Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Not really weird, but I used to play with this guy usually once a week to two weeks, and he use to wear this really odd, tall baseball cap kind of thing, and I always wonder why, once day he didn't wear it, and he had a three foot long, multicolour dyed braid that he curled up to sit neatly on his head, under his hat. Quite impressive really.

Hands up honestly, it's probably me. I can't think of anyone here really, which means it likely is. A bit like that expression about if you don't know who TFG is...
It's a very small town, so there's not a lot by way of diversity in many aspects (life experience, humour, logic, etc).
Thankfully I fell into a group of good gaming friends. It assuages my fear of being barely tolerated.

When I lived in the North West, the oddest gamer I knew was a heroclix player who used to turn up, buy his boosters, and generally concede every game or spend an hour explaining why he was going to lose before quitting. He was lovely, but so very frustrating.

So far as personal aspects like sexuality/gender/clothing featuring in this topic, I'm a little surprised and disappointed.

 cuda1179 wrote:

The next one isn't really a customer, so much as the setting of the store itself. Imagine a gaming store across the street from a major college campus, two doors down from a major college bar, and less than three blocks from Fraternity row. This normally wasn't a problem unless gaming lasted unusually long into the night, when it was a crapshoot if you'd get hassled by drunken frat boys. On one of these fateful nights a drunk thought it would be funny to kick my model case out of my hands, a case filled with about $2500 of models. By instinct alone I turned and punched, the only punch I've thrown in my life. I actually knocked the guy out.

I'm almost positive I read this on /tg/ a while back. It sounds so familiar its bugging the heck out of me.

WOW. Reading you guys' comments really makes the Assassin's creed guy seem normal...

Well atlest we havent had a story of a Shady guy driving around in VAn offering Space MArines to Teenage boys if they go for a ride with him.
all good trying to be funny this morning maybe to much coffee or not enough.

The weirdest person I ever met in a hobby store?

Me.

I'm ALWAYS the weirdest person in the hobby store.

I am proud of my weirdness and I relish it! No matter how weird somebody else may seem I always come back to the fact that I, too, am weird.

 col. krazy kenny wrote:
Well atlest we havent had a story of a Shady guy driving around in VAn offering Space MArines to Teenage boys if they go for a ride with him.
all good trying to be funny this morning maybe to much coffee or not enough.

Are they NoS or are they already assembled? I may be tempted if the former

Where to start...?

To begin with at the first GW store I became a regular at (sadly I never witnessed this individual in person) was the legend of kid named Jordan who drank a pot of enchanted blue paint on a dare. The kid then ran out the store an barfed on the pavement outside. The stain is probably still there to this day. It certainly was there when I began going in the late nineties.

Next, at the same store we had a guy who maybe had certain anger issues and had managed to get banned from the store at least 5 times. How does one get banned from GW multiple times you might ask? Due to high staff turnover he just waited for a new face to work there and they'd invite him back fro games night. rinse and repeat. But anyway, this guy flipped out over loads of stuff and when he would lose he would literally hurl his models into the toolbox he pulled them from. (GW must have made a killing in glue sales from this guy) One such time, He tried to claim his War Walkers had LOS to some of my guys as their guns were tilted up.
Nope.
He flipped the feth out and grabbed a pair of clippers and started hacking said War Walkers to pieces. Poor War Walkers, they never stood a chance.

Had a similar incident when he was playing a friend and tried to claim the damage result of his Falcon was may not move next turn (there is, and never has been such a result. It got may not shoot). Said Falcon got kerbstomped and the guy got banned (again).

Store had some very odd staff as well. There was a manager whose catchphrase appeared to be "Get out my store". There was a weird malaise in the store when he was there and no games would be played on games nights until he'd gone home for the day. Additional note, it turned out he was also haemophobic (No, not homophobic. I spelt that correctly. He was afraid of blood), and once cut himself and fainted. I don't think it's spiteful to say teenage me found it very amusing to see that happen.

