels more real. You don't have the same level of attachment to a playing piece in most standard board games. When a character dies in an RPG, it is almost like losing a pet or a part of yourself, and can be quite upsetting.
@Rocket1377 of course I got a full explanation. That's what everyone needs after making a joke. A good long serious explanation! No idea what any of you are on about. I'm off to play Hardcore WoW!
They're at work. I think that's the Games Workshop store in Hammersmith. He wore tee shirt and jeans when making deliveries in '76-7 off the back of their van. I'm guessing he's trying to look professional because they're raising funds to expand into a chain.
That guy's afro wig made me think this was a parody of the 70s, not the real thing. That wig brought to you by the "Marsha Marsha Marsha Wash-n'-Wear be a whole new you" wig Co.
No these are the early days of Games Workshop. They really struggled to get it off the ground in the 70's and then broadcasters showed interest in the early 80's. I remember seeing clips on various programmes, as a child, then I became interested in Fighting Fantasy, then RPGs. Although I suppose some credit should be given to the Puffin book club for children for introducing thousands to gamebooks.
- Lord Vader moves three spaces *A Small Naked Dwarve Appears holding a Tiny Axe - Rolls die - Lord Vader casts Fire Spell on Naked Dwarve - Rolls die - Naked Dwarve Evades 0 DMG *The Naked Dwarve becomes Angry and Laughs - Naked Dwarve reaches for Axe - Rolls Die - Naked Dwarve Fails - Axe Breaks *Lord Vader Reaches into the Air with a open hand - Lord Vader Call Forth The Force - Roll Die - Lord Vader Fails 0 DMG - Naked Dwarve Throws BROKEN Axe - Roll Die - Naked Dwarve Crits Lord Vader - 9999 DMG - Lord Vader Picks Up Axe Piece and Throws Back - Roll Die - Lord Vader Fails 0 DMG - Naked Dwarve casts incantation of Life Support System Failure - Roll Die - Lord Vader falls to the floor unresponsive 1 DMG *Naked Dwarve Does The Hammer time *The room is empty and no chests are to be found *Beyond the crumpled body is another large door - Naked Dwarve moves towards door - Roll Die - Naked Dwarve is unsuccessful *The floor gives way to a Trap *Your Party Parishes Ah yes. Darth Vader. The greatest Classic Dungeons and Dragons 1.0 character of them all!
"Shortly after this film was made, at least two of the young men in this interview were convicted for d6 with a minor(taur) and added to the D6-offenders registry..."
Female players are a known rarity when it comes to D+D (or so I've heard). Did they include her in the interviews? No, completely ignored. Good old 70s 😟
She may have been either a GF to one of the guys just hanging out, or a woman just checking out the game for the first time to see if she'll like it. All the comments about the woman from men are like, "Yeah, a woman should never have the right to say, "No comment""
There were actually a lot more around than you might think, particularly in the student end of things. But there were a lot of "male only" groups as well and the media always liked its stereotypes. It`s actually more likely that the rather patronising interviewer is ignoring her because she is a woman doing something "male only".
By that time a couple of these guys were major players in the game industry so were publishing their own stuff. But certainly would be aware of that version.
They already have... Freedom: The Underground Railroad This Guilty Land Puerto Rico Blackboard And then there's the various Endeavor games by Carl de Visser and Jarratt Gray.
Taking to looooong and boooooring with thousand rules , i tried it and must say : HELL NO 🤮🤮🤮🤮👎👎👎👎 It is for dudes and dudettes who do not have a life . 😁😁👍👍
The guy with the curls and moustache is Albie Fiore, whose name older RPGers will remember. He was a regular contributor to White Dwarf magazine, writing scenarios and editing the column 'Fiend Factory', among many other works in the hobby. Sadly, he passed away in 2009.
Well the joke's on us all taking the piss as the guy interviewed at 3:50 on is Steve Jackson who went on to write the millions selling Fighting Fantasy books and Co-founded Games Workshop/Warhammer.
No mention of Ian livingstone, dam
@@ashleybevis9769 He's not bothered, he's in the House of Lords.
he at the start as well - I thought he looked familiar - yes I liked all that Fighting Fantasy / and Talisman boardgame et al when I was younger. As someone that didn't like reading I found the short paragraphs of the adventure gamebooks easy to digest, and there were many different themes. I enjoyed Citadel of Chaos and there is a bit where if you think of cheating and backtracking, the other option leads also to your demise! Maybe somewhere near the Ganjees - but haven't read it for a long time now.
