SPALDING WARGAMING CLUB
I drop in Black Lion Games whenever I go back to my old home town to visit family and friends there. It's an easy-to-miss shop on Buccleuch Street, near the University. Seemingly following the tradition of FLGS (Friendly Local Gaming Stores), as established by Newark's Wild Ways, the shop front is completely unadorned. However, it does break with convention by announcing its identity with an ageing notice board beside the door. Argh. The Grocer's Apostrophe seeps into Gaming... On the sunny afternoon in April when I turn up, the shutters are down. Have they closed? No, assistant manager Stu has just been next door getting a coffee and hurries back to let me in. It's nice inside. Airy and bright, with well-stocked shelves - though Stu is at pains to point out that, had I turned up the very next day, I would have found the shelves overflowing with the haul from Conpulsion, Edinburgh's very own Games Convention. It's heartening to see stock like this. When I first discovered Black Lion, it was a set of shelves in the basement of a retro-fashion store called Flip. What was I doing in a retro-fashion store, you might well ask? Well, I was younger then and had delusions of vintage style consciousness. I think I was looking for a leather jacket. I found Liam's stall instead. It's not been a stall for a long time (and Flip closed in 2007) but there's still one shelf that commemorates those humble beginnings: the vintage roleplaying games and the cardboard boxes of second hand modules and indie rulebooks that demand to be browsed. There were lean years in "the new premises" (as I still think of it). I remember coming in to nearly-bare shelves when stock had to be sold to fund new orders. It's not like that now. Business is holding up. There are evening clubs for Magic: The Gathering and Keyforge. Not a bare shelf in sight - and this is before the arrival of the Mighty Haul. I chat away to Stu for quite awhile. He's immensely friendly and knowledgeable, speaking with equal enthusiasm and insight about Monopoly (further to our evening of playtesting the world's most popular boardgame) and unknown (to me) indie RPGs like Apocalypse World. Stu (on the right) helps out another customer You get a real sense from Black Lion that the hobby's in good shape. A youthful enthusiasm has given Liam and his friends a livelihood, perhaps a vocation. They outlasted Flip and its vintage T-shirts anyway. After all that, it only seems right to buy something. Here's a thing on a high shelf, out of the shrinkwrap and unpriced: a game I've never heard of by Donald X. Vaccarino, the guy who devised Dominion. It's a timey-wimey worker placement game called Temporum. Stu looks it up on BGG, checks out the reviews, counts out the components to check they're all there, then baggies up the cards and meeples for me.
What a gent. That's how to make a sale!
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A fun outing to Newark: wandering round the market, the big church, admire the Civil War era architecture, lunch at Strays jazz cafe - and then my True Love must spend an hour sniffing out bargains in charity shop. How shall I amuse myself? Google tells me that Wild Ways is a games shop in Newark. The Facebook page shows a really active gaming community based out of it. Catch is, there are two address. The first is in the town centre Arcade, but I draw a blank there. Perhaps it's out of date? So I go to the other, which turns out to be a residential estate on the edge of town. DEFINITELY not the right place (and don't go there, BTW). Back to the Arcade and I happen to glance up and see this: First floor, eh? But how to get there? The lady in the posh art shop is very helpful. She thinks she's seen people using the Green Door. Don't know what they're doing, she says, and I resist the urge to sing back like Shaky: but they laugh a lot behind the green door. No sign on the Green Door, but it's unlocked and the fantasy pennants are encouraging so up I go. Upstairs there's a lovely room where Wild Ways owner Lucy greets me. Some lads are playing Magic: the Gathering. Her son is on the couch playing a video game. There are shelves of second hand books and games and some new stock. Big folders bulge with out-of-print Magic cards. A chalk board advertises drinks and snacks. A sunny bay window overlooks historic Newark. Lucy explains what's going on. This isn't a secret society. It's just that they've recently moved into these great premises, but because the building is historic, they can't put a sign on the door until they have one that's been approved. And the premises are great. As well as this cosy room there's a larger space upstairs just for gaming tables. You see, this is more of a permanent club than a 'shop'. Lucy broke free from early years teaching to be a second-hand book seller, but this morphed into selling comics, graphic novels, RPGs and trading card games - until the gaming side took over. Wild Ways charges a modest yearly subscription if you want to use its premises, take advantage of the lending library and participate in its tournaments and events. The second hand stock is still there (lots of glorious 1st edition D&D, old GW stuff and Warhammer caught my eye) and Lucy buys in new stock to cater to the interests of her members. I had a great chat with Lucy (who used to be from Spalding - SHOCK!) and she's got a ton of experience and advice for our fledgling club. Wild Ways is well worth a visit if your Beloved is ever antiquing in Newark - and more than that, we should organise a Club Trip out there because as well as this great gaming community, Newark has sublime real ale pubs all around. Well worth the adventure it took to find! I could only express my feelings by asking Lucy to sell me something. No, not Scythe, something else. Cobra Paw, you say? It's a deal!
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April 2019
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