Hobby Bench & Channel Update | February 2023 

You are one of the few RU-vidrs who really do the products they cover justice. Your in-depth research really shows and is definitely an important part of what makes your videos so great. I think the idea of focusing more on the author side of games (and maybe even including an interview with the author) is fantastic. I'm always very much interested in who created the games I love and in what inspired them in their creations. Thanks for your fantastic work -- and keep it up!

Oh my God... Someone else remembers Dark Matter!!!!! My brother was obsessed by the novels and would scour bookstores for them. Few years back and I found a copy of the rulebook and he has been hooked once again.

Very looking forward to the Battle Retort - Skaven voices are a must-must for it.

Really enjoy all of the content you've been doing. I like a bit of this more relaxed stuff and the in-depth essays on elements of the gaming industry. Nice to know the person behind the channel as well as their work etc. As someone who likes their Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play, would be interesting to hear more on that side of things!

I am REALLY looking forward to the history of Skaven, as they're the faction that got me into Warhammer and wargaming. In terms of videos like this, I really enjoyed it. I think it always helps to see a bit more of the person behind the videos, and I'd be in favour of seeing more like it.

Thank you for great content as always. You channel has quickly become a favorite of mine. It's truly awesome stuff and in terms of presentation you're a natural. I love everything Warhammer Fantasy related ("oldhammer" is that what the kids call it?). Excited for the Skaven and Drachenfels deep-dives. Amazing choices! One area where you could perhaps consider improvement is audio. It's not terrible at all, but your mic does pick up a lot of the room being off-screen. In some of the vids where you jump from talking-to-camera to voice-over it can feel a little jarring. Nitpick from a bit of an audiophile 😉 Anyway, keep up the great work! Cheers from Copenhagen

I've been really enjoying your videos since your channel began last year. Growing up in the 80's, the nostalgia hits are palpable. The level of research and detail is amazing but never feels overwhelming or drawn out. I'm really looking forward seeing your new content and I wish you continued success with your future projects.

I love looking at what’s on your shelves in the background and spotting all the cool things on them :) Was interesting to hear your backstory and find out a bit more about you. Looking forward to seeing the Battle Retort :)

I'm calling it now: The Skaven video will be at least an hour long or be a two parter.

I've been really enjoying the channel so far and I love the cosy atmosphere to the videos. Looking forward to seeing more from you and best of luck! :)

I follow when you started, and every videos getting better and better. Not comments every videos, but I like it your documentary, and showcase these old stuff. Keep it up, and I waiting for new videos!

Very nice to see a more casual and candid video, letting us see behind the history curtain! And always interesting to see the editor setup that others have. Also, SKAVEN VIDEO. YES, YES Ahem, excuse me, sorry. Looking very much forward to that, and I vote YES to the content like this - whether on a rolling basis or sporadic, it provides an insight to future plans and allows you an opportunity to present more personal commentary, which feels good to listen to!

You’re doing a grand job as I’ve only just joined after watching your history of Warhammer Fantasy

I've watched all of your videos over the past 2 days. I love them all and would welcome any future content, including videos like this.

This is quickly becoming my favorite channel on RU-vid. Keep up the great work. And as for videos like this I loved it. Your mention of Slaying the Dragon had me on Amazon making a purchase.

I really enjoy your videos, they take me back. I miss having the time and friends to play these games.

Really enjoyed this video. Really enjoy most of your videos in fact! You seem to have sprung out of nowhere and your channel feels like it's much more established than it is, which I guess is a testament to all the things you talk about in this video. And this session fills in the blanks a bit and gives us a better idea of who we're dealing with! I'd welcome more like it.

Glad I found your channel! Love the hero quest history. In particular, I love the incense keeping away the stench of the plushy nurgling 🤣 keep up the amazing work.

You, sir, deserve a lot more subscribers. The amount of research you put into your history videos, your engagement with the topics, your presentation style, everything is top tier. I'm looking forward to things to come and wish you all the best with this channel!! (After watching your video on Hero Quest I dug out my game and played a session. Blast from the past!) In terms of suggestions for the channel: A discord would be fun to share our experiences or just to hang out with like-minded folks. Or maybe you have some tips on writing and storytelling you could share in a video?

