There has been much recently written regarding the "graying of the hobby." Like the weather, it seems as though "everybody talks about, but nobody does anything." In the last year I've redoubled my efforts to bring more people into the hobby, especially teens.

Game Boxes

One of the techniques employed to recruit new gainers is the "gift of the hobby" though game boxes. That is to say, I've created miniature game boards using 6mm. figures and DBA, plopping it all in a box and calling it a travel game. These boxes are easy to construct.

The natural candidate for the travel game was an old magnetic chess board that met my size requirements. Unfortunately, it was one of those items I never quite got around to liberating them from my parent's home when I left. It was not a surprise when I discovered this item had been packed off to the local thrift shop. After looking (unsuccessfully) for a similar item in game stores and toy shops, I decided to try to fabricate a travel game board.

I made my first gameboard/box out of 3/4" x 3/4" molding material, constiucting two 6" x 12 frames. I then epoxied two 6"X 12" sheets of tin to the frames. Half-inch strips of magnetic tape were added to the bottom of the frames to secure the two halves for travel. and to provide a "soft surface" so as not to scratch table surfaces. (Those contemplating constructing a DBA-To-Go board may want to add hinges.) In the last couple of years I have made these travel sets using 12" 12" boxes and a sheet of 12" sq. sheet metal from the local sheet metal supply shop. The arrangement has the advantage of being able to keep a game in progress and store it undisturbed until the next opportunity to game.

Painting was accomplished by spraying a coat of primer and three coats of green paint. A local video store gives away refrigerator magnets about the size and thickness of a business card. After gazing at our collection of these and similar cards on our frig, I decided that they would make the perfect material for terrain. After getting a few of these, I set about cutting them into strips and painting them blue, green and brown for use as terrain features.

Terrain for the board is easily constructed. I made my hills out of a sheet of balsa and glued a piece of tin to the top. Hills were fitted with flat magnetic strips (refrigerator magnet business cards obtained from the video store) on the bottom to secure them during play and travel. Trees were made using bumpy chenille by cutting the wire to length and gluing bunches of trees" to 3/4" magnetic strips. Bumpy chenille is the type of material GHQ includes in their DYI terrain hex packs. You can pick up a pack at any decent craft store for 79 cents and it makes about 94 trees.

Using halved 15mm DBA measurements, I cut a magnetic 1" strip to the correct size for my the selected 6mm armies. This would make the troops easier to handle and prevent unwarited movement during play. In the end, I had a playing surface and terrain for less than $12.00. The board, measuring 12" x 6" x 1.5" when folded, is easily stored for those weekend trips the Big City.

I have used both Ros and Heroics and Irregular Miniatures figures for these games and find that both work quite well, though you'll have to cut the Irregular figures to fit the base.

In the end, I have an inexpensive miniatures game (under $25) to give to someone as a gift. I've made (and given away) about 8 of these over the past two years.

A School MiniCon

Another tactic is to sponsor a mini-convention at a local school. Since I work for a school district, the choice of school was easy. I contacted several gamers I know from the San Francisco Bay Area convention scene, esp. and scheduled the event for the weekend prior to Spring Break. The photos speak for themselves: everybody had a great time . Stan Kubiak dropped in with his always entertaining (and now award-winning) Aerodrome demonstration game. Gary Price and Darrell - Empry made the trip up on Saturday for rousing Pig Wars and Rules with no Name Games. (Which are perfect for kids.... all that mayhem and destruction.) On Sunday, Manuel Ruiz ran several DBA games and Chip Harrison demonstrated his Fantasty Rules! system while Stan continued his Aerodrome game. A great time had by all (adults and kids), so much so that all of the adults involved asked about next year's mini-con. Thanks esp. to the South Bay Gaming Club for their participation.