THROWBACK THURSDAY: Gublin

Andrew 'Gublin' Patterson with Matt at Adrian's wedding about 35 years ago

As I reflect on the early days of my gaming life in the occasional Throwback Thursday piece, the name Gublin will pop up every so often.

I guess my old Pembury pal Andrew "Gublin" Patterson represents all the people I played RPGs in my youth that I no longer have any contact with.

When I was at Pembury Primary School I - and another kid - won a scholarship to the prestigious Tonbridge School (the local equivalent of Hogwarts), although first we would have to attend prep school.

It turned out that this 'other kid' was Andy and he lived five doors down the road from me and was born a week before me.

Although we both went to different prep schools, Andy (who acquired the nickname Gublin at Holmewood House School because of his alleged similarity to the puppet creatures of that name!) and I became fast friends and soon developed a mutual interest in Dungeons & Dragons.

We used to play epic games of D&D, almost all centring around his character, Egghead Aramioc, and mine, Staghind Starlight, and all pretty much of the "kick down door, kill monster, take treasure" school of hack'n'slash.

Deep characterisation was not our thing - although I do remember a particularly heated in-character argument about Staghind's plans to change her hairstyle! A misunderstanding had led Egghead to think she was going for the Princess Leia-style buns on the side of the head ... when she just wanted pigtails!

To be fair, we did take the games out of the dungeon, exploring (and conquering) whole worlds on massive sheets of paper that were like rolls of wallpaper spread across the floor of his parents' house.

But Egghead and Staghind eventually grew apart and began to adventure with other people...

After prep school, we both went to Skinners' in Tunbridge Wells - instead of Tonbridge School - and soon met Matt and Nick and became a 'gang of four'.

Eventually, especially when he went off to university, we drifted apart - as young friends do - because he was of the more "work hard, play hard" ethos and I was just plain lazy.

He also tried to shake the 'Gublin' nickname and return to the more 'mature' Andy... which, of course, we ignored.

Time moved on and the last we saw of Gublin was about 35 years ago. It was Matt and Nick's brother Adrian's wedding reception and Andy announced that he was going next door to check out the other reception going on in the hotel!

Over the years I heard tales from my parents - who met his mum in the village occasionally - that he got married, had a kid, worked for a big City bank, had given it all up, bought a yacht and sailed round the world.

I seem to remember, although it's all a bit of a blur these days, that he sent me a get well card when I was in hospital, but I haven't heard anything since dad passed away. Mum moved out of Pembury and so didn't see Andy's mum anymore.

We tried to track Andy down when Matt died in 2022, but to no avail.

Gublin is just one of many gamers who have come and gone out of my life; for instance, whatever happened to Tom Edwards, who introduced me to the Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy radio series and then ran a wild D&D game based on it? Or Guy Huckle and his coterie of gaming buddies that I befriended at Skinners?

More importantly, are they still gaming?

BACK OF THE NET!!!

Following my first "random bookshop puchase" of the year earlier in the week, I have now made my first "random online purchase" of a book: Ultimate Football Heroes – Goal Machine (Career Mode).

Costing mere pence more than the hardback book I got at the weekend, this is not a typical "choose your own adventure" book. There are (I'm guessing) no dragons or magic items in this one. Instead, it capitalises on my newly invigorated interest in football.

Like a great many kids, over several generations, I grew up with Dungeons & Dragons-inspired gamebooks where you selected which page your adventurer would go to next, depending on the options offered at the end of your current location.

Generally, there was randomness, fighting, limited statistics etc to stress the danger of the situation your character found themselves in - be it searching an abandoned spaceship, avoiding ghosts in a haunted mansion or delving into a dungeon.

From what I can see in Goal Machine - and I realise I am way older than the target demographic - character creation is 'limited' to giving your in-book persona and their team names, and designing warm-up and first team strips. Everything else, as you progress through the story, is purely down to your choices.

And I'm okay with that. I'm interested to see what twists and turns Roland Hall's gamebook takes me on during my journey from the "playground to the pitch".

It'll also be a chance to revive (to some degree) my old Subbuteo team, Pogle Rovers, if I can just remember what their team colours were. I'm pretty sure I had a team of Feyenoord miniature players that doubled as Pogle Rovers, but I'll have to rack my brains a bit harder to double check.

