Stars and Bars (gaming in the South)...

A little background: I grew up in Cleveland, Oh. I lived in Memphis, TN for 5 years while working for Games Workshop. 2 of those years were spent as manager of the Battle Bunker. I now live in Seattle. I've been involved in tabletop gaming in all of those cities, but gaming in the South is a whole 'nother thing.

As you may know, Tennessee is the "buckle on the bible belt" as the locals put it. Therefore, you have a lot of church-going folk. While this post isn't meant to start an argument outside of the topic at hand, this tidbit is important to the story.

When visiting game stores in TX, AL, FL, GA, TN, MS and the Carolinas, I've seen Space Marine Rhinos with NASCAR numbers painted on the side....Drop pods made out of Mr. Pib cans, and even an old metal Whirlwind tank put together with JB-Weld. No lie.

Now we all know the age-old war of fantasy gaming vs. Christianity (usually involving Dungeons & Dragons) but it happens with other products, as I'll illustrate:

A dad and his 11 year old son came into our Games Workshop Battle Bunker, and dad walked up to me and told me that little Timmy has been going on and on about Warhammer, but dad had to check it out first (as all good parents should). "See I have to make sure that he doesn't get into anything that involves Wizards, Black Magic, or Demons. That's why he's not allowed to watch Harry Potter, y'see."

I see.

My job just got a little harder, as I watched Timmy dart around the store excitedly picking up boxes of Daemonettes, Bloodletters, Chaos Lords, Sorcerers of Nurgle, Vampiric Necromancers, and Daemon Princes.

Dad even did his duty and politely asked me if I attend church. "You're looking at it" I told him.

So I showed dad and Timmy the Lord of the Rings starter set and gave them a demo. Timmy loved it, and dad approved wholeheartedly.
I told him he needed to know that Lord of the Rings DOES involve wizards who practice magic, and has demons such as Ring Wraiths and the Balrog.

"That's ok" he told me "Those books are Christian, and besides, they had movies!"

That's true. His argument was flawed, but his total was over $60.

Another satisfied customer!