Sidequest: Every TTRPG played 11-20

Well, it's been one of those months again. In such a funk, and kinda down, that I can't really think of anything exciting to add to my blog. It's a good job I've got these ridiculous posts listing things to keep me moderately occupied, rather than just staring into the void. 

So, to continue from the previous post, Kieron Gillen inspired me to list every tabletop roleplaying game I've played. I did the first ten in sort-of chronological order starting with those first games I ever played. Lets see how bad my memory is as continuing the list from 11-20...

#11 - The Adventures of Indiana Jones RPG

Cover of TSR's Adventures of Indiana Jones game

I know, the much maligned Adventures of Indiana Jones RPG from TSR. I freakin' loved this game. Not as free and easy as you may think, involving lots of tables and weird slide-rule thingy, along with lots of cool cardstock miniatures and 3D models. I bought everything you could get for Indiana Jones, and I loved it. I even made a video about it last year. 

Loved it. Wish there was a new version so we can explore, adventure, and punch more Nazis. 

#12 - Warhammer Fantasy (1st Edition)

Cover of the old white box Warhammer RPG

Another game bought by one of our regular players wanting to run something different to AD&D. We should have realised it was going to be very different by the name - Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy Role-Playing Game. It really was quick, brutal, and our characters died very, very quickly. I don't think we got many games in, but after the GM moved to the other side of the world, that boxed set now sits on my shelves.

#13 - Golden Heroes

Cover of the Golden Heroes RPG

Next on the list is possibly our first foray into superhero gaming. We didn't do an awful lot of supers stuff, and when we played Golden Heroes it was just after I'd read Watchmen so we played with powerless vigilante characters rather than having proper 'super powers'. It was pretty cool, but the superhero Odyssey game we played later was better - not because of the game, Golden Heroes is still great, but just because someone else was GMing rather than me and they did a better job. I'm sure it'll come up in a later post...

#14 - Paranoia

Cover of the West End Games Paranoia RPG, 
published as a hardcover in the UK by Games Workshop!

Next is something a little different. Wasn't sure what I was getting into when I started running Paranoia, but it was madness and we loved it. Played all the weird adventures from the time, like HIL-Sector Blues, and Clones in Space. Heck, I even bought those Citadel miniatures and did an awful job of painting them.

#15 - Twilight: 2000

Cover of the original edition of Twilight: 2000

It was the Eighties, and (as you'll see by another later entry) things were a bit tense when it came to international relations. Good thing we sorted that out after all these years! (sarcasm) But, yes, we had a go at Twilight:2000. I don't remember much of it, just creating some characters and wandering around the roads near Krakow. I don't think we played very much of it. 

#16 - Doctor Who The Roleplaying Game (FASA)

Cover of the FASA 2nd edition of the Doctor Who Roleplaying Game

Much like the old FASA Star Trek, we also played the FASA edition of the Doctor Who RPG. We were lucky to have a GM who was not only our Call of Cthulhu keeper, but also a massive Doctor Who fan who knew his stuff. Being a fan of the creepy Hinchcliffe and Holmes era of Tom Baker's run, he ensured the game played like a spooky Cthulhu adventure, with our resident Time Lord, the Collector, strangely absent most of the time (the player hardly ever turned up). 

#17 - Judge Dredd the Roleplaying Game (GW)

Cover of the original Dredd RPG

As mentioned in an earlier post, I'd been reading 2000AD since issue #2, the first appearance of Judge Dredd, and most of us in the gaming group read it to some extent. It was inevitable that we'd play the Dredd RPG. We played a handful of games, engaged in a Block War or two. I'd love to see a new edition soon - I must admit, I'd love to see a TV series done like The Rookie but only with MegaCity Judges...

#18 - Odyssey

Image from the movie ALIENS

Okay, home-brew time. This wasn't just your average home-brew, this was Pete's most epic RPG, taking up a chunky ring-binder of rules. Taking elements from RuneQuest and turning the volume up, Odyssey was Pete's generic RPG to work in any time and any genre. I remember he said "I've a murder mystery RPG to test" and we all joined in on this simple game of regular people who had won a prize to go on a cruise. We thought it was going to be a murder mystery, and then *RUG PULL* the ship sank and we were washed up on a desert island, with superpowers. Inspired by the old Elementals comic, we played the heck out of that. 