Skaven video, yes-yes!! I remember playing Alternity. It was a fun setting. I never tried Darkmatter. I absolutely fell in love with Delta Green when I came across it at Gen-Con 2000.

What you done so far is amazingly good, so just explore the diffrent ways you like to do it, and see what works from a view stand point. But its great so far

Keep up the great work, I always look forward to your videos!

I saw your book shelves and thought "I got a bunch of those." It also got me thinking about books that are peripheral to the gaming hobby. For example; "Galactic Aliens" by Alan Gerald Frank, (1979,) "Spacecraft 2000 to 2100" by Stewart Cowley, (1978,) and there is a whole bunch of stuff from Wayne Douglas Barlowe. I'm sure you could add a few titles to my "Must Have" list.

Some really great stuff to come. Looking forward to the battle report, it sounds quite intriguing. On the whole I think your presentation is pretty spot on. A nice blend of informative and casual.

I have really enjoyed what you are doing. I got into gaming through TSR and RuneQuest in the mid 80's then discovered GW in 1988. At the time, I think GW had just one store in the US, in Baltimore, if I recall correctly, which was the opposite coast from me. The GW and Citadel history stuff drew me in to your channel, but your personality and humour have me subscribed and interested in whatever you offer. Thanks!

This is not only my favorite new channel but in my top five favorite channels. Love your content, sir, and I am very much looking forward to everything from Alternity to the Battle Retorts. And honestly I loved this video, feel free to branch out! You've got the ability to be engaging about almost any topic.

Seriously great work! I’ve enjoyed a lot of your videos - particularly the histories of old games I remember from my teenage years, but the humour and depth of research drew me into your Talisman and Calamity videos too. And now I’m curious to pick them up! I’ve been reading Dice Men this year, which has coincided perfectly with your vids. All the best to you!

Loved having a more personal peek at who Jordan Sorcery is. Along with your appearance on AmalgamAsh’s channel! (Thanks for the shout out as well!). I’m really looking forward to your Skaven video (yes-yes) and the Lost Relics Battle Retort (great pun! I’m currently on Adventure 9 in that campaign). Lastly, my copy of Dice Men arrives on Thursday (I preordered back in November). Glad it has your seal of approval!

Can't wait for the Battle Retort!

Memories... oh yes I remember the day Rogue Trader arrived and then original 40k books hit our gaming shop .... It was starting :)

Love the retrospectives! Would really enjoy a deep dive into Advanced HeroQuest, as it's one of my absolute favorite games right now :)

Your channel has been the best thing RU-vid has recommended to me in a loooong time. Loving the videos you make. Really looking forward to the Alternity stuff, I've had the two core books for that on my shelf since release (and still not managed to get a game of it in)

Everything sounds awesome, as a collector of the Alternity RPG system, don't forget about the StarCraft expansion for it.

Personally i think your approach so far is on the mark and you do a fantastic job. You have introduced me to some cool games and things i never even knew existed!! Please keep doing the secret end parts i do love them even with the terrible puns!! 😂😂😂 Looking forward to avinity and drachinfel 😊 I cant comment on patreon tho as no experience of it!!

The histories are what hooked me on your channel, and they have established you along with Snipe & Wib and Arbitor Ian as a great source about the real world histories behind these games that we love. I really like that you cover more than just the main Warhammer franchises and indeed cover stuff from companies beyond Games Workshop. But I would echo what others have said, you are an engaging presenter and make entertaining videos, if you bring the same qualities that you bring to your game history videos to other types of videos I'm sure they'll be just as enjoyable! One bit of very subjective feedback on the videos themselves - I'm not a huge fan of stock library music being used in the background of videos. I'm not sure I've noticed it before in your other videos but it was a bit too present in this one. While I can guess that there's some benefit to having some sort of background noise on a video often they can make everything seem a bit too "corporate presentation" to my ears. So unless the music seems pretty on-brand I'd prefer videos without it. It's only a mild preference though, hardly a deal-breaker!

my older brother had to do a short film for art class in high school and they edited it with two VHS players copying scenes from the raw footage onto a clean tape the correct takes in the correct order...

awesome channel keep up the great work

Is that Warhammer Quest Lost Relics on the table in the back? I am currently waiting for the wind to stop so I can get outside to prime those minis!

