Help a brother out! Writing a Warhammer-related paper for Uni and I need your input.

[KingKull]

Greetings, fellow hobbyists!

 

As the title says, I'm writing a research paper for a subject at the university (anthropology student), and hearing about your experience with a couple of hobby-related topics would be incredibly helpful. I'd especially love to hear about the experiences of long-standing veterans, but anybody's input would be greatly appreciated nevertheless. The things I'd like to know about are:

-How did you get into warhammer? How old were you when you got in? What drew you to the worlds of warhammer?

-If you have children (or know about fellow hobbyists with kids), did you try to get them interested in the hobby in any way? Did your hobbying catch their attention spontaneously?

-What are your personal thoughts on the Warhammer: Adventures series? Have you bought of any of the books for your kids (or those of friends, relatives etc)? Do you know about any parents/kids who bought/received Warhammer:Adventures books without being a hobbyist themselves? If the answer to any of the latter is yes, how did the kids react to these books?

Thanks for taking a moment to read this post, and I'm looking forward to hopefully hearing from you!

Cheers!

[NinthMusketeer]

I got into it in middle school, right around 2000 I think. A friend of mine played it and got me interested. Though I was mostly just a kid messing around for a while and it wasn't until the 2010s that I would have actual armies fighting off in full games.

Two other guys in my gaming group have kids, both of them have/are introducing them to Warhammer. One of them gets the WH: Adventures content for his kids. From previous experience I would say that almost every parent I have met who plays has also made an effort to introduce their kids to the hobby.

Edited January 12, 2020 by NinthMusketeer

[Bryan I Guess]

I began playing in 2010 just after high school. I had played the Dawn of War video game for a while not realizing that it was based on the tabletop game. Guy in my gamers club showed me 40k and I related to it so well because of the video game. Played that for about 7 years then AoS 2.0 came out and a new friend introduced me. I like the setting, aesthetic, and rules more in AoS than 40k.

 

Dont have kids so I cant really answer your other questions.

[Aelfric]

I began collecting and painting (very basically) Airfix Napoleonic figures in about 1972, then discovered and read The Lord of the Rings a year later (aged 10), which gave me the Fantasy fiction bug.  I branched into colllecting English Civil War metal models, but my first fantasy models were LOTR Minifigs models, I think advertised in an Historical Wargaming magazine, about 1977 (?), and coincided with someone at school getting a D&D set, which meant using models to represent fantasy creatures on the table for the first time.  I think I found Warhammer through White Dwarf magazine not long after (still have a few of the early copies but earliest one I can still find is no 48).  

This meant I could combine the fun of collecting an army with my love of the Fantasy genre and set me on the path to collecting and painting Citadel miniatures, mostly ordered by post until a shop opened up nearby.  Actually playing the game was not so important, partly because finding opponents back then was not easy but also I didn't find the rules system particularly fun or easy to use.  

My collecting and painting tailed off during 4th edition, but never completely ceased.  Life, marriage, a child and work all meant that hobby often took a back seat.  My hobby itch was largely taken up by Tabletop Role-playing and LARP - and reading of course.

Decided to get back into wargaming during 8th edition, then came End Times followed by AOS.  It turned out that AOS was the system I'd wished for a long time ago and has really invigorated my passion for wargaming.  I can honestly say I have played the game far more since AOS than I ever did before.

My child was an adult by the time I got back into the wargaming hobby, though I have introduced them to fantasy fiction over the years, and they have dabbled in role-playing,  so I haven't failed completely.

Personally, I think the Warhammer adventure books are a good idea (providing they're actually good). Fantasy Fiction was my root in and it seems to be a good path nowadays.

I hope that helps and good luck with your research paper.

[Greasygeek]

- My first game was Hero Quest when I was 8 years old I think. Back then we had no idea how to play the game, so we painted the miniatures and build castles for them out of printing paper and tape.

Later on someone introduced me to my FLGS and I got some warhammer skelletons, but I think my first game was Blood Bowl at the age of 13 or so. That would introduce me to warhammer and a played and painted untill my start twenties. Then I got fed up with it and didn’t look back until 2016 when a friend introduced me to AOS. 

I think I always had a need for creativity and a bit of an obssesion with monsters so miniature games were appealing to me from day one.

- I have two boys at age 2 and 4. My 4 year old is very interested in drawing and painting and since he watch me always working on scenery or painting minis he’s very curious about it and has recently painted his first mini himself. 
We also play a lot of boardgames so when he/they get a bit older I will introduce them to zombicide or maybe dust of my Shadows over Hammerhal and if he/they keeps showing interest. 

 

- Don’t know much about the WH adventures series. Sure it sounds fine. I could see it as a fine tool if the kids keep fell for the WH universe and needed some spare reading but at the moment its just yet another product in the wide range of WH.

[Priha]

I first encountered Warhammer: Fantasy during the fifth edition while visiting a gaming store back in 1999 when I was in high school, but didn't buy my own miniatures until the sixth edition, around 2001. I was an avid console gamer back then, and still are, but the hobby aspects drew me to try Warhammer as well as I like DIY building (mainly fly lures and other fishing equipment back then).

I don't have my own children, but many of my hobbyist friends have got their children into the hobby pretty spontaneously. Starting from "painting stuff along with their daddy/mommy" and eventually getting some games in as well when the children are old enough to understand the rules. Not all of them keep at it, but at least they've been interested enough to try.

Not familiar with Warhammer: Adventure series, but I do own many of the Fantasy and 40k novels (like the Gotrek & Felix and the Horus Heresy series).

[XReN]

Around 2010 or 2011 I played Dawn of War Dark Crusade and also a boy from my school got some miniatures of orks and space marines (good ol' Assault on Black Reach) so my friend (who also played DoW at the time) and I got hooked, got our first models, started painting and playing. I was 12 or 13 at the time. I like the hobby for the cool looking models and epic over the top lore. Obviously I love the gaming aspect as well.

I tried to introduce my little brother who was 10 at that point to warhammer because he liked the models and some pieces of lore I told him, but when I gave him a build and paint set of Stormcast Sequitors for his birthday it became apparent that he doesn't have enough patience for this hobby. Sigh. Also I know a man who's older daughter picked up the painting aspect of the hobby and really enjoys it.

I haven't really looked in Warhammer Adventures since I have no reason to do so and because most of local community don't have kids and at least half are in their twenties all attention those books got was "Lol PG-rated Warhammer" jokes.

 

Edited January 13, 2020 by XReN

[obaobaboss]

I got into warhammer when I was searching for orc-pictures in the internet. I loved them in Warcraft II. I found images of the miniatures and began collecting when I was about 16 years old. Started playing with 19 years. 

I really liked the grim and dark setting and asthetics. And that I kinda knew something about all the stuff (fantastic creatures and history),  but they mixed it together in a interesting new way.

 

I don't have kids,  but I don't think I would buy the books. For me the charme was the not kid-friendly stuff,  so I don't am interested in this alternative version of warhammer (and to be honest I am mostly interested in Old World narrative,  never bought a warhammer novel about something else)