However, Odyssey really came into its own when we started using the system to play Colonial Marines in the ALIEN universe. The encumbrance system was genius, and I remember this frantic run for the drop ship and shedding my smart gun to speed up so we could escape the nuclear blast of the terraforming plant exploding. He also ran a brilliant game where one of the players was a villain, working to sabotage the plans for his own benefit. Lots of note passing to the GM, and it was only when combat started and the dice rolls started matching up did they realise who was shooting at them. Decades before Free League's game of marines and hidden agendas, Pete was doing it in the 80s. Brilliant stuff.

#19 - Ghostbusters

Cover of the legendary Ghostbusters RPG by West End Games

Here we come to one of my favourite games of all time - West End Games' Ghostbusters Roleplaying Game. You wouldn't believe how much I love this game. I've written at length about how reading this game made me want to be a game writer and designer. It's just a joy to read, brilliantly simple, and based on one of my favourite movies and franchises. How could I not love it? We played so much of this, so much that the Ghost on my Ghost-Die started to wear off. 

Again, I'd love to see a new Ghostbusters RPG - especially as the D6 system that powers it has returned recently in the Carbon Grey and Planet of the Apes RPGs. If anyone at Ghostcorps is listening, you know who to call. 

Here's a link to another video I made!! 

#20 - James Bond 007 Roleplaying Game

The Victory Games RPG of James Bond 007

Finally for this batch, here's another one of my favourite RPGs of all time. Victory Games' official James Bond 007 RPG. Amazing game, with some brilliant and revolutionary mechanics, and some of the most amazing presentation (especially for the adventures). Absolutely love this game. 

I'm going to sound like a stuck record, but again I'd love to see a new version of a Bond RPG (who knows, it may happen now the Amazon deal has happened - I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they honour such a legacy). And, again, here's a video I recorded if you want to check out what the game looks like. 

We played a heck of a lot of this too, and I ran a couple of the adventures multiple times for different groups, each with very different outcomes. Awesome.

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That's it for this batch. We're getting close to the 'break' I had from gaming, and I'm keeping track of games I've bought and not yet played, just in case I wanted to do a Sidequest of the Sidequest!! 

Until next time, stay multi-classy. 

Sidequest: Every TTRPG Played #1-10

Over where the sky is blue (that's Bluesky just in case you haven't been on there), much respected and loved comics creator and TTRPG writer, Kieron Gillen, posted to say that he was trying to make a list of every TTRPG he's ever played. 

Alt Text - Trying to make a list of every TTRPG I've ever played, which presently includes such classics such as 'the very complicated home-brew game made by my friend James when I lived in America' and 'The one where you're all sad people at the end of the world with a name that sounds ominous'. 

I'm really hoping that his results appear on his relatively recent blog-site that he launched https://oldmenrunningtheworld.com/ . However, it did inspire me to think... 'Can I remember every TTRPG I've played?'...

Challenge Accepted!!

I know I've been doing my "My Nerdy Life in 100 Geeky Objects" series, and there's bound to be a little crossover, but I thought I'd try and do this as well, just to keep my brain busy and so I don't spiral into the mire. Do forgive my indulgences. I'm not going to drag this out into another 100 posts... I promise.

Let's take it a chunk at a time, starting from the very beginning. The order may be a little off, but hey, it is 40+ years ago...

#1 - Traveller

The first three "Little Black Books" for the original Traveller RPG

The first tabletop roleplaying game I ever played was Traveller. I had no idea what I was doing, but I generated a character that sunny Saturday afternoon in what must have been 1983(?) up at JR's place. I remember thinking how old my character was by the time I left military service. I didn't do much, just sat in the background and took in the experience, but I was already hooked by the end of the first game. 

#2 - Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook (2nd Cover)

Had to be there, didn't it? Usually everyone's first game, I leapt straight into Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. None of this Basic or Expert stuff, I was thrown into the deep end of AD&D. Admittedly, I didn't even roll a character to begin with. My first character was a Paladin called Ivanhoe that was already at 8th or maybe 9th level. One of the players in the group was bored of playing the goody-two-shoes, and it was just the sort of character I liked playing. I gave him a last name after a few years, Navarre, from watching Ladyhawke, because, let's face it, Rutger Hauer was the coolest thing around. Played him for years, never got higher than 9th level, but always liked playing Paladins ever since.