Next GW store I'm a regular at had a few oddballs. There was a real rake of a kid who looked like he was ready to be on the roof with a sniper rifle look to him. I saw him playing another one of the regulars on a Sunday and as they've finished playing the other guy (either intentionally or not) drops the lid of his big GW carry case on said Stressed-out-dude's army. He flips out and some fists start flailing at this guy who is easily twice his size.

We had another guy who, was alright to talk to seemed very violent when playing his games. Always muttering stuff like "That's bs" and calling his trooper guys "plebs". Eventually one day he's playing in a tournament up at our local club and he's using the unkillable Von Carstein family in Gravegurd unit deathstar. His opponent is using WoC and rolls a double 6 for the strength of Infernal Gateway. This is on turn 1.
The whole unit gets deleted.
"THAT IS fething bs" He screams.
I believe he got kicked out of the tournament due to said incident.

Numerous smelly people, namely the infamous "Dog gak Dave" whom one of the GW staffers straight up asked him if he'd been bathing in sewage.

Those are all I can remember off of the top of my head.

Had a similar incident when he was playing a friend and tried to claim the damage result of his Falcon was may not move next turn (there is, and never has been such a result. It got may not shoot). Said Falcon got kerbstomped and the guy got banned (again).

Not my recollection of 5th Ed.

Vehicle Shaken = may not shoot.
Vehicle Stunned = may not move or shoot.

And then there was weapon destroyed, Vehicle Immobilized, Vehicle Destroyed and Vehicle Explodes.

Am I remembering correctly?

Otherwise...what a fething brat. Did he ever try to break other people's property or did he only take out his frustration on his own?

 Shadow Captain Edithae wrote:

Had a similar incident when he was playing a friend and tried to claim the damage result of his Falcon was may not move next turn (there is, and never has been such a result. It got may not shoot). Said Falcon got kerbstomped and the guy got banned (again).

Not my recollection of 5th Ed.

Vehicle Shaken = may not shoot.
Vehicle Stunned = may not move or shoot.

I think he meant the guy was claiming that while he couldn't move next turn he could still shoot, which was certainly not a thing in 5th ed.

 jonolikespie wrote:

 Shadow Captain Edithae wrote:

Had a similar incident when he was playing a friend and tried to claim the damage result of his Falcon was may not move next turn (there is, and never has been such a result. It got may not shoot). Said Falcon got kerbstomped and the guy got banned (again).

Not my recollection of 5th Ed.

Vehicle Shaken = may not shoot.
Vehicle Stunned = may not move or shoot.

I think he meant the guy was claiming that while he couldn't move next turn he could still shoot, which was certainly not a thing in 5th ed.

Correct.

 jer155 wrote:
WOW. Reading you guys' comments really makes the Assassin's creed guy seem normal...

He is

Back in the Netherlands there was a guy who worked as an assistant at the gamestore, he was a really nice guy, but his thoughts were in a different plane, i played against him often because there was only a small group that played warzone and Chronopia. His armies looked like a psychedelic t-shirt, another guy had color blindness so his armies were a little off, but this guy just slapped paint on them with no logic. and went on monologues explaining why they looked like that and the armies history, he was an even worse tactical player then i am (and that says something). But it was always fun to play against him.

Maybe I'm the weirdo at my store?

Honestly though, nothing too weird going on where I go every now and then. Maybe just the odd case of "put your arms down please" or having a rather odd chap who isn't all there interrupt the game every now and then to ask really, really off-topic questions, usually during assaults.

Back when I still used to go to GW Amsterdam though there was this one redshirt though who tried her hardest to push Orks on every player who came in, which always struck me as odd, as the rest of the staff was always really laidback and easy going.

I've got one too.

