Unsung heroes in the community

[Overread]

Wargamers and geeks are, if sometimes a little socially inexperienced, often quite an accepting, open and friendly bunch. Mostly we just want more to take up our hobbies and to play games with them; share painting tips; argue passionately about lore and stuff. 

 

However sometimes there are those who go  a little further, who do something really great. So I figured it would be good to share stories about those times; either something you've done, that someone has done for you, that you've heard or seen happen to others etc... A chance to share the positive side of the coin that often gets overlooked and forgotten online. 

[JPjr]

Ah man, this is a small act of kindness but it's stuck with me for, god, nearly 3 decades now. There was, and indeed still is, a LARP club based in a series of caves in SE England called Labyrinthe.

First time I went I was 12. My mates were a year, or in some cases more, older than me and had broken up from school before me and were all going, so I skipped school that day and did the journey from Zone 6 West London to Kent (wearing some kind of hastily cobbled together orc outfit). I'd been looking forward to it for AGES, only thing is you had to be over 16 (I think) to play. They'd all been before and already managed to get membership cards and all that business but I was clearly the runt of the litter back then.

Anyway we get there they all pile in and sign up for the first adventure of the day but I get pulled away by a staff member who, showing a lot more perspicacity than various Kingston pub bouncers would over the coming years, clearly realised I was underage and sent me on my way. My mates being my mates, went off and started their adventure. So I'm sat outside the caves, utterly dejected, not sure what to do since I was stuck on the other side of London now on my own.

At this point a big moustachioed chap arrives in costume, seeing me look distraught asks what's up and I sniffle away telling him my tale of woe. Turns out he's one of the organisers who DMs the adventures, so he picks me up brings me down with him and makes me his chief monster for the day. 

I got to spend the entire day running around pretending to be various ghosts, skeletons, orcs and the like, he bought me lunch, sorted out a membership card for me so that I could get in on my own next time and then at the end of the day walked me out to his car, opened the boot and gave me a properly made, really cool looking (for a 12 yr old) latex mace (most people just had foam weapons wrapped in silver gaffa tape then so trust me this looked incroyable).

So yeah, what was looking like being a soul crushingly ****** day for a stupidly sensitive little kid, turned into a totally awesome adventure. Small thing but as I said it's stuck with me all these years.

 

[Ulf]

In my gaming group I try to foster a sense of community involvement. I'll humble-brag a little about what we do.  

We run a few "Painting bounty" events a year, where the first new player to finish painting a playable force of tourney size (2000 pts for AOS or 40k, 75 pts for Warmachine, etc) wins a prize. The veteran members chip in and we get them something nice. The most recent winner got a fancy hard case Battlefoam bag, with foam, and a couple of Phoenix Lord models for his winning Aeldari entry. 

I also have a friend who runs an after school program for at-risk kids of middle-school age, using gaming as a means of socializing and giving the kids something to do in the hours between school letting out and their parents coming home from work. This guy is my personal hero, he's volunteering his time to do something actually meaningful for kids, and that's about as awesome as it gets. 

Each year we do a donations drive and send him a couple thousand dollars in boardgames, miniatures, old Magic collections, RPG books, and so on, to help stock his after school program for the coming year. 

And finally, we have a lot of new players who are on serious budgets, and maybe can't afford to buy what they'd like, or can't get the essential non-essentials, like army bags or paints. But the rest of us have too much stuff, like most veteran gamers. So we pick someone in the group who's contributing, but maybe doesn't have the deepest pockets, we hit up places like Bartertown and eBay, and we put together armies and supplies for them. This past year we gave away a 3000 point World Eaters army, put together a 2000 point Thousand Sons army for a guy and sold it to him for like $100, and gave away smaller armies: Wanderers, Darkling Covens, Nighthaunt,  Astra Militarum, and Death Guard. 

Feels good to help others, and it builds some pretty great bonds in our group.