Invasion of the Space Grognards!

Are you a Space Grognard?

Oh dear, It's an Imperium week it seems..

I pull my finger out and put the SSDs up and the next thing I know..

It's Invasion of the Space Grognards!, Holy Klono and by the scorched nose-hairs of Noshabkeming! pass me another bottle of Rhysling's Rotgut..

I stumble across another group of Imperium addicts:

A Yahoo group that was hiding under my nose in a link off Imperium's entry at BGG, when I thought that the WarpWar group was the only one offering refuge to Missile Boat Maniacs..

Timbo74 pops up and declares himself Marc Miller's lovechild and wants a PBEM game of Imperium  he's dashed out and got the PDF download  at wargames vault. (now who said blogging is a usless and pointless exercise? It got me an opponent!)

Keith Frye reminded me to "Keep the Flame!" on the Stargrunt-Full Thrust Yahoo Group.

Don Hawthorne and I exchanged curmudgeonly reminiscences via email about FT in the good old days and I observed about the Fleet books and "FT3" that:
"..as an old geezer I understand but there is a "toad syndrome"  that
insists on the newest latest shiniest and fastest amongst the youth ;) .."

You could almost hear us going "..I remember when Four firing arcs were good enough for anyone.."

As a good Space Grognard, I do a bit of scouting and evangelizing for FT tracking down Google alerts for "Full Thrust" and  connecting with the many pockets of the 'Net and wider world that don't seem to be part of the "in" crowd of GZG-xCC attendees or GZG-L denizens..

You'd be surprised how many people "heard" of FT and got into it on their own or haven't hooked up with many other players. Newbies or returnees.. all need a helping hand and light shone onto the FT/GZG Community.. that's one reason I setup the GZGfinder.

Consider it my wargaming equivalent of  the CoDominium Oath of Reunion...  theres a lot of "outies" that need  connecting up!

One such is a thread on RPG.net. at the moment:
The First post in this thread convinced me that as a Space Grognard I have a meta-duty to fledgling players to welcome them and bring them along, especially if I want to keep playing the stuff I enjoy in my dotage.

so far we're up to...

Privateer:I actually prefer having a stable platform of rules that doesn't change on a 4-5 year compulsory basis.  That goes the same for Dirtside 2 and Stargrunt 2.

Agreed I dont like Rules churn either., 

FT and Jon's approach to gaming and rules is in many ways a bit of a test, but one I find refreshing.

its flexibility and "nothing written in stone" approach is great unless you are a "rulebook" guy or game with people who arent prepared to be flexible with house rules/mods  or simply aren't of the experimental or "suck it and see" bent when it comes to fiddling wih rules.

That FT gets used as a competition set of rules and has a design system will always tempt people to break/bend/test/minimax the rules

sometimes getting wargamers to agree on anything is like washing cats.. some people will concede houserules or mods here and there to get a game rolling, some people will fight to the bitter end as if violating "the book" was an affront or heresy.

that having been said, I enjoy FT and want to keep playing it, keeping the game alive and giving it a public "pulse" is important  and while fan sites and support helps, *nothing* works for a game (and a newly introduced player) like the adrenaline of a newly acquired  rulebook..

the "unborn" next generation of Full Thrust players who perhaps have been bought up on a dihorrea of editions and expansions of Ginormous Workshop games have been spoiled by the visual riches thus published to some extent..

the "try out" or "suck it and see" experimenatlism where youd find a set of rules a few pages long in the latest "Miniature Wargames" and try them with your mates seem to have withered...

Wargaming doesnt have its "Young Turks" but  but rather "young anoraks" mumbling  "but the new 9th edition codex says  the Space Wombles Chapter Librarian doesnt get a storm bolter, you can't kitbash figures, that's  like  ..wrong"

Ahh new rules...

I just bought Bag the Hun 2 and Might and Reason for Seven Years War..  its always a buzz, getting into new stuff or revisiting old stuff again.


all this Imperium stuff tends to get me singing Mel Brooks thanks to song entry in a BGG Contest that got me some geekgold last year:

Vilani were having trouble
What a sad, sad story
Needed some new planets to restore
their former glory
Where, oh, where were they?
Where could that land be?
They looked around and then they found
The stars for you and me

And now it's...

Springtime for Dingir and Vilani
Vland is happy and gay!
We're boosting to a faster pace
Look out, here comes the master race!
Springtime for Dingir and Vilani!
Vland's a fine land once more!
Springtime for Dingir and Vilani
Watch out, Terra!
We're going on tour!
Springtime for Dingir and Vilani...

Look, it's springtime once more!

Winter for Barnard and Sol

Springtime for Dingir and Vilani!

Come on, Vilani
Go into your dance!

I was born in Guusmegraguul und that is why they call me Cool.

Don't be stupid, be a smarty, come and join the Solomani party!

Springtime for Dingir and Vilani
Goose-step's the new step today..

But the point of my Post is that if You're a Space Grognard then you have to give something back,

• welcome a newbie
• let them reroll that Damage control roll
• get those house rules you've thought a about a try 
• or better still shared and posted on the net, 
• organize a  game at your club  rather than turn up expecting  someone to have organized something.

Do that now, by Klono's Boranium Bollocks, so that you can play what you love in the times to come.  you mightn't get direct benefit for your efforts, but someone will and the hobby will be better for it.

Altruism works especially in the wargaming hobby, so work for it!

"...Then you make the sacrifice willingly? No fame. No armies or banners or cities to celebrate your name?...How do you know the Chosen Ones? "No greater love hath a man than he lay down his life for his brother." Not for millions…not for glory…not for fame. For one person, in the dark, where no one will ever know or see. I have been in the service of the Vorlons for centuries, looking for you. Diogenes with his lamp, looking for an honest man willing to die for all the wrong reasons. At last, my job is finished. Yours is just beginning. When the darkness comes, know this: You are the right people, in the right place, at the right time..."
    -Sebastian, Comes the Inquisitor.