You’re doing a great job Jordan. Love the content you’re producing. Would be good if you could do a video on Waddingtons. They used to make great games like Lost Valley Of The Dinosaurs. It was a great intro to gaming as a kid. I was always curious as to what happened to them.

So far, so good - all the videos have been a good watch, and all well put together. The battle retort/ports sound interesting - had a soft spot for the ratties myself after reading the classic Andy Chambers army building article back in WD 140 something. Liking the Realms of Chaos books on the shelf as well, mine are a bit more ‘worn’ than yours though 👍🏻

I would love to see some videos on l5r lore! Considering how very few people actually talk about this awesome IP, and how fascinating is the history of the game itself (card game, rpg etc). Looking forward to it!

I'm really pleased your space crusade/heroquest videos popped up on suggested video at the beginning as I've really enjoyed watching your content. For someone fresh onto the RU-vid scene you've really hit the ground running but having seen this it's clear your background has helped like you pointed out. The other thing I've noticed is that you have carved a bit of a niche into a busy field. "History of" seem to be few and far between and with your research its unlike anything I've watched. I did worry that you might run of subjects but when I thought about it when you mentioned skaven I think this could go on indefinitely! Every race from GW I'd watch from any setting as all no doubt have their own stories as well as race backgrounds in other franchises. And that's without touching history of actual games (Epic - I'll mention this every comment from now on until i see a history of or GW relaunch it on square bases whichever comes first! 🤣🤣) or reviews/showing off board games etc Regards patreon my personal thoughts are whatever you do, don't lock videos behind it. If you're going through the time and effort to make it then present it to everyone as this will grow your channel. I think its a good platform overall as it makes producing content more worthwhile for your time and as bonuses things like access to discords, early video releases, having members vote on future content suggestions etc would be appropriate. I think a lot of people would pay just to support the channel and be happy with a mention at the end either in text or shoutout rather than loads of extra content etc. Best of luck for 23

Looking forward to your battle retort. If it’s as enjoyable as it sounds, I hope you do similar for the older games like Space Hulk, HeroQuest, Adv HeroQuest etc as they’re the games I really enjoy!

I would enjoy the GW retro podcast. I talk to all these kids about the glory days of the Eye of Terror online campaign all the time

These all sound great, looking forward to seeing where it all goes! The battle retorts sound great, I'm not a fan of watching normal ones, because they're generally very "numbery", which is great if you want to do competitions and the like, but I play games for their tales and fun, which is handy as I suck and I lose a lot (I'll happily march my wee fellas into certain death if it's appropriate or cool hahaha). Keep chucking up whatever you fancy, see what sticks, it's all good gravy, dude!

Drachenfells and Genevie undead. Damn fine reads. Not read any other Warhammer novel that comes close. Used to read loads of them back in 90's early 2000. Not so many recent years.

Alternity Gamma World was the first rpg that I ever ran. I had bought the book because I had seen a copy of 1e Gamma World years before, and was immediately talked into running it that evening. For a first attempt running from the book, it had some issues (just first time jitters and not quite understanding the system), but it lit the fire for wanting to run later. However, the guy that talked me into running the game ran a short campaign with it set in the local area of north central Texas, and I ran a Jackalope (an American folklorish cryptid based on sightings of rabbits with a degenerative condition) with rules based on an issue of Dragon for making mutant animals. A few years later a member of the group that I was in at the time ran a space based campaign of Alternity, and it was there that I grasped the mechanics of the system. Dark Matter could be seen as late 90s TSR/Wizards (pre-Hasbro) take on an older rpg called Chill, which was about investigators working for a secret society trying to keep the supernatural from overrunning the world. It was originally published by Pacesetter games, and was purchased and released in a 2nd edition by Mayfair Games (then known for their DC Heroes rpg) in the early 90s.

I have a few Alternity books, the core two books, a handful of Star*Drive adventures and some Dark Matter stuff. It's been years since I've looked at any of it but I remember it being pretty interesting so it'll be cool to hear a video about it. For battle re[pt]ort inspiration have you seen a channel called Dice Chatter? It's a fairly small channel but his battle reports don't put too much focus on the rules and tend to tell good stories so it might be worth looking at for inspiration. He's been doing Frostgrave content recently but he did some Age of Sigmar and Warcry reports a while ago too.

