Put out the cat, unplug the telephone and prepare to be entertained by a cast of misfits of the type your mother always warned you about!
Real life’s just too much effort...
That’s the conclusion that the author has reached after spending years of his life doing his best to avoid it.
Dealing with a dragon or a powerful necromancer is easy, but girls, bullies and parents are a totally different challenge altogether.
A bitter-sweet, but always humorous memoir, ‘On A Roll: A True Tale Of Geeks, Dragons & Rock ‘N’ Roll’ takes the reader on a revealing journey as the author attempts to escape from the world he thinks of as mundane, immersing himself in the world of fantasy role playing games and wargaming.
One of the most iconic pastimes of the late 20th century, gaming took the world by storm, and in doing so captured the fertile imagination of an entire generation.
This story candidly traces the life of the author from the beginning of the 1980’s and his first wondrous steps into the fantastic, all the way through to the end of the 90’s from the perspective of both a player and purveyor of games such as Dungeons & Dragons for one of the leading companies during the ‘golden age’ of gaming. School, girls and plain common sense all play second fiddle to the fantastic. Even regular beatings from ‘normal’ kids fail to make an impression.
Whilst ‘Achtung, Schweinehund!’ (Harry Pearson) and ‘The Elfish Gene’ (Mark Barrowcliffe) addressed the two 'sides' of gaming from the perspective of players, this book not only brings them together but, in addition, gives an altogether more detailed point of view of the the 'guy behind the counter', catering for some of the strangest people you could ever wish to meet, telling their tales along the way as they interweave with his own obsession.
Few people have been as deeply involved for so long and so this is a unique view of it all, the author straddling the dividing line between work and leisure - the real and the fantastic.
This is a personal celebration of the quirky and geeky rather than an apology for being a fantasy-obsessed man-child. The reader may laugh, cry or just cringe at the antics recounted, but no matter how strange they may appear, they really happened. The answers to many questions that have troubled teenage minds will be answered - possibly honestly!
When does ‘Will you go out with me?’ become unacceptable as a chat-up line?
How can I avoid compulsory P.E lessons?
What the hell is a ‘Ral Partha’?
Where did the author end up after a night out with his gaming chums?
Can you make a million running a game store?
So, join the author and skip hand in hand along the yellow brick road of youth, right into the red brick wall of adulthood.
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