One of the best things about getting back into the hobby was reading back through my old White Dwarf magazines.
My collection spans from late 1993 to mid-1998, and one of the most loved and fondly remembered features of this period was “A Tale of Four Gamers”.
The concept of A Tale of Four Gamers was simple but effective. White Dwarf took four Games Workshop staff (Paul Sawyer, Richard Hobson, Roy Barber, and Richard Gunson) from different parts of the company, gave each of them a small monthly budget, and had them build, paint and eventually battle with a Warhammer army entirely in public view through the magazine.
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It ran for five months in 1998. Fifty quid to start, then twenty-five a month after that, working out at £150 total by the end*.
Nobody was told what to buy or how to paint it, so all four ended up going in completely different directions: Roy Barber built Skaven, Richard Hobson did Wood Elves modelled on Robin Hood, Richard Gunson went Bretonnian, and Paul Sawyer (AKA Fat Bloke) painted Beastmen almost entirely in metallics.
The whole point was showing the process honestly, budgets, mistakes and all, rather than just presenting a finished army under studio lighting. That’s what made it feel achievable to readers in a way most hobby features at the time didn’t.
One fellow hobby content creator who’s particularly fond of this feature is Sean of the Timeless Tabletop Gaming YouTube channel. I’ve had Sean on the show for a chat before, and he’s an active member of the Bedroom Battlefields community Discord.
Sean recently reached out to say he was running a series of deep-dive videos on A Tale of Four Gamers, the first of which earned him an enthusiastic YouTube comment from none other than Richard Hobson.
Sean took the opportunity to reach out to Richard, which led him to get in touch with Richard Gunson and Roy Barber as well. Tragically, Paul Sawyer passed away last year – he was only 59.
The trio were keen to talk to Sean about A Tale of Four Gamers, and he jumped at the opportunity to get them together for an interview that he could use for the final video in his series. He was looking for a little backup on the tech/recording side, and I was only too happy to help. It was a fascinating conversation to sit and listen to, and I’m delighted that Sean has allowed me to play it in full now on this episode of the Tabletop Miniature Hobby Podcast.
*Sean reckons that £150 budget is roughly £300 in today’s money.