Jordan, how do you keep yourself organized? Do you use a system or an app or both?

Yeah Drachenfels is a great read. If you are gonna read all the other early Warhammer novels you should definatly do a video about them. I was reading trough some old white dwarfs when I came upon an article called "The old world timeline" wich mentionts the dates these novels take place set against the broader history of the empire. The events of the Drachenfels novel are in the year 2502.

I spotted the Nurgling then the joss stick burning, so sorry you have a smelly little daemon infestation. Skaven, Drachenfels, Game Retorts.. sounds entertaining. Never heard of the TSR Alternity games apart from Gamma World, I'd watch your showcase vids on them. Glad you liked Drachenfels, hoped you would. The fabled Skryre Rat Ogre, a super find, its one that eluded me, the Forge World Blood Bowl star player Kreek ‘the Verminator’ Rustgouger is the closest miniature I've found. I'd watch a 5min hobby update video every month to see your miniatures and models.

You may proceed. Nah These all look very interesting. Especially Drachenfels, Skaven and Darkmatter. I do hope we one day get a Battlemaster video. (Yes I do keep harping on about that, I know) Oh yeah, quick question: Is that Warhammer siege between The lost and the damned and Ratspike?

I found Slaying the Dragon absolutely amazing. I've seen you reference Art & Arcana before, and it already kind of hints at the history of TSR, but Ben Riggs's book is great at deconstructing everything that went wrong, and how the toxic environment that the TSR management created (all the way back to the founders...) went against the creative powerhouse of the design studio. It is also objective and journalistic in its approach, and is fair with all the actors (doesn't pull punches on Gygax, finds redeeming qualities to Lorraine Williams). By comparison, Dice Men gives a very different approach to business: one that is more collaborative, and less focussed on competition and zero-sum game. I read them back to back, and it was difficult to not see a US/UK dichotomy in that. Of course, we must remember that Dice Men is narrated by one of the main actors, so it's all coming to us through a subjective layer, and it is possible employees and business partners of Jackson-Livingstone would have had a different take on events... I still loved reading it, especially looking at all the photos. I really enjoy your channel - I share your interest (though perhaps not your drive) in documenting the "history" of this hobby (games, RPGs, minis, fantasy) that shaped my and my friends' imaginary landscape. I found your video on GW history (OK, technically, Warhammer history...), and how Bryan Ansell shaped the region and the industry particularly interesting. Good luck with the channel!

I can’t be the only one that wants to see a Jordan sorcery only f@ns 😮. Keep doing what you do 🤜

The history of Battle Masters when?

What went wrong with TSR... Ho boy! A lot.

Bit worried to be honest. Sounds like you're going to another amazing youtube channel that costs me a small fortune on ebay 😀

You are going to have an extremly busy but good year, hope that you achieve all your goals. Alsl that TTRPG that you mention "Dark Matter" just speak too much too me. And finally could you please explain me how to be a Black Library author?, I want to submit a couple of short stories.

Drachenfels yes I'm one that thinks that the Nameless One from the End Times in not Drachenfels when you do it can you answer the puzzling question of who was Taranakh later Gharra’ell’rhal’iann Godfellow from very old Warhammer Lore?

These are just my thoughts... but mi-thos? Is how you choose to pronounce it? Oh my.

Definitely didn't mishear "Empire" and "umpire" when said in quick succession

''...Skaven? did you say skaven?...where's me axe?...'' I'll be waiting for that story on the rats. I had so many epic games against those fellows with my dwarven army back in the days of warhammer fantasy and ofcourse i loved putting them against my players in heroquest wen designing new adventures.sneaky cheese thiefs. i don't usualy watch much battle reports there's to much competicion in it, i never played to compete,, never made an army all ''specked'' up for beating an adversary, i always use what chars/units liked the most and that what made fun playing the game, i once use just drunken dwarfs in a game and all the club was laughing at my dwarfs rolling and trying to reach my adversary elven archers, i lost sure, but everyone had a laugh and although there where more games beeing played, ours had the most audience.

Such a great update and really looking forward to the new videos and I'll be sure to pop a follow on Instagram. Revisiting those intro games is going to be cool. Can't wait to learn more and enjoy the channel. It will be great to hear about that TSR book. I'm planning to read Dice Men myself. 👍