History of Gobstyk's
From Gobstyks-wiki
The club was started as a pilot scheme for Games Workshop, a club set away from the store working almost independently. Our club founder was Gary James. And so it was, back in September 1997, that Jervis Johnson opened up Gobstyks gaming club. Quickly a small group of more committed members dished out jobs between them. Back then the treasurers' role was little more than taking the ticket money down to Games Workshop, and making sure the snack bar was in profit.
It was not long before the membership felt limited by 'hiding' the non-GW games being played at the club, and in 1998 we opted to go independent from Games Workshop entirely. We started paying rent directly to the church, and organised all our own finances, games and events.
Due to this the club statarted to gain a reputaion as a friendly and welcoming gaming club and Games Workshop's Club Guy, Che Webster visited us for an article about the club which was featured in White Dwarf 258.
The club then started to attend some events, such as the WPS club challenge and Games Day, which required players to field fully painted armies. Back then the painted army on the table was very much the exception and not the rule (opening night saw the infamous tyranids-put-together-by-blue-tack-army-of-doom). In 2001 the club exec (Chair, Treasurer, Caretaker and Membership) decided to start a "Silver Membership" scheme in which players were rewarded for putting together and painting an army for WFB or 40K. This scheme proved to be so successful that it was featured in White Dwarf 279, much to the delight of the players Jim Allen (Fantasy Orcs), Andrew Dodd (Dark Elves), Anna Delafield (Sisters of Battle) and Neil Chapman (Tyranids) whos armies were photographed and displayed in the article.
Gary James decided to take a back seat, then later retire from playing altogether, and so it was that the club needed a new Chairperson. And so it was that Will Platten came to be "El-Presidente" of Gobstyks. During the clubs AGM a new President is elected, with Will, Anna Delafield, Tony Burgess, Mike Purvis and Chris Simmons all serving in that role. Gary was awarded "life time membership" in recognition of his services in starting and developing the club that is still going strong to this day. Thanks Gary.
As the silver membership scheme had been such a success we then opted to start "bronze" and "gold" memberships. Bronze memberships being the step towards silver, having a blood bowl team, battleforce or border patrol painted. Gold membership being 5 years membership of the club. We also expanded all the schemes to include our role playing, clixers and card playing members.
Campaigns and Tournaments. The club has had a long tradition of running internal campaigns and tournaments. Using the galaxy of Damnation system the club has run a few 40K campaigns, the land of Gobstykia saw a variety of forces ravage its lands and the covetted Gobstykup has been passed from coach to coach in Blood Bowl. More recently the annual Karnage Kups (WFB and 40K) which are played over club nights in November and December, have been supplemented by 2 Saturday events each year. These Saturday events have seen players from across the UK join us in playing toy soldiers.