You'll Have To Pry My Blu-Rays From My Cold, Dead Hand

My new Frieren blu-rays along with the Frieren Funko Pop! Paul got me for Christmas

One of the few things I picked up for myself in the Boxing Day/New Year sales this year was the blu-ray box set of the first part of the first season of Frieren: Beyond Journey's End.

But, you say, that's available "for free" on both Netflix and Crunchyroll, so why buy it?

To which I retort that not only does 'solid media' rule, but that just because the show is currently on those two streamers that doesn't guarantee it will always be.

Netflix, for instance, is always churning through its contents and removing great swathes of material to make way for new stuff. 

But, owning a show or movie on solid media (Blu-ray, DVD, even VHS) means it's always yours for as long as you have the means to play it (and you treat the media with enough respect to prolong its life).

Even if you purchase something digitally, you're essentially just renting it.

The Case of The Missing Music

Several years ago I purchased - via iTunes - the album Stand By For Action! The Music Of Barry Gray, which was essentially all the beautifully bombastic and inspirational themes and tunes from the Gerry Anderson shows I grew up with.

A magical collection of music that could very quickly carry me off to my happy place, thanks to some of the greatest theme tunes ever composed: UFO, I'm looking at you in particular.

Only, when Rachel and I went for a car journey the other week and I fired up my "driving playlist" (a mix of tracks from throughout the ages and across multiple genres) I realised that the opening track - Stand By For Action - wasn't there.

When I later checked the listing for my Barry Gray album on my iPhone, I saw more than half of the tracks were "faded out" (see picture at top of this article), and when I tried to click on them a message would pop up saying these tracks weren't available in my country!!!

WTF? I bought and paid for this music years ago.

This being Apple there's no customer service, no recourse for the angry customer to get an explanation.

Then late last year the tracks magically reappeared in my library, without a word or an apology. So now I can start blasting them out again.

But how long before they disappear again? Or tracks from other artists? God, what if all my Atarashii Gakko! music vanished over night? I don't even want to contemplate such an apocalyptic scenario.

But this isn't really a dig at Apple per se, as I love my iPhone (thank you, Rachel!), it's more about the fact that when you're talking about digital media... it doesn't really exist, it never feels truly your own, and it is vulnerable to the whims of the digital realm. 

Combine this with the numerous hic-cups I've had buying movies from Sky Cinema (I've given up pre-ordering movies this way and have reverted to Blu-rays), it's no wonder I'm sticking to physical media.

I know they take up room (not as much as a VHS cassette, of course), but they look cool and have all those spiffy extras that someday I'll get round to watching.

When you have a solid disc - or book, or whatever - in your hand, it's yours until you give it up. No megacorporation can arbitrarily decide - without explanation - that that object is no longer yours and remove it from your possession like a thief in the night.

Admittedly, on the music front I still actually err towards digital these days, but most of the time now I simply stream tracks via Rachel's Spotify account anyway.

PS. I know this is slightly hypocritical as I am a massive proponent of audiobooks, particularly the material produced by Big Finish, which I primarily purchase as digital downloads and play through their own app. 

My theory here is that these will exist at least for as long as Big Finish does... and I couldn't imagine living in a world without Big Finish!

A Real-World Dungeon Adventure From The 10th Century

If you are an old school dungeoneer then you really need to read this actual 10th Century account of a very Dungeons & Dragons adventure in a mysterious castle in Egypt (from Medievalists.net).

There are monsters (giant snakes and an automaton), treasure, riddles... the works!

Beyond the inspirational value of the story itself, from the brilliantly named Book Of Strangers, and the fact that it "confirms" D&D is real, I was particularly taken by this quote:

"It was popular in the medieval Middle East for people to inscribe poems and other writings in places like taverns and gardens, mostly anonymously."

I can see my campaign world featuring a lot more graffiti in the future.

Robin Hood and His Not-So-Merry Men

Hugh Jackman Old Man Logan's Robin Hood in A24's intriguing-looking The Death of Robin Hood.

Grappling with his past after a life of crime and murder, Robin Hood finds himself gravely injured after a battle he thought would be his last. In the hands of a mysterious woman, he is offered a chance at salvation.

From writer/director Michael Sarnoski and starring Hugh Jackman, Jodie Comer, Bill Skarsgård, Murray Bartlett and Noah Jupe, A24's The Death of Robin Hood has no official release date yet (beyond "coming soon").

