Germany 86-89 The Games and Gamers……………..
A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far Far Away…..
WAIT! Wrong genre…..
There is a definite overlap between the groups of ‘MI Soldiers’ and “Gamers’. I won’t go so far as to say that the over lap is 100% but it ain’t too far off neither. One of my first weekends in Germany, Dan Jeppesen and myself went Volksmarching. Now I’d heard of Volksmarching and wondered what the attraction was. So Dan and I went out one coolish Saturday and marched up and down the trails around Ansbach for the 10th Int. Wandertage of the Deutsch-Amerikansiher Wanderklub (1986). It was an enjoyable hike which was a revelation to me that a hike COULD be enjoyable. All my previous experiences had involved boots and rucksacks….
While trekking along Dan and I were chatting about a role-playing game (Not D&D) that he’d been playing before he joined the Army called Chivalry and Sorcery. I was intrigued. While I knew that other games existed, we had done Traveller and Top Secret to varying degrees of success, I had never known anyone that had successfully played the other Fantasy games. During this hike we talked about the game and I really liked how magic was done in it. After five kilometers, Dan agreed to run a game or two. That’s how our gaming group in Germany got started. Dan and I also reprised the Volksmarch the next year but went the whole distance of 10 kilometers. This was the award at the end:
DAS BOOT!
Dan also introduced our group to Hârn both as a campaign setting and later when the HârnMaster rules came out, as a gaming system. I LIKED Hârn. Dan was (and I assume still is) a great gamemaster. There were a number of people that played in the group; Bill Janes, Mike Morrison, Sean Pallay, Mike Sawyer, Greg Silvia, Chuck Bell, Becca Crocker, Pat Jeppesen (Dan’s wife), my wife, Rob Regan, and ultimately Ed Bell. Not all at the same time, of course. It being the Army everyone was coming in and going out but for three years the core group was pretty stable. (HA! As stable as we ever got!)
Cover of the HârnMaster Rules
We also played D&D when Dan got tired of being the Game Master. I DM’ed for that. Other games we played were many board games from the Avalon Hill games and SSI games. There was one fella, John Sousa, who had a plethora of board games. John was a commo critter and worked on a RATT Rig. John was a very pleasant guy but made poor choices sometimes. These poor choices caused him to be released from the Army at eight years of service (rank retention point). That was unfortunate as he was good at what he did, IMO.
The group that played the board games was a bit different as well. Mike Taylor, Claude McDonald, and others players who’s faces I can see in my mind but can’t put a name on.