1980: The JOY of ROLE-PLAYING GAMES | Heart of the Matter | Retro Gaming | BBC Archive 1148am 6.10.24 hey man, i have never taken the piss of those role players or fantasy warhammer gaming/gamers... i mean, it's cool and is a perfect outlet for those frustrated with the fractures and fissures of contemporaneous living. great for one's imagination. and imaginations are where it's at. sadly these guys sound so banal and not in keeping with their characterizations that yer left thinking: we might as well be back in the office.... i knew folk who dressed up as vikings of a weekend and went at in fields with their foes... they have their own hierarchy so i'd be useless... unless cast a Loki................... you kindda feel there's a lot of sorrow for the fallen leader when you find those dudes who loved what they did re: (fantasy) gaming have given it a miss or stopped attending their weekly fantasy bash... another lamb to the slaughter, so to speak. the wife and contemporary living strikes another blow etc etce etc etc etc...
All the early reports on this genre of game had a smug reporter and the usual comments (made by the anchor man/woman in the studio) that they were socially inept people. Apart from the guy talking about the possibility of being being violent on the streets, if he didn't role play at a table, the players all presented themselves well. They even dressed in suits! I don't think British RPGers were like that at home in the early 80s.
Cool to see how people were doing it back in the day, and that no where in the interview did it seem that they were being mocked. Good for them and thanks for posting this blast from the past.
this is from a time when Europe (the UK was part of Europe at the time) was usually a about ten years behind the US on having the dumbest possible take on everything.
Man, they were genuinely good times. What was interesting was that you could be involved in D&D AND still be in with the breakdance and BMX scene. It was all acceptable and everyone was involved. Good Times! I bought the re-elease of Heroquest recently and play it with my little boy, he loves it!❤❤
Steve Jackson of Fighting fantasy fame. I was obsessed with his (and Ian Livingstone's) books
Ah, yes! D&D. I got raked in by a wizard friend in 1984 and never left. Goodness! I'm OLD! Lol🤣😱💀
Not old, just high-levelled
You know you're in trouble in the dungeon when Darth Vader emerges.
There's a wonderful story on the internet about a GM running a game in the Star Wars universe. There was a section played out in the Rebel base on Hoth during the Imperial assault. The players escaped the base in their star ship, and for a bit of extra flavour the GM told them that as they flew away, Darth Vader emerged from the base and shook his fist at them. It wasn't supposed to mean anything, but the players immediately wanted nothing more than to fight Darth Vader. Against the GM's plan they abandoned their quest and insisted on flying back to the Rebel base, which they searched from top to bottom, looking for Darth Vader to fight.
Heh, I thought that
LOL
@@cb361 First time I played Star Wars D20, we were told up front "don't go hunting for autographs. If you go looking for Darth Vader, you WILL find him and you will NOT live"
That poster over the DM’s shoulder at 1:45 is badass.
That Dungeon Master really brings it to life
He needs a tune up, unless he's just intimidated by the cameras etc?
The first guy keeps his vast array of haircare products in a Bag of Holding.
Awesome!😂😂
Steve Jackson did have good hair back in the day, I suppose. A very famous writer of fantasy games, including Oger.
What very well dressed role-players. The two men in tweed jackets look like they just came from presenting an Open University programme.
Seeing this brought back happy memories of when me and my brother used to play these games back in the early 80s and there used to be a group that used to be at our school that used to play them including one of our teachers and it was our teacher that had the idea of doing a 24 hour role playing game event to raise money for a charity and my brother and I was some of those people that was in that charity event but I can't remember how much we raised or even the charity the money was going to for it has been so long ago but we enjoyed it.
I wish I was just a little older in 1980 to have been in this mix. I was a little young and the version we played wasn’t nearly as fleshed out as this. These blokes are having a proper time of it. Glad to still be playing in 2024. The scene is alive and well.
This video does bring back some good memories of the late 70's and early lead figures of the time, before 25mm was a victim of scale creep. I still have all the figures in the video except for the Darth Vader and ral partha dwarf, which I used to have (actually several) but traded away about 20 years ago. I also had lots of the boardgames on Steve Jackson's shelf. Very amusing.
2:53 I'm going to ask people to join my "sword & sorcery cult" from now on.
At 4:30 he makes a good point. The riots of Summer ‘24 could have been avoided if someone cracked open a game of Hero Quest.
Oh my sweet summer child....
Thank you.