Miniatures Make My Wife Happy

I'm delighted - and proud - to report that Rachel's occasional blog, Miniatures Make Me Happy, has awoken from hibernation.

The primary focus of the blog is Rachel's obsession with decorating 1:12 scale dolls houses.

She kicked off with a pre-Christmas post about the quality Christmas tree she had purchased (and that we used in our digital card this year).

This was then followed by a trio of posts about her current "big project": a modern Malibu Beach House (pictured above). Over the holidays, with some help from her talented dad and no help from clumsy me, Rachel has painted the accent colour on the outside of the house, scratch-built a statement chandelier, and started on the flooring.

The latest mini-project involves assembling the shower unit (which included several hilarious superglue-related moments), but requires the purchase of some tiles to complete.

Now the holidays are over and Rachel is back to work I hope she can still make time to squeeze in more miniature work, as I know how satisfied it makes her feel.

With my back getting better, allowing me to resume the majority of the chores I used to do and Rachel not having to wait on me quite so much, that should free up some time for her in her manic schedule.

After First Steps, The Fantastic Four Face First Foes!

Main cover art for First Foes #1 by Phil Noto

With Avengers: Doomsday crashing into cinemas at the end of this year, Marvel is producing a series of quarterly one-shots helping to cement the Fantastic Four into the MCU.

These kick-off in March with First Foes, by Dan Slott and Mark Buckingham, profiling the classic FF comic book villain, The Mad Thinker.

Return to the world of Marvel Studios’ The Fantastic Four: First Steps in the first of a series of quarterly one-shot specials throughout 2026 expanding on different characters and moments from the film!

On Earth-828, a cosmic mishap has transformed four brave astronauts into the world’s champions and protectors.

They are the Fantastic Four — but one person isn’t happy about things. He’s known as the Mad Thinker, and he’s determined to get his proper due by turning the city of tomorrow against its heroic patrons!

In addition to the main story, Fantastic Four: First Foes #1 will also include a two page Fantastic Science feature inspired by Reed Richards’ educational programming in the world of the film.

Written by Ryan North, the current mastermind behind Marvel’s ongoing FANTASTIC FOUR comic book series, this short story is one fans of all ages won’t want to miss!

Variant cover art by Kaare Andrews

Variant cover art by Phil Noto

Finding My Way To Talliston

John Tarrow's The Stranger's Guide to Talliston has found a new home upon my book shelves

On a visit to Tonbridge's old school, labyrinthine, second-hand book store, Teppa Books, last weekend - during its half-price sale - I found myself drawn towards a hardback tome at the bottom of a pile of paperbacks.

I was actually looking for Tolkien books - as we'd visited on Tolkien's birthday - but found myself wandering through the near-claustrophobic tunnels of beautifully overladen shelves (most two layers deep, so it's a real expedition to find just the book you were hoping to find).

That's when the spine of The Stranger's Guide to Talliston  (pictured above) caught my eye, a hardback fantasy novel among paperbacks.

I carefully extricated the book, making sure the paperbacks didn't topple on the floor, read the dust jacket and skimmed through the book... only to discover that it had been signed by the author (John Tarrow)!

I love signed books, they're the ultimate "six degrees of Kevin Bacon" next to actually shaking the author's hand.

I love a signed book!

For four pounds - reduced to two - I knew this had to be mine (thanks Rachel for buying it for me) and so The Stranger's Guide to Talliston came home with us. And that's where the fun really began.

As intriguing as the dust jacket was, it didn't really give too much away, so I went to Amazon to scan the reviews and they were really good. Several, however, also pointed out that Talliston was a real place, a "magical" house in Essex.

I could have found this out if I'd flicked to the back of the book (where there's a map of the house interior), but instead I opted for Google and this sent me down a delightful rabbit hole.

Again, I only briefly scanned this as I'm always keen to avoid spoilers, but the house, which is central to the story, appears to be an incredible labour of love. I'll confess that I'm really surprised that I'd never heard of it before.

Now, I'm very excited to dig in to The Stranger's Guide and see if it stirs some kind of bravery in me that would give me the courage to travel to the village of Great Dunmow and visit Talliston in person.

MUSICAL MONDAY: Playing D&D (SJ Tucker)