Take me out to the Blood Bowl
on Aug 08 in General by DanIf you are reading this then you are a geek.
I’m sorry, but you are. Let’s look at the facts – you’re reading a blog for a start off. What’s more the odds are that you even have a blog of your own. And you’re on twitter aren’t you. Admit it.
Geek.
There are different levels of Geek in this world however.
- Part Time Geek, e.g. Greg.
The Part Time Geek used to be into comics and science fiction in his youth, he might have even dabbled in Dungeons and Dragons at one time. But those days are largely behind him. Sure, he’s pretty excited about the new Iron Man movie coming out, and he can hold his own in a conversation about the X-Files of Star Trek: TNG if the topic comes up at a party or something. But on the whole the comic boxes lay dormant and neglected in his basement and he never really gets round to watching that Babylon 5 boxed set he got for Christmas. - Psudo Geek, e.g. Ian.
These people watch the movies, They frequent the internet. But they aren’t real geeks – they don’t have the commitment or the history with the source material. They’ve never turned up to a cinema to watch a Star Trek Movie Marathon with a friend wearing a Starfleet uniform. They bathe too often. Some of them haven’t even seen Star Wars for Hans’ sake. - Cool Geek, e.g. Rol.
Rol writes and self publishes his own indy comic PJANG (People ‘Aint No Good). He blogs critically and intelligently about films and obscure music. He probably dresses mainly in black and has a hairstyle like Neil Gaiman (You hear that Rol, I’m likening you to Neil Gaiman. KAPOW! Take that! Right where it hurts). - Girl Geek, e.g. Erin.
An offshoot of the Cool Geek. Maybe they only got into geekery because of their partners. Or maybe they were that way inclined anyhow. But either way I’ve yet to meet one I didn’t like. Especially if they are willing to dress up as Princess Leia in her slave girl costume. Yowsa!
It must be pointed out that the Geek Girl should not be confused with the Twilight Fan Fiction writing girl – they should be avoided at all costs. - Plain Old Geek, e.g. Lee.
Not only are they into comics and science fiction, but they are also into to buying little resin statues of characters from comics and science fiction. If it weren’t for the sobering influence of their wives they probably would have life sized Storm Troopers in the bedroom and Batman curtains in the living room. All very tastefully done of course. They are, quite frankly, living the dream. Granted, It’s a 14 year old boy’s dream; but it’s a dream never-the-less
I used to be a member of that first group, the Part Time Geeks. Yes I get all enthusiastic about Firefly and Babylon Five, but all my comics have been languishing unread in my attic for years and I’ve sold all my Role Playing books.
But just recently I’ve found myself sucked back in. And not in any minor way either, I’ve gone at it whole hog and re-joined the last, and possibly most geeky, group of all. The Wargamer Geek.
- Wargamer Geek, e.g. Arjan.
Often seen skulking round Games Workshop stores and frequently under the age of 25. The Wargamer Geek spends his days painting tiny little metal men and his evenings rolling dice and manipulating line-of-sight rules in order to smash their friend Malcolm’s Dark Evil Death Horde of Dark Evil Chaos army into submission.
I don’t quite know what drew me back in to the world of full time geekery. I just found myself idly thinking about Blood Bowl, a sort of fantasy world American Football game we used to play in my late teens. Then all of a sudden I find myself ordering a board and loads of metal miniatures. That’s the problem with having a disposable income, you tend to dispose of it impulsively.
But look, I even painted some of my little men:
Hey shut up. It’s quite hard you know. And I was out of practice, I haven’t done it for about 15 years. And anyway, this particular blood bowl team is supposed to be cross eyed and have random splodges of paint on it
I then started emailing all of my old Blood Bowl Playing friends to ask them if they wanted to have a game or two. To be fair though, my old Blood Bowl friends are also my old school friends, my old drinking friends, my old walking friends, and my current current friends
Before I know it I’m commissioning a league and spending three solid days setting up a new Blog for it, and my journey to the dark side was complete (you can go and look if you like, but I take no responsibility for your opinion of me when you return).
By golly though, I’m having fun.
Here’s a exert from the brief match report from my first game on Thursday when my Norse team, The Frost Giants, stomped all over my friend Karl’s Necromantic Team, The Gravestone Ramblers:
“After an initial bit of crowd trouble delaying the game (It’s always that small minority who ruin it for the majority. Heaven knows why wouldn’t they join in the fighting like everyone else) The Frost Giants took a lead in the first half, punching through the Gravestone Rambler’s lines in order to score.
