It’s raining today.
I reminds me of the first time I played Dungeons & Dragons.
But I am getting a head of myself.
Here is my hobby story. How I got into games and how my hobby has evolved over the years. i have no idea if this is of interest to anybody, but since I am writing this mostly for myself, I guess that is fine.
At the time of writing this I am 51 years old. I am still an avid gamer, I have used games to bring colleagues together and I have even spoken about gaming as an adult at Østerskov Efterskole, a school using games to help young people become embedded members of society.
Funny how something people used to look down upon—or even saw as dangerous— is now cool. Wonder how that happened… anyway let’s start from the beginning:
Mid 80s: The first exposure to roleplaying games
I was born in 1974 and by mid 80s I started developing a fascination with terrain sparked by a TV bulletin on model train hobbyists. It wasn’t the trains but the landscapes that sparked my imagination.
Maybe I was just bored living in Stenum, a remote village of 400 inhabitants.
When I realised how expensive that hobby was I quickly dropped the idea. I then saw some landscapes in a toystore made for doll series Sylvanian Family and I started planning for a little Sylvanian world in my desk drawer.
The Bookbus
That plan never left the drawing board because in 1985, at the age of 11, I was introduced to fantasy books by a librarian in our local “bogbus”, a bus with a library inside that would drive around to the remote rural areas of Denmark.
The first fantasy book I ever read was “The Neverending Story” – I was blown away.
The came “The Hobbit“, then “Lord of the Rings“, then the “Soul Rider” series (which is really not for kids btw) and then ofcourse “Dragonlance“.
And it all culminated on Sunday 18. oktober 1987 when the Danish TV news program “DR Søndagsavisen” introduced the Danish population to Dungeons & Dragons!
Needless to say that changed my hobby life.
“Drager og Dæmoner” and miniatures
Shortly after, I found a copy of “Drager og Dæmoner“, a Swedish RPG translated to Danish, in “Bogladen”, a local bookstore in the nearby bigger town, Brønderslev, and started playing it with my friends.
I was close to 14 years old.
Bogladen also got a few fantasy miniatures on the shelves. My younger brother and I bought as many as we could. And to my pleasant surprise, I found out a few years ago, my brother had saved them all!
Not long after, I discovered Aalborg Hobby Service in the bigger city Aalborg and here I found even further minis.
Amongst the minis the sold at Aalborg Hobby Service, I found three strange sci-fi looking miniatures. I didn’t know what they were for, but I bought them anyway…. we will come back to those later.
Early 1990s: Moped, mobility and Dungeons & Dragons
January 1990 I turned 16, which meant I could get a license to ride a moped. I bought a Suzuki FZ50 shortly after.
The mobility I got meant it was far easier for me to get to Brønderslev and I joined an evening art class where I met two twins, Thomas and Jacob, who invited me to join there Dungeons & Dragons game.
And on a rainy day I took my Suzuki FZ50 to Brønderslev for my first game of Dungeons & Dragons!
It was a blast. Not just the game but playing with a whole new gang of teenagers. While these kids were my age, they were all in high school while I had taken the optional 10th grade in school.
But that would change that summer when I also started at Brønderslev Gymnasium, our local high school.
Clubbing and Shadowrun
The D&D group I had been invited to had grown too big and at one game, the last game we played, it became clear that the heroes were at such a high level that it was no longer fun to play.
The group split into two: One who wanted to focus on the rule crunching and math element and one that wanted to lean into more story-driven RPGs.
I stayed with the later group led by the two twins who had originally invited me in as we had developed another friend circle with some friends we had started going clubbing with and who we started playing Shadowrun with. Thomas was the game master. His brother Jacob, myself, Troels and Lars Ulrik were the regulars in the group.
I played a Street Shaman name Jancovich and we played regularly throughout our high school years. I wish I still had his character sheet.
We mainly played in Seattle as we had the Seattle Sourcebook.
Warhammer 40.000 Rogue Trader
The high school class I started in iwas made up of all the young people from the rural areas around Brønderslev, including the beach town Løkken.
Shortly after starting I got talking to one of my new classmates, Rasmus, about roleplaying games. He didn’t play RPGs but he played something called “Warhammer 40.000” and quickly established that a bunch of the Orks I had bought for RPGs were in fact Space Orks for Warhammer 40k.
And that’s how I got into WH40K.
And between Rasmus, Troels (same Troels I played Shadowrun with), Thomas, Søren, Tommy (my brother) and me, we played countless of WH40K battles over the next three years.
This is the only photo I have of my Ork Goff army with Khorne allies, but I still paint miniatures from that era and have a far larger army today.
But I have saved a bunch of my old armylists.
Magic The Gathering
Both the RPG crowd and the Warhammer crowd kinda looked down upon Magic The Gathering when it arrived.
But it quickly became a filler game and the interest grew rapidly when the cards became “rationed” as in the local MTG store “Goblin Gate” could simply not keep up with demand. So while you might have ordered 10 packs of something, you may only get 1 or 2 when they arrived.