#3 - Runequest

Cover of Runequest 2nd Edition

That same gaming group seemed to alternate between AD&D and Runequest most of the time, so it was inevitable that Runequest would turn up on this list, and very early. I really liked the way that individual locations had their own armour ratings, but I remember the GM had bought the Big Rubble setting and we kept heading into the Rubble to seek our fortunes, getting a fraction of the way in, and getting our arses kicked so badly we retreated back to the inn and healed up before doing it all again. 

#4 - Star Frontiers

Front cover of the original Star Frontiers "Expanded" Rulebook

Everyone was running RPGs and I really wanted to get in on the GameMastering action, and I preferred SF to fantasy. Traveller was cool, but it just wasn't saying "Star Wars" to be enough. A trip to the local (if you can all it that) game store and that cover for Star Frontiers literally screamed "Look!! I'm like Star Wars, look at me!!" and I had to get it. Absolutely loved that game. Played so much of it, you wouldn't believe. All the way through to the Zebulon's Guide update and beyond. I'd love to see a proper revival, not the nonsense that's happened recently. 

#5 - Gamma World

Much like my desire to GM something, I remember Coop wanted to GM in our group, and his game of choice to start was TSR's other SF RPG, Gamma World. The weird, post-apocalyptic RPG of an irradiated future. I don't remember playing too much of it, but it was pretty cool. Spent most of my time worrying I was going to grow an extra arm or something from the radiation...

#6 - Call of Cthulhu

Cover of 1st Edition Call of Cthulhu

Of course, the other big classic from the early days of gaming had to be Call of Cthulhu. I hadn't read any Lovecraft, so I had no idea what was going on, but I loved seeing those weird silhouettes and wandering around in the 1920s. I ended up buying my own copy (the Games Workshop hardcover version, rather than the boxed first edition) and we played a heck of a lot of that too. Most of my characters went mad, except for the one that died when another character threw a bottle at me to get me out of their tent. 

#7 - FASA Star Trek

Cover of FASA's Star Trek Roleplaying Game

Our "Keeper" for Call of Cthulhu ran a couple of other games for us as well. One is FASA's Star Trek RPG. I used to watch classic Trek on TV as a kid, and a lot of it went way over my head. It wasn't until much later that I really *got* Star Trek and really loved it (but that's one for another story). I don't remember playing too much of it, but it was cool. I remember us playing the Star Trek III Starship Combat game more...

#8 - Space Opera

Cover of the Space Opera RPG

What the hell even is the Space Opera RPG? I have a dim recollection of this, and remember it being so darn complicated that we spent two evenings just creating characters... and then never actually got around to playing it. Does this one still count? I've cut many a game from this list that I've read but never played, but does character creation count? I think so... maybe?

#9 - Stormbringer

Cover for Chaosium's Stormbringer RPG

Another one of those "one of the players wanted to have a go at GMing" games was Chaosium's Stormbringer. I remember it being very similar to Runequest, so the learning curve was really easy as we'd been playing that for ages. The tricky thing for me was I was completely unfamiliar with Michael Moorcock's Elric stories, so I was mostly confused by what was going on. Still, the art was cool. 

#10 - Middle Earth Roleplaying (MERP)

The cover I remember the most of the old 
MERP game, with the Balrog looking like
Lobo in the background.

Finally, for this first selection of every game I've played, we'll stop at number 10 with MERP, or Middle Earth Roleplaying Game. And I think this was another of the players wanting to GM something. Again (please forgive me, I was young, and not much of a fantasy reader) I was not very familiar with Tolkien. I mean, everyone else in the gaming group had read The Lord of the Rings, but I'd just watched the 70's animated movie. I tried, and I just didn't have the attention-span until much, much later (thanks to Babylon 5 - see, I told you I was a SF nerd). We did play a lot of this as well though, and I have fond memories of the critical tables. 

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So, that's the first 10 TTRPGs I remember playing. I'm sure I'll go back to this list soon, and try to do the next little batch. When I wrote them down, I did manage to get to 100, but that included RPGs I'd bought and read but hadn't actually played. I may cut those ones from the list, or have a sublist - a side-sidequest. 

Until next time, stay multi-classy!