Years ago, our local gaming group organized an Apocalypse battle. The evening before we met and discussed some houserules and the general plan, and I don't know who brought her, but a mid-thirty woman I've never seen before showed up too.
She played Eldar or got her hands on some miniatures, I don't know, because at no point did she made the impression that she actually knew what she was doing. Which was not the problem, no.....
what really irritated me was her touchy-feely way with the teenage boys from our group. I repeat, this woman in her mid-thirties was constantly touching the teenage boys, complementing them on their looks or how sweet they are. All of in a less than sober manner, at least I hope that she was drunk or stoned. Although her behavior was not entirely consistent with either inebriated state, so mental illness is not out of question.

Was this at a gaming store, a club or just someone's house? Someone probably should have taken her to one side and asked her to leave before the Police were called.

The would have been great when I was a teenager, my how times have changed!

 notprop wrote:
The would have been great when I was a teenager, my how times have changed!

Yep, more 'Best person you've ever met in a hobby store' really.

 notprop wrote:
The would have been great when I was a teenager, my how times have changed!

Now flip around the genders of everyone involved. Suddenly become an enormously skeevy and unpleasant case of obvious grooming, hasn't it?

Its fething creepy and disgusting, whatever the kids might think. Its not OK just because its a woman and the boys were "up for it".

Theres actually been a spate of cases in the UK recently of woman in positions of authority (teachers etc) being prosecuted and jailed for sex with under age boys.

 Elemental wrote:

 notprop wrote:
The would have been great when I was a teenager, my how times have changed!

Now flip around the genders of everyone involved. Suddenly become an enormously skeevy and unpleasant case of obvious grooming, hasn't it?

Indeed it has, yes, but the genders weren't flipped.

Personally, I can only honestly say, if I as a male teenager I had met a lady in her 30s, possibly stoned, who was clearly flirting with me, and was into the hobby too, well, I wouldn't have minded. YMMV.

As with most of the important issues in life, there is a very good South Park about it.

No, having been in that position when I was 17, it really is uncomfortable and gross. Someone pawing at you when you don't want them to is wrong, no matter what the gender.

Anyhow, the strangest experience I ever had in a store isn't that strange, but it was actually a fun one. My cousin and I had gone into a gaming shop we'd never been to before, and there was a guy there playing 40k against himself. And he was doing all the sounds and voices, you know, explosions and so on.

And he was very obviously having a blast. We talked to him a bit, and he was definitely an odd duck, but he knew it, and didn't mind.

It sounds like she was just pulling off being drunk / high better than the average person, and it manifested in being handsy. But still, that's predatory as feth. It's not like you don't know the average demographic of wargamers.

I'm always conscious not to touch anyone I don't know, even to get their attention, as you don't know folks' comfort zones. A lot of younger players around here have autism, or sensory issues. I guess these worries do occur when you have a hobby that mixes broad age groups.

There are some great stories, and even better grandstanding and soapboxing in this thread.

For me, the weirdest gamers was a group of middle aged D&D players that still used the hobby shop. Of course, they refused to use the RPG room, and instead spread out over two wargaming tables. There was the usual panoply of bathing issues, and one of the couples had an adult child with what I could only assume was fairly severe autism: non verbal, and he would hum loudly to drown out the other noises. Obviously, he was not at fault for being disruptive, but I do wonder why a group of grown adults (meaning 40+) could not procure a more private space.

I am always baffled at RPG players in the shop. All that is needed is a kitchen table why would you insist on having your roleplaying out on display? I'm much more comfortable at my buddies house without random people shuffling by.

Nowadays, or really since the advent of D&D 3rd edition, you see a lot more of those mats and figs being used for rpgs. I can somewhat understand the desire to have space so you can spread everything out... but that being said, I'd love to have three gaming tables in which two are just used for me to spread all my stuff out.

But I don't because I'm, you know, conscious of people other than myself in this world.

The rest of that story just sounds painful.

 Jehan-reznor wrote:

 jer155 wrote:
WOW. Reading you guys' comments really makes the Assassin's creed guy seem normal...