No idea who these people are but it is the only photo I could find of Gobling Gate and i feel it fits the time.
1994-1995: the army
Following high school I was drafted to the army.
And Magic The Gathering became my main game focus as several of my army comrades also played Magic. Plus it was easy to store and bring out even when you live in barracks.
Late 1990s: Games Workshop takes over
I started Design School after leaving the army in 1995. It was located in Højer, one of the most remote corners of Denmark.
In other words, the only entertainment we had was what we made ourselves.
Magic The Gathering wasn’t played much. it had become an expensive hobby especially for poor students like us.
But Games Workshop games really took over as many people on the school played different games from GW.
Blood Bowl
Blood Bowl was new to me, but oh boy was it fun. I had both a Chaos team and a Chaos Dwarf team.
While some played wh40k, some played Necromunda, we all played Blood Bowl!
“Nurglerot Raiders” – one of my Bloodbowl teams.
Necromunda
Necromunda was a super interesting tvist on Warhammer 40,.000 and with the low barrier to entry, it quickly became the second most played game after Blood Bowl.
I made a magazine for Necromunda called “Necrologen” which means “The obituary” in Danish, but sounded like Necromunda.
And to top it off, I got a part time evening job as a model building teacher where some of the kids also played warhammer.
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
A few of us GW nerds also picked up Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay for a bit. I was both a player and a Game Master.
Character sheets for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying Game. The one on the right is mine.
Maps for a Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Game i made.
Warhammer Fantasy Battle, 3rd edition
While I had played Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy Battle was introduced to me by fellow design student, René, and I went for Orcs and Night Goblins.
I don’t have the army anymore, but I have painted up a new one focusing on Night Goblins.
Later on I also painted a Chaos Dwarf army, one of the few regrets I have was selling that army.
Warhammer Fantasy Battle army lists. One of the few regrets I have was selling my Chaos Dwarf army.
Warhammer 40k, 2nd edition
Warhammer 40.000 to a bit of a back seat. I played it on and off when my brother and I got together, but a combination of my disappointment with 2nd edition Orks plus all the new games i had been introduced to, meant wh40k was less appealing.
Funnily, I love playing Warhammer 40.000 2nd edition these days.
Return of Drager og Dæmoner
While I had left Drager og Dæmoner behind, two brothers in my design class had kept playing it over the years and turned the game into something else.
here’s the character sheet they used. Was super fun to try again.
1998-1999: Warhammer 40.000 3rd edition
Having graduated from the Design School, I moved to Kolding last part of 1998 and first half of 1999.
Crossing the street one day, I spotted Troels at the opposite end of the zebra crossing, the same chap I had played Shadowrun and WH40K Rogue Trader with in high school.
Chance would have it that Warhammer 40.000, 3rd edition came out arund that time (October 1998), so we decided to pick up the hobby again.
I opted for Dark Angels as I thought the new Space Marine models were absolutely fantastic.
I used some of my Warhammer 40k 2nd edition army lists to practice the calligraphy we were taught in design school.
Troels and I went on to start a short-lived, but successful web design business together.
MEGA POST – 1990 to 1998 (Warhammer 40.000 Rogue Trader and Warhammer Fantasy Battle)
Summer 1999-2003: London baby!
But in summer 1999, my then girlfriend got a work placement in London for 6 months so we moved to London.
For me the 6 months turned into 21 years and a whole new world of gaming.
And where to even begin…
Through the wargaming forum Portent.net I met other people playing Warhammer including a chap in Tunbridge Wells who has his own custom Space Marine chapter called “Dark Templar”.
Portent.net also hosted my first hobby website called “The Scroll” and instead of signing the site as “Webmaster”, I signed it as “Scrollmaster“… and that name stuck.
But as I had started going to the wargaming convention Salute, I started learning about all these other wargames out there and Warzone peaked my interest and through that game I ran into Mocaiv aka Chris and we became wargaming buddies for years to come.
Unfortunately, Warzone went dead just after Chris and I met, so we looked for another game to start. It came down to VOID and VOR The Maelstrom.
VOR The Maelstrom
We decided on VOR with it’s very rich and diverse armies. Besides it was a game by FASA, the company behind Shadowrun, so we felt it was most likely to have longevity (I didn’t. Fasa went bust in 2001).
I moved from Portent.net to the VOR forum, TheWarp.net, still calling my hobby site “The Scroll” with “Scrollmaster” continuing as my call handle on forums.
Chris, Glenn (a gaming friend of Chris) and myself played VOR solidly between 1999 and 2002. Chris would play Union or Zykhee, Glenn played Growlers and I played Neo-Soviets. Here are posts and battle replorts I made during that period.
And in 2001, we hosted the official Golden Growler tournament in UK. I won best painted army.