My Nerdy Life in 100 Geeky Objects – #4: Palitoy Chewbacca and R2D2

 #4 - Star Wars Action Figures: Chewbacca and R2-D2, Palitoy (1977)

Something big was coming in my young and impressionable life, and I had no idea how much of a massive impact it would have. 

I'd seen that double-page spread about the upcoming movie Star Wars in the 2000AD Summer Special Supercomic, and, while I thought it looked cool, I just went back to reading Judge Dredd and MACH-1. But those images of Stormtroopers, Han Solo, and Chewbacca must have stuck in my subconscious, ready for a little more fuel. 

That fuel came in the form of a pair of gifts from my dad. My dad was a nurse. I don't know how he got into that job – I'd heard stories about him doing his part during the Second World War in various positions until they realised how short-sighted he was. He ended up working in a hospital, and that's how he met my mother. They married, relocated to my hometown, and worked at a huge psychiatric hospital as a nurse. 

Once a year he'd get called away from work for something to do with work, some conference or training or something. He never really talked about his work. It never seemed to be easy, though I visited his work a few times when he needed to pop in to pick up something he'd forgotten. It was huge. I mean HUGE. They had a massive hall which they used for special occasions like Christmas parties, and I remember going with my parents and discovering that my dad could play the drums. Another of his little secrets. (I'd later discover, many years after his passing, that he had piano qualifications from some fancy school in London). 

However, it was after one of his work training conferences, and he'd had to go away for two or three days. He came home, travel bag in hand, with a few gifts. Always was the way in those days, wasn't it? You went away on a trip, you always brought something back for the family. I don't know why. I'm sure he'd bought mum something she usually liked, something like dates or coconut ice - remember that pink and white stuff? I never liked coconut... 

Palitoy Chewbacca from 1977

Anyway, my dad handed me this little bag and said that the guy in the shop had told him this was going to be "the next big thing" and that they'd just arrived. I looked inside and there were two carded figures – Chewbacca and R2-D2, from the new movie called Star Wars. 

And there was that fuel. Those characters were the coolest things I'd seen for a while, and I remembered seeing them in that 2000AD Special. It was all starting to make sense. 

My parents knew the value of things, and how valuable things could become, and my mum instantly told me to open the blister card carefully. Not just ripping it off the card, but carefully cutting the top of the blister so that the figure could slide out the top. That way, when it wasn't being played with, I could slip it back into the packaging, and it'd be safe.

So I did. I looked after those figures. They were my prized possessions for many years. But it was the start of a bit of an addiction. 

Y'see, on the back of those first two figures was an illustration of the other figures in the range. The first twelve. I had no idea who these characters were at first, but they looked so incredibly cool. 

The list of names were awesome, the pictures were cool, the vehicles at the bottom were fantastic. I needed to know more. 

It wouldn't be long before I found out. Dad came home from work one Friday night after popping in to the local newsagents and brought home the first of the two oversized comic adaptations. When I mean 'oversized', they were huge. Almost A3 rather than the usual book or comic size. And it was only the first half of the movie! But at least I knew who everyone was now, and immediately wanted to be Luke Skywalker, and I'd basically sold my soul to Star Wars.

(Like many, many others at the time)

Star Wars became a heck of an obsession for me, and eventually I managed to complete that collection of the first 12... I even cut the nameplates out of all of those backing cards to mail off for the mysterious Boba Fett figure. And I continued collecting through all of The Empire Strikes Back waves.

They were my favourite thing in the world. When I went away on holiday to those lonely self-catering bungalows in the middle of Scotland or Wales, I took a selection of Star Wars figures with me. 

Of course, when I was older, I thought I'd grown out of them and sold the lot... One of my biggest regrets. What an idiot... 

Palitoy R2-D2 from 1977. Glorious!!!

Form and Format

 I’ve been thinking a lot about book formats recently. For many, many years, I’ve been wanting to scale down, and do something smaller. I even made a video about it 10 years ago (back before the rebrand and with the old logo). 

There was something about those first Traveller ‘little black books’ - the simplicity of design, and how you could afford to get a new book on what was basically ‘pocket money’ costs. And they were just cool. Probably more complicated rules-wise than I’m used to now, but Traveller has always stuck with me. It was the first RPG I ever played (as covered in a very old blogpost here) and those little books seem to have been seared onto my mind. 

Don’t get me wrong, I love those big core rulebooks, with their glossy pages, colour artwork, and robust hardcovers, but as I get older and lazier, the prospect of something smaller and easier is certainly appealing. 