This was quickly followed up by another touchdown for the Giants in the early moments of the second half, when a fumbled ball by a Gravestone Ghoul allowed them the opportunity to sneak in and snatch another one from under their opponents very noses.
A late surge from the Gravestone Ramblers brought the score up to 2 – 1, as a werewolf smashed it’s way through Giant lines and blitzed down to the endzone. But it was too little too late and when the final whistle blew the Frost Giants left the field victorious.
When asked about his victory Giant’s coach, Dan, told our reporter:
“It’s a game of two halves, and at the end of the day the boys did well. I’m pleased about the win obviously; but I’m even more pleased none of the lads got killed. I can’t afford to replace ‘em yet you see”
On Monday night I’m playing Mushy’s Chaos team, The Abyssal Horde. I’m a little worried about his Minotaur, but am hoping my Linemen’s block skill will be enough to take out a few of his Beastmen and allow me to snatch a victory.
Look, don’t judge me ok. DON’T JUDGE ME!!
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- Not only bad, but awkward and wooden too.
- Oh to be Josh Baskin
- Superhero Week Day Four: Comic Book Q&A
« « A visit from number nine| ‘It’s all Greek to me” Sunday » »
Dan, suddenly I’m seeing you in a new light. But I won’t judge you. Geek.
Btw, is a geek the same thing as a nerd?
And, in my defence, I don’t tweet. Not voluntarily anyway.
.-= notSupermum´s last blog ..Is Cardiff in Wales? =-.
@notSupermum, A nerd is more academic, a geek’s interests revolve around popular culture.
glad to have cleared that up for you.
We do judge you, but not necessarily in a bad way.
.-= Clair´s last blog ..Stuck south of the border =-.
@Clair, I think I’ll probably have to take that as the best offer on the table at this time.
I totally am the Plain Old Geek. And my wife lets me have a whole room of our house filled with statues and Muppets and whatnot.
.-= Avitable´s last blog ..Movie Reviews (Spoiler Free): GI Joe and Julie & Julia =-.
@Avitable, a man who is classified as a retailer by comic distribution companies due to the high volume of books he buys needs a category of his own.
I have sent a link to Chris. I think he would appreciate far more than me!!
.-= Coding Mamma (Tasha)´s last blog ..The Big Sleep (issue) =-.
@Coding Mamma (Tasha), does he want to join the league?
@Dan, Sadly, for him, we’re too far away. Otherwise, he’d probably be round there like a shot.
.-= Coding Mamma (Tasha)´s last blog ..The Big Sleep (issue) =-.
Is this a wind up?
My boys were into warhammer – for about a year!
But hold on a moment I collect moths, and glass fish, and observer books….
I guess geeks are good.
@Mark, it’s good to have hobbies, and it sounds like yours are a little nostaligic for childhood activites just like mine.
You’re right about moi, I am not really a geek.
However your match report is well off, should it be more like; I threw a six, then he threw a four, then I threw a three, we had a cup of tea, he then threw a two, repeat to fade?
.-= SingleParentDad´s last blog ..Raising the Stakes =-.
@SingleParentDad, you’re right, you’re not a geek, you’re a cock-splash.
And anyway, he threw a four, not a three.
@SingleParentDad, To emphasise his geekery – when I read this comment out loud (as it amused me) my boyfriend’s remark was ‘well it really depends what version you’re playing…… in version 3 numbers were replaced by symbols on the dice’. I’m disturbed by this.
@topchamp, we’re actually playing the 5th edition. But it still uses the block die from the 3rd edition.
You should play though, it’s great.
Ah…
I did referee a game of Cthulu about 15 years ago. Unfortunately, we never finished it. Everyone playing it treated it as though it was AD&D and spent two hours working out how to get through a perfectly innocent door then got eaten by an Old One ten minutes later. I remember it like yesterday.
[ref drops hint] “I’d run away if I were you. I’d really run away.”
[bass player] “I’m attacking it with my revolver. And I’ve rolled a 3 – maximum damage!”
[ref sighs] “The Old One rolls…well lets say it tears you limb from limb then devours your soul and sends you shrieking into the outer darkness.”
[bass player] “Can’t someone heal me?”
[ref] “No. You’re dead. Really, properly dead. And your soul’s been eaten.”
[geek] “Well, what will kill an Old One?”
[ref] “You could try beating it to death with a bass player. But it wouldn’t work.”
We never tried that again.
.-= dadwhowrites´s last blog ..Boxing toddlers =-.
@dadwhowrites, I have been the most emotionally involved 9fear) that I’ve ever been during a cuthulu game. But I must admit I enjoy hitting things an taking their stuff too much to have ever become a regular player of the system.