A look back to the early days of UK rpg fans.
His mustache is amazing.
thinking mustaches are amazing is very 2006. You do realize that everyone is gong around actually wearin them now, right?
@@LLS710 HIS moustache can be amazing, regardless of how many people are doing it
Steve Jackson's Fighting Fantasy books were always the best imo, Citadel of Chaos, House of Hell, Creature of Havoc, the Sorcery series etc.
have you seen his latest? released only last year - it's the first he's done since FF#24 Creature of Havoc
House of Hell really freaked me out, the illustrations like the old corpse falling out of the cupboard. It was difficult to finish alive without cheating a bit😅
@@simonw1252 yeah he was really testing us on that one! you've got to take info from a failed run to be able to succeed, which i think is the first in the series to do that??
@@seanfsmith Yes, not his best work unfortunately but still highly enjoyable and innovative. Here's hoping he works on a few more! 👍
@@seanfsmith It's possible to complete it on your first attempt but the chances of succeeding are slim.
@0:59 Cheers up love, in another 7 years he'll be able to play Dungeon Master on his own with a computer called the Atarti ST! 😂
*_Amiga 500!_*
@@Kreln1221 It released on Amiga a year later in 1988. 😉
Or there was Dungeon Master for the ZX Spectrum in 1983! (Not as good as the Atari ST version mind, but it was fun).
The dungeon made the game come ALIVE. I’d love to get involved in a role-play game like this in person but this day and age everything is so online and not the same.
There's a store right by a supermarket here where you can go in and play all these old games. It's filled with young people playing these games and not a phone or other device to be seen. This is in Upland, Ca.
Board games are still popular, and there's a thriving community of enthusiasts. Thanks to the internet, it's become much easier to get in contact with like-minded people.
It's still very much alive as a scene. Go for it and get involved, you won't regret it 😊
Have you been living under a rock? This scene is very much alive and well, problem is though a lot of these sorts of things are run by two horrendous mega corps known as games workshop and wizards of the coast, HOWEVER funnily enough there is a booming independent role playing and wargaming scene leveraging off of alternative companies and 3d printing of miniatures, alongside one page rules systems. Just type up 'alternatives to d&d' or 'alternatives to games workshop' and find your way and what's being played locally from there.
It’s never been more alive than it is right now. Dungeons & Dragons has never been bigger. It’s one of the core brands of a major international company traded on the stock market. Entire industries have sprung up around it. My niece plays. My sister plays. We have a game this Saturday. Our friends run a D&D group at the school they teach at. It couldn’t be a better time to find a game.
I want to go back in time and live these moments.
May your stamina never fail!
Neat. Thanks for bringing this back from the archives.
Wow! Look at all them lead miniatures, on the shelves. Shoulda done a separate doc' showing them all.
Hooray for Steve Jackson! Lovely man.
And that's what 17 year olds looked like in the 1970s.
I love that they put on shirts and ties for this. It’s serious business battling evil.
You were hanging with the wrong crowd. This was the era of punk, the sports casual, the Rastafarian and the occasional hippy., there was no good reason to look like this!!
@@4879daniel In the 80's that's what some regular people wore.
@@4879daniel They're just dressed like nerds, at that time nerds were generally smartly dressed.
Jackson had already graduated by the time he founded Games Workshop in 1975 and opened the first Games Workshop in 1978 in Hammersmith. So there aren't any teenagers here, just the odd proto millionaire.
He and Ian Livingstone used to deliver TSR imports in person from the back of a van during 1976/7. I know this because I worked for Avalon Hill (UK) at Tally Ho Games North Finchley. In return we sold them those board games you can see at 3:07, until Games Workshop went exclusively fantasy around 1986.
Loved reading/playing Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstones books as a kid.
I've got the exact same edition of that Star Wars book you see in the opening few seconds. It's still in pretty good condition for its age.
So fascinating that it evolved into such a massive billion dollar industry in modern day. Complete with movies, animated shows, televised D&D campaigns that draw in millions of viewers a week. As well as a massive amount of successful D&D adjacent games which do very well for themselves.
It's funny how it was mocked back then, similar to the social trajectory videogames had. Which is now one the dominant forms of entertainment.
@@MisterStuzy UK is the third highest worldwide in terms of industry value/revenue so there are tonnes of people who lean into it. I suppose it depends on your age, level of social deficiencies, creative capacity and internet proficiency. Never said it was not opened to being mocked :)
@@MisterStuzy Depends on which generation. Boomers probably mocked it a lot, and some Gen Xers. But Millenials and Zers are down with it generally.
