Sorry about the recent bout of silence on the blog, but life has been rather hectic of late, what with the end of school and the start of the Christmas Holidays, saying I have been rushed off my feet would be a bit of an understatement. Even so, I have managed to get quite a bit of painting done this week, but I have yet to take any snaps of my freshly based miniatures, and I hope to be able to up the production to a few minis a day over the next couple of weeks.
Well, that's the plan anyway.
Today I have a little clip from a 1980s television programme about Labyrinthe and Live Action Roleplaying, or LARPing for short. Now I have written about this before and have shared with you an amusing television programme hosted by Ben 'I used to be able to write funny sitcoms like Blackadder' Elton, if you cannot recall what I am rambling about here just follow this little link and you'll see.
What strikes me is the way roleplaying is presented here. The 'they are all geeks' angle that prevails in the Ben Elton piece is still suggested here, but there is a darker tone hinted at as well, especially when White Dwarf is mentioned amongst 'magazines like these'. These days its hard to see White Dwarf as anything more than an over priced catalogue but it seems that there was a time when the magazine raised the ire of 'Daily Mail' style journalism. What amuses me further are the ways in which many of the key players have been presented; darkened rooms, shadowy faces and whispered tones. What amazes me is the revenue that LARPing was bringing in during the '80s, £100,000 is even today a considerable sum, but 25 years ago it would have been greater still! Thankfully, the article cuts off before the 'journalists' attempt to link roleplaying to the Hungerford Massacre of 1987. It seems this particular sensationalist tool of poor journalists everywhere is not a modern invention. In the days before Great Theft Auto it was Dungeons and Dragons that encouraged psychopaths to commit mass murder!
Have a watch and see what conclusions you can draw from it. Feel like sharing them? Well you know how below!
Orlygg.