Blood Bowl
During this period, I also played Blood Bowl with my Chaos Dwarves The Hashut Headhunters in Edinboro Castle Blood Bowl League. I rarely won as many of the players played semi-profesisonally, but it was great fun.
Shadowfist at Flashpoint Finchley
I’m honestly not sure how I got in touch with Flashpoint Finchley, a club playing trading card game Shadowfist.
I did work in Finchley at the time and was a frequent visitor to Leisure Games the local gaming store, so maybe it was through the store.
But I played a fair bit of Shadowfist for a few years and even drew illustrations for some of their test cards.
Scrollmaster.net is born
in 2002 I also decided to get my own hobby domain name and Scrollmaster.net was born. Here’s a look back at the first version.
2003-2007: lots of different games
As VOR died out, Chris, Glenn and I tried out a bunch of new games. And I also picked up Warhammer 40.000 again at Ponders End Wargaming Club where I would run some unique Warhammer campaigns, but more about that in a bit.
VOR, Dark Age, Warmachine and Confrontation
Chris, Glenn and I did pick up VOR The Maestrom once in a while after it had died out. I think our last game was in August 2008.
But we also started picking up new games starting with Dark Age.
Dark Age
As VOR The Maelstrom died out, Chris, Glenn and I moved on to Dark Age, a dystopian wargame set in the amazing world created by the artwork of Brom.
Iron Kingdom Warmachine
But Dark Age also had it’s challenges to stay afloat, so we moved on to this new game called IK Warmachine, which stuck with us a bit longer. Chris played Cygnar while I played Cryx.
My brother back in Denmark also picked up Warmachine.
Confrontation
We also gave Confrontation a go for a bit. My brother also picked that up back in Denmark.
Ponders End Wargaming Club
At Ponders End Wargaming Club i picked up Warhammer 40.000 again.
And in 2004 I ran The Facility on ADX blue a retro campaign using the original Warhammer 40.000 Rougue Trader books.
The year after, 2005, I decided to run a Warhammer Fantasy Battle campaign using the Chaos Warband rules found in the legendary Realm of Chaos books, with all the random chaos attributes and mutations being applied runningly after each game.
Great fun. Highly recommend it as a full emmersive hobby project.
2007-2014: No time for gaming
As faith would have it, my then wife was diagnosed with terminal cancer and my gaming hobby was put on hold.
Well that is not entirely true.
My wife and I started playing the online RPG Final Fantasy XI.
Here is our joint character, Chiba.
in 2012 my wife passed away and it would be a while before i picked up my gaming hobby again.
I didn’t continue with Final Fantasy XI.
2014: The Pink Goblin
While I still hadn’t picked up gaming again, I did pick up the brush and painted this little chap for a woman I had met.
Soon after we started dating and today we are married and are playing both boardgames, D&D and even a bit of Warhammer 40k together ❤️.
2017: Boardgames era
Over the last years, my brother and his wife had introduced me to the growing landscape of boardgames.
As my wife (then girlfriend) moved in with me, we started playing boardgames as well.
With Kickstarter fueling a renaissance of boardgames, we had enough to chose from.
We played several, but especially Kingdom Death: Monster became a favourite of ours.
2018-2020: Dungeons & Dragons
In 2018 my wife and I started playing Dungeons & Dragons with a group of friends who did not know each other from before.
Sean, Neil, Julia and Cezary were the first 4 with Tony joining later on. All pretty much new to D&D so the games were light, fun and entertaining.
It was meant to be a fun oneshot, but turned into a 4 year long campaign.
We managed to play around 50 sessions, not taking various oneshots into account.
The game also took us through Covid pandemic where our game moved online.
Playing D&D has reviewed by painting hobby as well which I document on this site and summarise at the end of the year in these Hobby Year books.
We also continued with the boardgames.
2020- 2025: Present time in Denmark
In 2020 my wife and I moved to Denmark. For me it was goodbye to 21 years in London.
We continued to play D&D with our friends in London for a while, which was possible as we had already gotten into the habit of playing online. But overtime it fizzled out due to real life commitments of everybody.
At the same time we started playing D&D with two other friends using the same online setup.
But with Anna-Maria and Carlo, the tone of the game became different.
Anna-Maria is a fantasy author and Carlo is a career military man who have played D&D since AD&D. Adding to that, my wife was now a seasoned D&D player who also reads a ton of fantasy books.
So it gave me, as a DM, more scope for complex stories and tough combat encounters.
At the time of writing this, we just finished our 45 episode long campaign with our heroes The Hellbanders.
My wife and I also still play boardgames. We enjoy going to gaming cafes like Bastard Cafe, Operaen, Spilcafeen and most recently Papa’s papbar.
And lately I have picked up playing both Magic The Gathering and Warhammer 40K 2nd edition again.
And I am also painting retro WH40K armies. Here is what I have so far:
And as of spring/summer 2025, we have picked up playing Eldritch Hack while we get ready for our next D&D campaign: Daisygate.
