I am a chip off the old block when it comes to my Dad. He's a very talented and creative person who is stymied by his mastery of procrastination. He is capable of greatness, if he ever gets around to it. When he does he is amazing.
I find myself cursed by the same well meaning spirit, but lack of actual productivity. I have so many dreams and wishes, and yet allocate very little priority and time to achieving them.
Every school report card I ever had said the same thing: "Kristian is a kind and conscientious pupil, but he could try harder."
And so, here we are in early 2023, and this blog - A Corbie's Cant.
I created this blog about 6 months ago with a view to putting the proverbial pen to paper about my thoughts on a homebrew TTRPG (table top roleplaying game) campaign I'm running with my gaming group. But, true to nature, I just never got around to it.
NOTE: This is not a New Year resolution decision. I'm currently off work sick, and I've had a lot of time to think. I do a lot of thinking, but most of it is ephemeral, and leads to nothing. Some folk call it daydreaming, I call it unfocused.
Anyhoo, here we are.
A little bit about me. Physically I am 48 years of age, mentally I'm still about 22. I'm married to a loving, crazy bag lady, who lives, breathes, and talks about horses ALL THE TIME.
Yes, we have a horse. A lovely grey Connemara called Marge, who is the recipient of most of my pay. (I wish I could spend 200 quid a month on my own hobby. Just sayin')
We have two great kids, who are currently 7 & 8. My son is about to turn 9 next week. He's a Minecraft freak, and probably wants to grow up to be a YouTuber (dear gawd, what have I done?) My daughter is a mischievous and capricious trickster, who likes to play pranks, specifically on her brother, but also on me. I blame myself for this, as I forgot to put a horseshoe in her cot when she was born.
We live in the Scottish Borders, a lovely place, but in my mind it's not a patch on the highlands and islands. My heart is highland. My blood is tartan.
My two greatest passions, aside from my family, are Scottish History, and roleplaying/wargames.
I've been a table top gamer since I was 12-years-old. My early introduction to D&D was cut short by the satanic panic, and the blinkered and unevidenced group-think of my parents and the church we went to. We lived in Edinburgh at the time. I wasn't allowed to have anything to do with D&D. I got around this by joining the wargaming club at school, buying Middle Earth miniatures (my dad loved Tolkien and so MERP was acceptable), and creating my own world to play in. Instead of Magic Users I had Apothecaries. They used herbs and strange alchemical concoctions to create their magical effects. This managed to pass my mother's suspicious and puritanical filter.
Games Workshop opened up their Edinburgh store in 1988 and I naturally became a Warhammer freak. Space Marine was my favourite game - It was later renamed Warhammer Epic. I still have original copies of the 1988 Codex Titannicus, and Rogue Trader. GW honed my painting and model making skills. I was above average, but not brilliant. I played the Ork faction in Epic, and the Empire faction in Warhammer. I never really got into 40k itself, although I had an abortive attempt at building an Imperial Guard army. I still have the miniatures in various painted, and unpainted guises.
At the school wargames club we played TNMT, Talisman, GURPS, Judge Dredd, and Fighting Fantasy. A few folk played 1e AD&D, and I was introduced to it, but only played a couple of times.
At 18-years-old I was introduced to Battletech, which would go on to remain a firm favourite of mine for the next 20 years, I'll probably write some future posts on this particular obsession.
I first played B/X Dungeons and Dragons when I visited my best mate, Scott, in Aberdeen over Hogmanay/New Year 1993 into1994. One of his flatmates had the 1983 D&D Red box. As it turned out all of his flatmates (there were three of them) were gamers. That was an epic start to the new year, and a fond beginning for what developed into my D&D/AD&D obsession.
In my mid to late twenties I regularly played with the same group of people, at least one night per week. We played 2e AD&D, Shadowrun, and later on, Vampire the Masquerade, and Mage the Ascension.
It was at this point that my gaming time began to wane due to work pressures, as I was a tour guide, and was often away overnight working sometimes six or seven days at a time before getting a couple of days off to wash my clothes and recuperate. I'd always been passionate about the land of my birth, and its history, and being a tour guide allowed me to share that passion and develop my skill in story telling. My customers asked many questions that I often couldn't answer, and that drove me to constant research of history books and archaeological archives for answers.
I met my first wife through the tourism. She was an American lassie. Tall, blonde, broad shouldered, and gregarious, she oozed self confidence and sexual appeal. I was sold! The following three years instead turned out to be the most emotional and deleterious period of my life that I won't go into here. The end effect was that long term friends became estranged, I moved out of Edinburgh, I changed my job, and all TTRPGing ceased. We divorced quickly thereafter, but the damage was done.
Fast forward to 2020 and the global coronavirus pandemic. Job wise, I was moved off the front line, public facing role I had and instead worked in a behind the scenes role. For the first time in twenty years I worked regular hours with no night shifts. It was a godsend to my health. Another big bonus was that I could commit to online gaming sessions. My old wargames group had moved online and were running D&D 5e via Discord and Roll20. I had never played 5e before, and never virtually, but I had been listening to Critical Role podcasts and so had some inclination as to what I was getting into.
2020 was my reintroduction to regular table top roleplaying, and I've managed to sustain it even after returning to my rotational shift based job. Through it I've gained a stable group of like minded friends who reside across Scotland. We play twice per week online, and once per month face to face.
For me, roleplaying brings me deep joy, and is an avenue to let out the inner storyteller in me. I'm now running my own game for the first time since the early millennium.
The big bonus, in my eyes is that I get to share my gaming passion with my bairns. They're so open to storytelling, and to the magic of... well, being magic. At seven and eight years of age, they both already have their own dice tray, two sets of dice, and a painted 3D printed miniature of their favourite character. Dad's job's done.
I have much to say and share, and I look forward to seeing where this blog will take me.
With that, Happy New Year 👋
Slainte
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