Hip to Be Square

Of course, the smaller little booklets were not the only thing to constantly bug my mind when it comes to book formats. There is also the lovely square book, a fascination that started with the complete opposite of Traveller’s ‘little black books’ - Nobilis’ ‘big white book’. 

Cover for 2nd Edition Nobilis - aka “the big white book”

Again, I wrote a blogpost about square books here, but before I even started working on the game system for WILD: Wake Initiated Lucid Dreaming, I knew I wanted the book to be square. Nobilis had sown a seed of interest in square books, and I couldn’t shake it. The idea that you could have text as normal, but have space in the extra-wide margins (thanks to the square format) for additional guidance and notes… 

Example of page layout from Nobilis, showing the two column layout in the centre of the page, but space in the wide margins on either side for additional notes.

Awesome. Special thanks should go out to Stoo at we_evolve who published WILD for me and ran the Kickstarter, for letting me stick to my guns and go with a square book. (Click that link and you can buy WILD, Aegean, Action Potential, and more…)

Square books are no longer a weird or strange thing – the award winning and incredibly popular Slugblaster RPG is square, as is the recent Sleepy Hollow RPG that uses the Year Zero Engine. 

But I’m getting off track. We were talking about smaller books…

The Mothership Lode

With the recent resurgence of smaller ‘zine’ sized RPGs, it was inevitable that someone would also be inspired by the ‘little black books’ of Traveller, and the most popular of those would be Mothership. 

Same A5 format, same sized box, with a heap of books within - player’s guide, GM’s book, one filled with creatures, one for spaceships, and an adventure… and that’s not all (as Brian Butterfield would say). It also includes dice, a GM screen, a map, and standees. 

So much damn stuff in there! Stoo bought a copy at Tabletop Scotland and I read through the contents with my mind racing about how this was the future. This was what I wanted to do – “remember you always wanted to do Traveller sized books” said the voice in my head. Notebooks were filled, so many ideas for little books in a new range that I can’t really produce at the moment. 

But, I’m planning for the future…

All of this planning has been going in a notebook. A sketchbook actually as I’m doodling artwork at the same time as working on the game and the system. However, the sketchbook is one of my new favourite pieces of stationery, and it’s making me think… or rather, rethink…

A5 Sketchbook next to a copy of original Traveller (book 1)

I mean, that photo makes it look like it’s bigger than Traveller, but it isn’t (it’s just that the sketchbook is chunky - 92 pages of 140gsm loveliness. I may have got a little hooked on buying them from Hobbycraft. They were in a multi buy at the time, so don’t give me that look. 

But it did get me thinking - the idea I have, it would work nicely with a small hardback that size, with smaller booklets like Traveller as supplements or player only guides (the bigger book would be for the GM). You could even bind all the little supplements together to make another hardcover…

…and then along came the Shadowdark RPG Kickstarter. Which does just that. Over a million $1 and it collects six ‘zine’ sized supplements into a book the same size as the core book. 

Well, it’s all a while off. I can’t do anything about it at the moment, but I can make notes and plan for the future.

So what format RPG books do you like at the moment? Are you a traditional D&D hardback sized fan, or are you really into your zines at the moment? 

Comment if you like, I’d be interested to hear what you think.

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Meanwhile, if you get chance, check out this Kickstarter by one of my former work colleagues, Emmet Byrne. He’s put together a rather gorgeous looking 5e setting based on traditional Irish mythology. Looks glorious!! 

Beyond the Woods 5e

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Until next time, stay safe and stay multi-classy.

Remembering Alex

[Warning: This post is about grief, so if you’d rather not read it, please just delete this from your inbox. I know this is a tough topic.]

This week, we said our farewells to Alex Guttridge. I know a lot of you won’t know who I mean, but that’s what this post is about - at his ‘Celebration of Life’ this week, as we said our final farewells, the subject of keeping his memory alive came up multiple times. And, if you know me, or the stuff I’ve worked on, you probably know a little of Alex just by association. So this is me, spreading the word of Alex Guttridge.

I met Alex when I started my day-job in retail working at The Television and Movie Store in Norwich. It was the location of the former BBC Shop, and the owner of a company that supplied the BBC Shop with Daleks saw the empty unit as an opportunity to open a shop mostly dedicated to Doctor Who.

