How Did You Find 40k?
Pimpcron tells you how he found 40k and wonders what brings people into the hobby.
Hi people of Earth! Pimpcron here, to talk to you about my early years in the hobby and how I found 40k.
Just a Regular Heretic
I was always known in my group of friends as the guy who constantly and obsessively created his own board games and coaxed everybody into playing them. They ranged from Board Games to Card Games, to RPGs. Some of them were really popular among my friends, others not so much. The problem is that my group of friends at the time weren’t really gamers. They were just “normal” friends who hung out with me and we played games to pass the time. But I always wanted one of my games to be a smash hit, and have people excited to play it.
That kind of happened with a few of my games, but I eventually figured out that I was barking up the wrong tree. They would probably never get excited about a game because they weren’t gamers. So I had toyed with the notion for quite some time that maybe I should just sadly give up my quest to make the perfect game, and join in playing a game that already has avid followers. It was a few months later at a local Flea Market (with little stores inside) that I found a gaming store that was full of different games. One thing that caught my eye was the Assault on Black Reach box on the wall. The owner saw me looking at it and asked if I play and if I’d like to learn, they had a weekly group that met every Wednesday. I thought that this was crazy expensive compared to my homebrew games; but I figured I’d just check out the club and see if there were nice people to chill with.
Just a Regular n00b
It took a few weeks for me to remember to come up on a Wednesday, and being that I didn’t know a soul there or play the game, I was a little apprehensive. But I took the plunge, asked all kinds of questions, hung out with a dozen or so complete strangers, and tried to figure out what army suited me best. I even got cornered by their resident Lore Historian for quite a while who told me everything and anything about races and battles that I had no knowledge of and only passing interest in. 😀 We became good friends eventually and still are to this day.
I picked Necrons originally because they seemed the coolest aesthetically, before I knew about pesky things like the Phase Out rule. Ugh. New players may not know what I’m talking about because it isn’t in the codex anymore.
An Exception, Not The Rule?
I can’t really be sure about this, but I would think that most people don’t get into 40k the way I did, without knowing anybody who already plays it. Is that true? I would assume that most people get into it with a buddy, like by splitting a starter set. Or maybe one of their friends already plays it and they just get sucked in.
In a way, it was the Starter set that drew me in, but I didn’t actually buy one until a year later when I got into Space Marines and Orks. But that brings me to the point that starter sets might be the reason why many of us got into the game. Although most of the new players I’ve seen come into the game didn’t make use of a starter set until once they were in it. So I’m not sure. That’s why I’d like to hear how you got into the game.
I think it’s a great idea that GW has been putting out boxed sets at a semi-regular pace that features different armies. I think these are a great starting point for new people at a nice discount from buying the models individually. Even though to a new player, $120 or so for a starter set is pretty steep. But if two people split it, they end up with roughly $60 spent, which is the same buy-in as a video game. That seems to be a price point that most people spend all the time for new play-things. They also come with basic rules to play and are *supposed* to be two balanced and fair forces to play against each other. But is it new players that really buy these, or mostly existing players who buy them because of the discount?
So how did you find the hobby and what drew you in?
Want to witness my slow descent into madness? Check out my blog at www.diceforthedicegod.com