Jackson is a legend. Poor woman never got to air her opinion. I suppose she was there to make tea for them when requested. 😉
And sandwiches of Gwynlenon; they stave off hunger of paladins and rangers for 3-6 rounds!
Who watching this has the time and money to go on a six month trip to a foreign land? Well D&D and the like can get you there in six Saturdays and back to work on Monday. Who here has just been asked to star in a 30 billion dollar movie? That is the attraction of the game.
Oh boy, this is some 80s ass 80s footage. It's beautiful 🥲
I mean, they live in a land of castles that are spooky ruins and ones that are pleasantly inhabited, King Arthur is a national mythical origin story, history is filled with knights in battle, and Tolkien elevated a history of epic storytelling to incredible levels; why WOULD NOT British youth be playing D&D? It is very-much a thinking-man's game and helps channel one's imagination in good clean fun... with pint of ale at hand. (and no unexpected pregnancies or relationship dramas!)
its crazy like the nerds from 1980s look like the hipster from today
Wow, I didn’t even recognise Ian Livingstone as the Dungeon Master in this video 😂
I still wear a suit while playing D&D...also that guy stole my DM screen! Give it back!
Seems like a dicey pastime 😉
Made Jackson a millionaire.
@@alanbeaumont4848 I know, he had quite a bit of my pocket money many moons ago!
I remember going to the og Games Workshop in the late 70s early 80s. I could be wrong but I tbink the gentleman with the beard is Steve Jackson, one of the original founders of GW (along with Ian Livingstone). I am sure thf somewhere crusty old gamer will correct me if I sm wromg
Yes, it's Steve Jackson, he's named in the video description
Life was better back then.
In 1980 only 1 percent of us refused to grow up then marketing created the kidult in the 90s to increase profits.
And now its more like 25%. And that's just the way the government and corporations want us - self-indulgent and stupid with our money...even if you've been living off others your entire life.
Back when nerds were proud to lift each other up, not wallow in pathetic tribalism and toxicity.
I miss that feeling of game-shop camaraderie.
The chap at 3:54 is giving me a young Charles Dance vibes
0:08 Back in MY day, we didn't need no fancy, shmancy character sheets!!! ;-)
retro nerds, I love it
That was a clutch Command spell.
I didn't know that Phil Lynott from Thin Lizzy was into playing D&D back in the day. On a more serious note, I believe that's Steve Jackson 3:48 one of the founders of Games Workshop but the question is, was this footage filmed in the Hammersmith Games Workshop (the very first Games Workshop high street shop) ??? or was it some other shop that you may know about ? I absolutely love wargaming and gaming shop history and oh what I would give to travel back in time there and buy up some of those retro games. (big miniatures wargamer fan that I am). Thanks BBC for digging this out.
Pretty certain it’s the original games workshop since they had the exclusive rights to sell dnd in the late 70’s/early 80’s
The dungeon master is Albie Fiore who wrote for their magazine:White Dwarf
@@armitageshanks4614 yeah I'm pretty much certain that this is the very first Hammersmith Games Workshop in this video if you look up on PInterest there's an old photo of Steven Jackson and I think Ian Livingstone stood up (same camera direction but looking further down the shop on the same side) and you can see those same 3 wooden display cabinets/shelves on the left hand side in the same order.
I sold them many of those games, while working for Avalon Hill (UK) in North Finchley.
@@sie4431 sadly Albie Fiore died in 2009 aged 63, there's a The Guardian obituary on him. Feel a bit bad now saying he looked like Phil Lynott. RIP
I'm just glad the guy in the glasses found dnd so he didn't end up on crimewatch.
As a wargamer I’m looking at the classics on the shelves… Campaign for North Africa, Next War, Diplomacy, Midway.
I spent far too many hours playing D&D in the seventies lol.
On the contrary, you can never play too much!
What shop is this!? I'm sure I used to visit to get my figures as a kid.
Lead miniatures!
You let out that hatred young man.
On the contrary the role players tended towards gentle nerd-dom rather than putting on bin bags and gobbing on bands.
I would be the first character offed, if I showed up at my D&D session in a suit and tie.
Real fun and joy
4:22 what he said was actually quite respectful but rather foreboding going by his looks it seems like this game saved him from being the possible “Serial killer” 😮💨💀 scary
He may also have been aware of the negative press D&D was getting in the US because of the case of a student, who played D&D, who'd committed suicide the year before. The media was in a frenzy over there and perhaps that British player was keen to show how cathartic gaming is (although it comes across as weird).