This business owner advertised on the well-known Doctor Who message boards, Gallifrey Base, and that’s where I heard of the opportunity. We had interviews, and the core team of the shop was defined. My boss, Si. Me as assistant manager, and two employees who would go on to become great friends and collaborators on many projects - Will Brooks, who did the covers for the Second Edition Doctor Who Roleplaying Game books, and Alex Guttridge. 

Alex Guttridge (l), Nicholas Courtney (aka, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart) (centre), and Will Brooks (r) circa 2008

With our regular ‘consultant’ Andrew, we set up the shop, painted the walls, worked out the stock control system, and filled the shelves with as much cool and nerdy stuff as we could get our hands on. Working long hours to get the shop ready, we’d chat about everything - Doctor Who (of course), Star Wars, Star Trek, Gerry Anderson, BBC comedies, Ghostbusters, Muppets, you name it, we talked about it for days and days. 

We worked together at the shop for many years – some of my fondest memories of working there was when Alex and I had to do the late night opening shift on Thursdays. Being the old BBC shop, we had a couple of screens behind the counter left over from when the BBC used to screen the news all day when they were open. We had this hooked up to a DVD player to promote some stuff we were selling, and hardly had any customers on those late shifts, so ended up sitting behind the counter watching DVDs of the 70s ‘Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew Mysteries’. (Love that series).

Of course, both Alex and Will knew their Doctor Who. Hooo boy, do they know their Doctor Who. The very first boxed set for the Doctor Who Roleplaying Game (or Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space as it was then) had come out, and I was starting work on the first couple of supplements. Obviously, Alex and Will were the first people I turned to for help. Their knowledge poured into the Aliens and Creatures supplement, and they were instrumental to the writing of Defending the Earth: The UNIT Sourcebook, working out a solution to the UNIT dating controversy and defining how the book would work. [His most recent contribution to the Doctor Who RPG was developing the overarching storyline for the recent A Stitch In Time campaign book of ten connected adventures.]

But it wasn’t the limit to our friendship. Alex joined us for video game nights, LAN parties for Halo, and becoming suitably addicted to Rock Band just as we were. When I foolishly joined with like-minded gaming nerds and started recording short comedy videos and a web series, Alex was there in one of the most dramatic and serious roles. He joined us for our 8-hour charity fundraising Rockathon playing Rock Band 2 non-stop for 100 songs to get the ‘Bladder of Steel’ achievement, bashing the heck out of that Rock Band drum kit. I remember him constantly complaining that there wasn’t any Boney M on Rock Band, and how he wanted to do the drum parts for the Nightflight to Venus/Rasputin tracks off of the album.

He left the shop for another retailer, but didn’t stay away for long, returning to TVM – I guess we all just got along so well, it was difficult to capture that relationship in another store. Everyone in TVM got on really well, and we’re all there for each other. 

Never has this been more apparent than this week. 

My wife and I were on a train crossing the border into Scotland when we heard the news that Alex had died on his way in to work. He was only in his early 40s, and it just didn’t feel real. Hell, it doesn’t feel real now. This week saw Alex’s funeral and celebration of life, and I’ve not seen such a large turnout at a funeral before – a testament to not only how young he was, but also how loved he was by his family, friends, and work colleagues. It was tough – there have been far too many funerals recently, and this one was a real punch in guts at times. 

It still doesn’t feel real, but as I said before, the take away message from the funeral was to keep talking about Alex, so he is never forgotten. Alex had teamed up with fellow former TVM employees on a couple of podcasts which I highly recommend. 

The first is the Talk Toy To Me Podcast he was working on with Ben Allen, where Alex and Ben would talk about collecting toys and action figures. 

Highly recommended if you want to find out about all kinds of toys, from Ninja Turtles to Transformers. 

The other podcast is the Oh Rabbits! podcast he was working on with Nick Mellish, and the aforementioned Will Brooks.

Three friends working their way through the entirety of Doctor Who, a couple of episodes at a time. As I said before, Alex and Will, and Nick, certainly know their Doctor Who, and you can hear in both of these podcasts just how passionate Alex was about his interests.

Thank you Alex, for being a great friend, a valuable source of nerdy information, and be sure we’ll keep talking about you (in a good way, of course). 