Oh my. I don’t know what any of this is about. Is this type of thing going to be a topic of conversation on the Walk next year? I might have to bring my headphones after all.
@Idaho Dad, When in mixed company we try to keep the geek talk to an absolute minimum – so you should be pretty safe.
I have no idea what half of this post was about. But you need a new geek category. Married to a geek (how did that happen?). This is my geek membership card. This means I can do blogging, as long as I don’t need to do anything with the sidebar bits, am frightened by twitter and need the husband to set up my email so it looks like it did when I’m at work.
No idea about this game stuff, but I strongly suspect that Dave does. I shall ask but when he denies it, I’ll know that a) he’ll be jealous of you all and b) I’ll still be wondering how we ever managed to get together in the first place!
.-= Brit in Bosnia´s last blog ..Dear So and So, Bosnian version =-.
@Brit in Bosnia, but surely an interest in wargaming is one of the most attractive things in a man?
I see what you did there, me being 25. But I don’t mind being the wargamer geek. The funny thing is that things guys keep doing or return to doing is seen as geeky, but what about all those women who collect dolles etc hmm well I don’t mind either way.
Your models don’t look half bad though. I’m going to take a peek at the league blog in the coming days.
Victory got snatched from my claws today..had a very very close game against my brother’s marines. Gah..superhumans, they taste like cans anyway.
.-= Arjan´s last blog ..Good and bad news =-.
@Arjan, hey man, it wasn’t an insult.
I would love to get into 40k again – but for the time and money needed to invest in it.
@Dan,
none taken, just thought the below 25 was funny :P
That match report was very funny. It seems I live with a Plain Old Wargamer Geek – terrifying. He says he thinks I would enjoy the game but I have no intention of humouring this idea as I know he has a lot of kit (junk) at his parents and I’d prefer it to stay there.
Good luck with the wall walk in 2010 – I’ll sponsor you.
I agree with Brit in Bosnia about new geek categories.
For example, I’m a sci-fi geek, but not a fantasy geek. If it has robots, I’m there. Minotaurs and faeries, my eyes glaze over. I’ve never played any kind of role-playing game (well, except with my wife, but that’s a whole other category), but have spent hours and hours building models of the Millenium Falcon and the USS Enterprise. I can tell you all the major and minor characters in films like Close Encounters or Silent Running, but after three viewings still can’t make out which hobbit was Merry and which one was Pippin. Oh, and put a book, comic, film, or short story about time travel in front of me, and I’m happy as a clam.
@Idaho Dad,seems like you fit into part time geek pretty well to me phil.
I was going to crawl under my Star Trek Wrath of Khan doona cover and not respond to this… but then I remembered my wife gave them away to homeless geeks.
So now I’m sitting here pouting whilst wearing the Iron Man MK II helmet.
Besides you Warhammer geeks are the worst :P
.-= Lee´s last blog ..Brisbane International Film Festival – Moon =-.
@Lee, wear the badge with pride man. Wear the badge with pride.
Is this because of that email I sent you about Babylon 5? And then the follow up one about Battlestar Gallactica? Or because I asked you to assign yourselves Lord of the Rings characters? Or is it because I dressed up as Leia (NOT in her slave bikini) last Halloween? Or is it the fact that I dressed my poor infant as Yoda that same year?
At least I’m an offshoot of the Cool Geek.
Also, I won’t mention the time I accompanied my hubs (then-boyfriend) to watch his brother in a Smash Brothers tournament.
.-= Erin´s last blog ..Straight after this, I’m going to go take my fiber supplement. With prune juice. =-.
i think geek and nerd definitions are reversed over here in the states, but then i recall when geek meant you bit the heads off live animals.
http://militantgeek.com/2006/12/21/geek-vs-nerd-vs-dork/
.-= bon bon´s last blog ..trying on a helmet =-.
Hmmmm. I married a part time geek but I’m more of a Psudo Geek I think, though I suppose I’m a girl geek too. Maybe I’m a psudo girl geek??
Ack anyway, I was wondering what Blood Bowl was. And you did a lovely job on th epaint work dear. I bet Kerry is thrilled by your new hobby. :D
.-= Jo Beaufoix´s last blog ..Being a Mummy =-.
I missed this post for some reason. Which is a good thing, because I didn’t then become incensed by the Neil Gaiman comparison and drive over to Slawit with my crossbow. (I know where you live, remember.)
Oh, and there’s a J in PJANG. Otherwise it’d Just be PANG. Which would be a rubbish name for a comic.
.-= Rol´s last blog ..In which I get interviewed by Simon Armitage… =-.