Recently I returned from visiting my parents out west for the holidays, an eight day trip by car with only my dog for company. The USA is a damn big place.
Despite the monotony of road, binging a handful of good podcasts made the miles fly by. All the podcasts I consumed focused on gaming, naturally, with the biggest standouts being The Bedroom Battlefields Tabletop Miniature Hobby Podcast and The Crown of Command Podcast.
I noticed that I particularly enjoyed the episodes where guests recounted their "origin stories", telling how they first started into the tabletop hobby. All that driving gave me time to reflect on why those episodes appealed to me, and I think the key factor is the commonality of experiences.
Of course, hearing all those stories about the adolescent glory days of hobby time in the 80s and 90s made me think about my own origin story. How did it all begin? When did it all begin? As it turns out, questions harder to answer than anticipated.
The older I get, the fuzzier the memories get, with events getting transposed and intermingled. Some hobby memories are burned into my soul, never to be forgotten. Others are only vague suggestions. I've therefore decided to start a number of short posts here to recount my hobby origin.
I don't anticipate anyone will read them (except the bots from Singapore), but really only I am the intended audience. I hope that by writing down my journey into the tabletop gaming hobby I can not only experience that warm glow of nostalgia, but recover some lost memories and maybe even correct some false ones.
I will be reading. Origin stories are always interesting.
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