Thanks for reading Autocratik Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Just a little housekeeping side-note. There has been a bit about Substack in the press recently, but rest assured, I’m not going to activate paid subscriptions on there. Not giving them any money, and these posts will always be available on my blog - www.autocratik.com - if you prefer.

My Nerdy Life in 100 Geeky Objects #3 - 2000AD Summer Special

#3 - 2000AD Summer Special Supercomic 1977

We’ve already established that I’ve always been a nerd. My mother had me watching James Bond movies on TV, and introduced me to Doctor Who because she liked Jon Pertwee, and my dad had been buying me a weekly comic, which (up until this point) had been either Look-In - due to my obsession with cool stuff on TV - or the aforementioned Super Spider-man and the Titans (see previous post).

I was watching all of the genre TV I could, The New Avengers, Fantastic Journey, Space 1999, I, and The Six-Million Dollar Man. Heck, that series… there was a time we were all running around the school playground pretending to be in slow motion making that ‘dunnunnunnunnunn’ noise. When word went around the school of a new comic in the newsagents that had these stickers that made it look like you had bionic implants, it became the ‘in thing’ and I had to check it out. 

Front cover of 2000AD Issue 2, March 1977

I had a little pocket money every week (I think it was something like 10p or 50p, which was plenty in those days) as long as I did some chores like washing up, so I headed to the big newsagents in town and managed to get a copy of 2000AD, issue 2. It was cool! Of course, the stickers went on my arm, and pulled a load of armhair out when pulled off, and the weird eye sticker that was supposed to go on your forehead like a ‘third eye’ obviously looked better if you stuck it over your own eye… (sticky… and not a great idea, kid). 

Inside were stories of dinosaur hunters, cool air-sport teams of the future, and my favourite - a powered secret agent in the form of MACH-1. It was all great, and it introduced 2000AD’s most iconic character, Judge Dredd. I asked my dad if we could put 2000AD on a standing order at the newsagents (which, of course meant that I had to drop my subscription to Super Spider-man and the Titans). Every Saturday morning, with the morning paper, 2000AD would drop through the letterbox.

We’re all going on a Summer Special holiday

In a clever bit of planning, 2000AD launched their ‘summer specials’ - perfectly designed to give kids something to read over the summer break from school, or to shut them up when they’re on a long journey. I don’t remember which holiday it was we were going on in 1977 - my parents loved going to Scotland and my grandmother usually came with us, so it was probably a trip there. I have a strange memory of my dad gesturing to the comics in the newsagents telling me to pick out something to read for the holiday, and seeing the familiar 2000AD logo, I leapt at the first ever 2000AD Summer Special. Or, ‘Summer Special Supercomic’ as it was called. 

Front cover of the 2000AD Summer Special Supercomic - 1977

I mean, look at that cover. Amazing, and weird! Kinda mesmerising and engaging. It was great, full of new strips of my favourite stories, but there was a double-page spread that really stood out and stuck in my mind. A spread for a little known new movie that would be hitting our shores in the UK soon called Star Wars…

Spread from the 2000AD Summer Special and my first introduction to Star Wars

Droids! Stormtroopers! A mis-credited Han Solo! It was amazing, and I was instantly intrigued. It was just the start of a fandom that would dominate my thoughts for years. But it wouldn’t be until a little later that my obsession really kicked off. That’s for next time…

Beauty in the Darkness - David Lynch

 

Portrait of David Lynch by Debs (2025)

I’ve always loved movies and TV. Always. From a kid, those first trips to the cinema, or my parents introducing me to movies and series on the TV. I love them. I used to keep a list taped to my wardrobe door of movies I’d seen and even started ticking off how many times I’d seen Star Wars or Tron. Friday nights we’d rent movies from local video store and a group of friends would come ‘round and we’d watch the latest releases. 

One week we rented DUNE (yes, I’m using all-caps, it seems more apt). It was awesome, and visually stunning. I hadn’t read the books, and the rest of my D&D group who watched it with me kept pointing out how it was different to the novels, but I didn’t care. It looked amazing, I was baffled by some of it, but visually and audibly it was mind-blowing (and speaker-blowing too - I remember the bass notes of the movie were a little more than our old TV could handle). 

