Laura Farrimond.

My initiation took place in the pub – I don't drink by the way (so what was I doing in a pub, simple watching everyone else make a fool of themselves) – in the form of a description of the last session including full details of the beach party crashed by Nazi surfers from hell, and the subsequent rolling up of said beach and depositing in the boot of a car! Yes, my curiosity was piqued and my imagination running round in circles. I had to know what on earth they were talking about. I asked for an explanation (in the form of saying What the #### are you talking about) and discovered they had been playing a now classic game called Teenagers From Outer Space. Marc was the Games Master and they all thought he was the best as he involved everyone and kept it fun – even for the people who only enjoy killing things (rare I’m told). By the way you can’t kill anything in Teenagers.

The gaming sessions were run in a number of locations at that time, mainly being Wednesday afternoons in the college refectory. We had a whole section that had been taken over, the coke machine dragged across the room and the barriers rearranged providing a segregated but extremely comfortable area – we had the only radiator and window as well. I listened in on a number of sessions of various games including some games they had designed themselves, and found them extremely entertaining. You must try to picture the scene – a group of 17-24 year olds standing on top of tables doing what can only be described as table surfing. OR alternatively, a group of 6 sitting round a table heads together paper on tables and dice, discussing the wounds received by a character, whose head was in his chest, by a blast from a hand-held nuclear weapon, that, due to a dice roll, had only hit his foot! OK so it wasn’t a sensible or balanced game but it sounded so much fun.

Since then I have sat in on numerous gaming sessions with almost every system available. I know enough about the mechanics of all the major systems to give advice to new gamers and experienced alike, and have even been classed as an expert in my previous job as a sales assistant for Future Zone (now Electronics Boutique UK) and after selling all the games possible to print at Macs Models in Edinburgh – everything from Tunnels and Trolls to Streetfighter the roleplaying game (not available commercially in the UK – thankfully Bill imports stuff).

Well now I’ve told you of the upside its time to mention the downside. Paints, models, terrain, books, boxes, etc all over the place. Marc has his own cupboard (formerly the pantry) in the house in the hope of reducing the amount of mess in the rest of the house. Of course it hasn’t worked, we have 2 shelves of the display cabinet in the living room full of role-play books and the top shelf has several space ships on display. Above the computer – also in the living room – are shelves full of miniatures and 2 ED209’s (from ROBOCOP), the computer desk has 2 drawers full of paints and miniatures waiting to be painted. Even the TV unit hasn’t escaped, it may already house the TV, video, Cable box, Playstation and Saturn, but now it also has a fort currently under siege. We have storage boxes full of character sheets and trading cards, and on top of the kitchen fridge is the storage area for spray cans (out of reach of the kids). Have you got the picture yet? It is possible to keep a tidy house but it helps if it is a big house (which we haven’t got), or you remember to put things away straight after you have finished with them (which Marc doesn’t). I suppose I should also mention some of the other downers like all available cash goes on games, miniatures and paints, or the weekends at games shows or weeks at conventions through the year. Of course if you value having some time to yourself and can cope with never having a tidy house then it can be a rewarding life.

Our youngest daughter, Katriana, has started to take up painting, although it’s not necessarily such a good thing since her first attempt was repainting some of her fathers figures that he had just spent 4 hours getting perfect. She managed to only paint the faces and boots and managed to put the paint on evenly and if it had been the right colours would have been perfect. By the way Katy’s 4.

Daniel, our son, has taken up model making and has assembled a Jurassic Park kit for 8 year olds – he’s 5. He also likes making things out of scraps, and has just completed a rather futuristic boat. His next project is a fort – only problem being he wants it big enough to play inside of.

Sara, the eldest at 11, likes writing poetry and fiction and has had a poem published in the local free paper. She’s more interested in sport and music than playing games at the moment as she doesn’t have to think too much about them, she’s just sat her SAT’s and needs a break from thinking for a bit.

So as you can see the kids are definately taking after their father, I’m much more mathematically minded and don't have anywhere near the imagination of the rest of them.

Even the new puppy we have introduced to our family from the Animal Sanctuary is in on the act – he has managed to chew the top off a pot of fabric paint and now has yellow splodges on his legs.