He is

Back in the Netherlands there was a guy who worked as an assistant at the gamestore, he was a really nice guy, but his thoughts were in a different plane, i played against him often because there was only a small group that played warzone and Chronopia. His armies looked like a psychedelic t-shirt, another guy had color blindness so his armies were a little off, but this guy just slapped paint on them with no logic. and went on monologues explaining why they looked like that and the armies history, he was an even worse tactical player then i am (and that says something). But it was always fun to play against him.

Sounds like a very familiar case, store was in the Southern part of the Netherlands? If so, the dude was a blast, his theories were pretty far out there but so much fun to hang out with.

I have two stories from my old FLGS.

First would be this guy that I would describe as a living meme. He always wore all black and a fedora, as well as fingerless gloves. He would talk all the time about how he used to be a marine and how after he was discharged he went to work for the government doing some secret tech stuff - which of course he couldn't talk about because it was top secret. He was also a huge atheist and would bring up in random conversations about how religion was the worst thing that man had ever created and how anyone who believed in any religion was below his pity. He also often made not-so-subtle mentions about how if someone ever pissed him off he could kill them or hack into all of their stuff and ruin their lives. It was like playing with a living anon meme.

However, he honestly was a good guy. He just didn't know how to act socially, and I think this was his way of trying to fit in. He was always offering people food or buying newbies models as well. So he wasn't all bad. Just weird. I haven't seen him in years since I went to school, but I'm sure he's still doing his regular thing.

Second would actually be me. When I was in high school, I would usually go once a week to the FLGS and often I would drag along my gf at the time. Looking back now I'm sure it was painfully obvious to most people that she did not want to be there. But being young and dumb, I wasn't able to see that. I'm sure it made some other gamers cringe or at least feel sorry for her every week. But that's life.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

 DarkTraveler777 wrote:

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
About the worst I've seen was the prolonged awkwardness that resulted from two drunk girls in cowboy hats and bar night clothes fixating on the one GW employee with Tourette's Syndrome and grilling him about what Games Workshop is and what it sells and if they sell any princesses.

Saw that a lot too. About 8 years back there was a short lived game shop in Arcadia, CA that was located next to a bar. I was friendly with the staff and they and would let the regulars stay after hours to play often until 2 or 3 AM. Great fun, except for when the bar let out. We had a few occasions where the door of the game shop wasn't locked and drunks stumbled in and started molesting the players and miniatures.

Fething drunks. Reprobates all of them.

Arcadia, near Eureka? That's a smalllllllll town. Still, it has more bookstores than Alaska. Always reminds me of the film Gremlins for some reason.

Afraid that is not the same town. The shop I was referring to was in Arcadia, California. A few miles south of Alaska.

 DarkTraveler777 wrote:

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

 DarkTraveler777 wrote:

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
About the worst I've seen was the prolonged awkwardness that resulted from two drunk girls in cowboy hats and bar night clothes fixating on the one GW employee with Tourette's Syndrome and grilling him about what Games Workshop is and what it sells and if they sell any princesses.

Saw that a lot too. About 8 years back there was a short lived game shop in Arcadia, CA that was located next to a bar. I was friendly with the staff and they and would let the regulars stay after hours to play often until 2 or 3 AM. Great fun, except for when the bar let out. We had a few occasions where the door of the game shop wasn't locked and drunks stumbled in and started molesting the players and miniatures.

Fething drunks. Reprobates all of them.

Arcadia, near Eureka? That's a smalllllllll town. Still, it has more bookstores than Alaska. Always reminds me of the film Gremlins for some reason.

Afraid that is not the same town. The shop I was referring to was in Arcadia, California. A few miles south of Alaska.

Turns out I was thinking of Arcata. My mistake.

I don't know about weird, as we're all a bit weird. However, a big turn off for me in a game store is when a few "worldly neckbeards" with no education, work experience beyond fry cook, or residence of their own beyond their mom's basement yack loudly and boorishly in front of the register with one another about politics or religion. So loudly that you can hear their BS throughout the store.

I'm not going to listen to it. I don't care if this is the only store where I can get in some 40k. I'll walk out and not spend a dime.