Years passed, and I continued my obsession with movies, renting the strangely terrifying and hauntingly dark Blue Velvet. And wow, it was dark. Really sinister goings on there, but the lead was the guy from Dune, and he was such a wholesome, small-town innocent, I just kinda related to Kyle MacLachlan’s character, Jeffrey. I was intrigued, and kept a lookout for Kyle in other movies (The Hidden is brilliant, and I highly recommend it if you haven’t seen it).

Most of the D&D group had gone off to University or moved away, and I spent most of my weekends renting movies from the video store(s) and bingeing horror movies. So much so, I’d watched most of the movies they had on the shelves and struggled to find stuff to watch - after all 50p rental for a weekend, it was glorious. I noticed a new title on the shelves called Twin Peaks, read the back and saw that it was by David Lynch and had Kyle MacLachlan in it, I scooped it up and put it straight on the top of that weekend’s movies to watch. 

It was weird, and dreamlike - and lingered uncomfortably long on some of the emotional scenes, but there was Special Agent Dale Cooper in the middle of all this weird, taking it in his stride, with a whistle, a smile, and a thumbs up, he was going to solve this case. But what really blew my mind was the ending. Sure, I’d later discover this wasn’t really the ending - it was a re-edited version for VHS release with an extra conclusion that wrapped things up - but the final scenes, which were used as the dream sequence in the series’ Episode 2, just left my jaw open and I was shocked. This was amazing and unlike anything I’d seen. I was obsessed.

Who is the Dreamer?

Completely and utterly obsessed. When I flicked through my parents’ Radio Times and it announced the arrival of the TV series of Twin Peaks in the UK, I bought a pack of blank VHS tapes and sat, waiting, every Tuesday night, for Alan Bennett to finish his programme before Twin Peaks aired on BBC2. Fingers hovering over the record button, so I could rewatch each episode multiple times to really absorb what was going on. 

Cover of the Radio Times in 1990

I bought the books, the soundtrack, wore a trench coat like Cooper, got a Dictaphone, and even expanded on the relationship map that was in that issue of the Radio Times for one of my art school projects.

My art school project, a flowchart of relationships of everyone in Twin Peaks

Obsessed. I followed everything David Lynch did, catching up on projects I’d not seen. It was an obsession and a love of everything Lynch worked on. There was a perfect surreal nature, a dreamlike quality, and an unpredictability that left me enthralled. There’s always a moment that I love when watching something and I hear myself say “I have no idea where this is going”. It doesn’t happen often, but it’s a sign that it’s something that’ll stay with me long after the initial viewing.

When Twin Peaks returned twenty-five years (plus) later, Lynch really embraced his art life and did whatever he wanted to do - taking his and Mark Frost’s scripts and just ‘going with it’, And that’s just powerful. If ever I think “What I’m doing isn’t commercial” or “No one’s going to like this” I just think of Twin Peaks: The Return (Episode 8). It’s absolutely genius. The narrative progresses, there’s a great musical interlude with (The) Nine Inch Nails, and then there’s an extended atomic explosion scene, the opera house, the ‘Gotta Light?’ sequence, and more. It’s genius, and not what you’d expect from prime time television, even in this age of experimenting with the format of TV. 

Thanks to David Lynch, if ever I’m unsure of what I’m doing or creating, I ask myself if I’m enjoying what I’m creating, or if I’m just making something because I think it’ll sell. 

I Read the News Today, Oh Boy…

Sat in a gaming cafe, talking to local game creators about what they were working on, I noticed a message had arrived on my phone. A friend of mine who knew how much I admired and loved David Lynch had messaged to tell me the news. 

I was shocked, and felt that initial gut punch but carried on as best I could at the meeting. It wasn’t until later that it really sank in. I loved everything David Lynch produced. He worked with so many others that I admire, like David Bowie and Trent Reznor, who also don’t compromise in their creative visions. Created my favourite TV series (which lead me to discover my other favourite series, The X-Files - both hold that No. 1 spot jointly in my head). Showed us how meditation can calm the mind, free us from the rubber clown suit of negativity. Introduced meditation to schools. Showed us how we could all be creative, how we are all one, and if we only realised we’re all the same we could finally have peace. 

My awesome wife, Debs, drew the fantastic picture that started this post, and I had to write something about how inspiring David Lynch is, and always will be.

I can only aspire to have a fraction of his talent. But his inspiration will always be there, and keeps driving me on. 

Thank you, Mr Lynch. The driver has left the car, but continues on.