Yes or it just encourages you to be more pleasant in general to people in the everyday world as your frustrations and fantasies have been all been worked out in an imaginary world and don’t need to affect your behaviour in subtle ways - a sly remark, a mean look, a broken promise. Small things make big differences.
Funny you say he looks like a serial killer... he looks exactly like my dad did back then
Imagine their house being bugged by mistake
4:21 serial killer vibes? It sounds like if it wasn’t for D&D this guy might be committing some heinous crimes 😮
They look like the British Opie and Anthony Iykyk
My friends and I were playing war games with 1/72 scale AirFix soldiers at this time (we would have been a decade younger then these players) and going by this clip we had a lot more fun doing so then they seem to be having. We also used rules (anyone remember the AirFix War Games book?) and dice.
Got a question for you, as I'm interested in miniature wargaming history in the UK, everything from (Marcus) Hinton Miniatures in the 1960s to everything just after that and before - including what guys did in their garden sheds with lead moulds making miniatures. Question is: besides AirFix War Games, what other miniature wargame rule sets or hobby kits were around in the early to late 1970s ? were there any fantasy wargames out there with miniatures ? or was Games Workshop the first ?
@@RolandoRatas There were several companies making toy soldier play sets but the only 'proper' war game sets that I can recall were ones based around the Waterloo period (never had an interest in that period), Dungeons and Dragons (again, neither my friends nor I had any interest in this) and a Cold War wargame called The Fulda Gap. This came out in the late 1970s and involved a confrontation between NATO and the Warsaw Pact. Of course, there was a board game called RISK which I suppose could be termed a war game set. My friends and I just used basic Airfix soldiers and there were several books on war games that we could borrow from the library.
@@ThisOldGuy1965 many thanks. Never heard of The Fulda Gap before. It has an amazing history 'table top' gaming in whatever form it may take and it's always fascinating to hear of 'what came before my time' early 80s that is. H.G. Wells wrote Little Wars in 1913 I believe and I guess there were war gaming rule books or rule sets around before that time.
@@RolandoRatas Fulda Gap: Hex and counter wargame by SPI. Got one upstairs (and too many others to mention).
*than not then.
oh, dear!
You can actually die in this game 😅
Well, that’s correct. If your character dies it’s generally it for that character you have to make another.
There aren’t many other games where that occurs.
@Liofa73 he didn't say character. I was just messing really!
I wonder if he was being mischievous in his ambiguity?
🤪
What he meant is that due to the amount of backstory and time that can go into creating a character in an RPG, which is far more extensive than you would get in most other games, the avatar feels more real. You don't have the same level of attachment to a playing piece in most standard board games. When a character dies in an RPG, it is almost like losing a pet or a part of yourself, and can be quite upsetting.
@Rocket1377 of course I got a full explanation. That's what everyone needs after making a joke. A good long serious explanation! No idea what any of you are on about. I'm off to play Hardcore WoW!
Looks no different to current day attire and atmosphere for role playing . In fact this looks like Cosplay
They're at work. I think that's the Games Workshop store in Hammersmith. He wore tee shirt and jeans when making deliveries in '76-7 off the back of their van. I'm guessing he's trying to look professional because they're raising funds to expand into a chain.
awwwwwww those were the days ! no wokeness ,just proper D&D !
Darth Vader makes a guest appearance
Nice raytracing.
That guy's afro wig made me think this was a parody of the 70s, not the real thing. That wig brought to you by the "Marsha Marsha Marsha Wash-n'-Wear be a whole new you" wig Co.
No these are the early days of Games Workshop. They really struggled to get it off the ground in the 70's and then broadcasters showed interest in the early 80's. I remember seeing clips on various programmes, as a child, then I became interested in Fighting Fantasy, then RPGs. Although I suppose some credit should be given to the Puffin book club for children for introducing thousands to gamebooks.
🙏
T1 PC DM NAO!
these guys are going to love world of warcraft!!!
Is that Blue Holme they are playing in 1980?
I suspect he has a lot of hatred inside of him 🤪
- Lord Vader moves three spaces
*A Small Naked Dwarve Appears holding a Tiny Axe
- Rolls die
- Lord Vader casts Fire Spell on Naked Dwarve
- Rolls die
- Naked Dwarve Evades 0 DMG
*The Naked Dwarve becomes Angry and Laughs
- Naked Dwarve reaches for Axe
- Rolls Die
- Naked Dwarve Fails
- Axe Breaks
*Lord Vader Reaches into the Air with a open hand
- Lord Vader Call Forth The Force
- Roll Die
- Lord Vader Fails 0 DMG
- Naked Dwarve Throws BROKEN Axe
- Roll Die
- Naked Dwarve Crits Lord Vader - 9999 DMG
- Lord Vader Picks Up Axe Piece and Throws Back
- Roll Die
- Lord Vader Fails 0 DMG
- Naked Dwarve casts incantation of Life Support System Failure
- Roll Die
- Lord Vader falls to the floor unresponsive 1 DMG
*Naked Dwarve Does The Hammer time
*The room is empty and no chests are to be found
*Beyond the crumpled body is another large door
- Naked Dwarve moves towards door
- Roll Die
- Naked Dwarve is unsuccessful
*The floor gives way to a Trap
*Your Party Parishes
Ah yes. Darth Vader. The greatest Classic Dungeons and Dragons 1.0 character of them all!
Weird .... I am just here to see the cute guys!
So you like grandpas? :)
GEEKS!
The woman didn't get to say nor do anything
"Shortly after this film was made, at least two of the young men in this interview were convicted for d6 with a minor(taur) and added to the D6-offenders registry..."
My gf and I roll play 😂
No… you “role” play. Unless of course you just like rolling around.
Which one of you puts on the Princess Leia slave outfit? 🤣
No we live in a time where solo plays a thing now so DM's is not always needed these days!
I was 8 in 1980 and somehow completely missed out on the whole dnd thing. I guess being outside on my bmx had something to do with it!
Or it was just that you were 8. Most RPG players in the UK back then tended to be at least mid to late teens or older.
@@AbelMcTalisker I remember a few of my friends collecting the citadel metal miniatures and playing something with them 😂
Female players are a known rarity when it comes to D+D (or so I've heard). Did they include her in the interviews? No, completely ignored. Good old 70s 😟
Not today they aren't, in fact most D&D channels on TH-cam have as many female members as male but I doubt that many played back in 1980.
Maybe she just didn't want to talk on television
I think it's more likely she was a GW staff member who didn't play RPGs but was roped into the scene to make it look less nerdy!
lol.
Wonder if the non-speaking woman was just dragged in to make it look slightly less weird.
She may have been either a GF to one of the guys just hanging out, or a woman just checking out the game for the first time to see if she'll like it. All the comments about the woman from men are like, "Yeah, a woman should never have the right to say, "No comment""
There were actually a lot more around than you might think, particularly in the student end of things. But there were a lot of "male only" groups as well and the media always liked its stereotypes. It`s actually more likely that the rather patronising interviewer is ignoring her because she is a woman doing something "male only".
You can see how an ignorant person would interpret what some of these guys are saying as satanic
I think "cult-like" is maybe more accurate.
@@Rocket1377 true
Clickbait - where's the nurses, teachers with a cane, horse riders with a whip and nuns in stockings and suspenders?
I think that was st trinians lol
In your head apparently...
Working for the BBC. Think about it!
@@AbelMcTalisker Monty Python in the 70s.
@@alanbeaumont4848 Yes, and others.
I hope these fine people got to play the 3.5 edition of DnD.
By that time a couple of these guys were major players in the game industry so were publishing their own stuff. But certainly would be aware of that version.
Will they ever make a Transatlantic Slave Trade board game?
Is your Ideas, get it copyrighted 👩🏻🦽
They already have...
Freedom: The Underground Railroad
This Guilty Land
Puerto Rico
Blackboard
And then there's the various Endeavor games by Carl de Visser and Jarratt Gray.
@@krashd Puerto Rico has no slaves in it, only overseers.
Why?
There's 'Struggle of Empires.' It's in there but you don't have to play if you don't want to.
Taking to looooong and boooooring with thousand rules , i tried it and must say : HELL NO 🤮🤮🤮🤮👎👎👎👎 It is for dudes and dudettes who do not have a life . 😁😁👍👍
Oh, maybe I should give it a go.
Whoa, check out this cool customer
@@lordhoot1 Or a goldfish with a short attention span!
Brings to mind The IT Crowd, series 4, episode 1 th-cam.com/video/SyuFLxQZf78/w-d-xo.htmlsi=ZDWomZ7Qcn0Ot_rd
Standard NERDS!!!!! 😂😂😂😂