History of Table Top Gaming in the Philippines

[ooh_dlee]

Riding on the wave of intelligent discussion opened up by SexyBoy last week on his thread on "Boardgame Piracy", I would like to collate information from our various members relating to the History of Table Top Gaming in the Philippines. If I have not made it obvious before, I am a person who appreciates history and enjoys being able to accurately recollect events in the past. Also, I feel as though it would be beneficial for us as a community to have a central repository of information as relating to our hobbies' growth here in the Philippines.

Note that in this thread, I will be citing very specific dates and actual names of people and places. If for some reason, a reader feels it is inappropriate or detrimentental for this information to be available to the public, I would gladly take out that particular portion of the thread. Conversely, a reader may inform me of an omission and i would gladly correct the error.

To all those interested, please either send me a PM or directly reply to this post with the following information:

1) Date of Event (as specific as possible)
2) Event Title
3) Key person/s involved and their role
4) Event Location (if applicable)
5) Brief Description of Event (with a short explanation as to why this is relevant, in case it is not obvious)

Example of a relevant date in history:

1) April 3, 2006 (??)
2) TableTopWars.com is born
3) Brel (Wilbert Ng) - Site Creator and Overlord
4) Brel's computer in his home and in a small nook in cyberspace hosted by servers in Ortigas (??)
5) TableTopWars.com is born without much fan-fare as a media to gather and share information about the various genre and types of tabletop games and to act as a communication tool for use of the Site Members regardless of their affiliations, groups, or gaming preferences. It's first post was made by site creator and overlord Brel on the topic of "Site Usage Terms and Conditions". At this time, the site's creators are cautiously hopeful that hobby enthusiasts are open to the idea.

Example of an irrelevant date in history:

1) January 10, 2009
2) ooh_dlee (Daniel Lee) joins his first OGM
3) ooh_dlee - uninformed and penniless but openly welcomed newbie
4) Residencia 8888 rooftop
5) ooh_dlee attends his first OGM in Residencia and is warmly met by Victor, Adrian (the other one, Adrian Martinez), Marqz (Martin Montecillo) and ChneezPnoy (Thomas Hu-Rosario). His first game is the highly addictive Tsuro (owned by Marqz). He quickly ends up placing a tile leading to nowhere, causing his token to fall disgracefully off the board. He vows a life-long vengeance to the tile in question, and henceforth, spends most of his time plotting it's eventual downfall.

The end product will look like the following (after taking out most of the funny stuff):

Ancient History

Tabletop gaming as we know it today traces it's roots to the early pioneers in the United States of America. A brief history was made by Dave Shapiro in August of 2003. No doubt that the Philippines' close ties with it's former colonial master contributed greatly to the spread of table top gaming in the country.

Prior to the advent of gameboards, pre-historic Filipino gamers played "Dungeons and Dragons" on what is now known as "Pen and paper". No intelligible records could be traced back to this age, as most archaelogists are unable to decipher the cryptic text containing words such as "roll a d10" and "increase AC by 1". It is assumed that the so called "Dungeon Masters" (DMs) were despotic tyrants who kept all knowledge to themselves akin to the time when Tyrannosaurus Rex was king of the dinosaurs.

Sometime prior to the 80s, gameboards were introduced to the Philippines. This highly diminished the power of the DMs and dispersed the seeds of enlightenment to the general gaming public. Some still argue that the pre-historic DMs are alive and well, hiding slyly behind the thick veil of secrecy that we know as "the boardgame publishing industry".

1970s

1970 - Sofronio H. Pasola, Jr. invents Salpakan, also known as Game of the Generals

1980s

198x - Filbars opens it's first shop in ??. They primarily sell mainstream comics, magazines and collectible cards
198x - Comic Quest opens it's first shop in ?? selling many hard to find comics and manga
198x - Nova Fontana opens in Shoppesville to the delight of many anime toy collectors
198x - Courtside opens it's first shop in the 3rd floor of Virramall. Courtside specializes mainly in collectible basketball cards, but also sells a small variety of CCGs

1990s

1994 - Magic the Gathering is imported to the Philippines by Mang Pepito
1995 - Mark Humphries establishes Philboardgamers, catering primarily to wargaming enthusiasts
199x - Neutral Grounds opens it's first shop in ?? catering primarily to MTG players
June 12, 1998 - AEGIS is founded. The group caters primarily to RPG enthusiasts

2000s

May 4, 2002 - The Open Gaming Meet is born. It is initially entitled "The Open Meet" (OM) and is the brainchild of Tybalt (Adrian Martinez). The first session is held at Starbucks, Jupiter St, Makati.

July 2002 - Hobbes and Landes opens it's first shop
200x - Nova Fontana closes shop
June 11, 2005 - The VJ Cabazor era begins. He becomes new manager of the OM and broadens its focus to allow cross pollination of various tabletop hobbies. It is held at Waltermart, Makati.

August 2005 - Warmachines Philippines (WMPH) is established
December 26, 2005 - Brel (Wilbert) establishes Heroscape Philippines. As sole member, he knows all and sees all. By March, Heroscape expands to include 7 members, with Rolf being the latest addition
200x - MageKnight Philippines is formed
March 25, 2006 - Hosted by Mark Humphries, the OM is held at Residencia 8888 for the first time.

Contemporary History

Although there is still much scholarly debate, most historians do agree that the creation of tabletopwars.com was a key turning point in Philippine gaming history. This one event would mark a change from more archaic means of information sharing to the highly sophisticated and publicly accessible forum that we know today.

2006

April 17 - Tabletopwars.com (TW) is born

2007

April 28 - TW celebrates it's first year anniversary at Landes Podium (Pictures)
July 14-15 - New Worlds: Transformed is held at the Power Plant Mall
September 1 - The OM is renamed to the Open Gaming Meet (OGM).

2008 (Summary of Events)

Early in the year - Led by Rolf, Team South (aka SAGE) is formed.
April 21 - Gamecrab opens in Katipunan
July 5 - A record 74 participants come to the OGM
August 23 - The Northern Gaming Group (NGG) is formed and holds it's first meet in GC
November 18 - thegr8mirror (Steve) hosts the first Makati Weeknight Gaming Meet 

2009

January - Hobbymania opens in Taft
March 7 - Last OGM in Residencia
April 4 - Courtesy of Jay Mata, the OGM moves to Vibal Publishing House in Araneta

Many thanks,

Daniel

[Sexy Bro]

Hmm a few relevant dates that I can think off but don't know the specifics are the opening and closing of Nova Fontana, and the formation of the various New Worlds Alliance groups. I suppose other shops such as Neutral Grounds & Comic Quest are worth noting too. If somebody knows all the relevant information then just fill them in with ooh_dlee's format.

[viscoos]

Something you might want to add

Game of the Generals

I think the various groups should share their history here, It will be interesting how our grognards were able to meet, or the first heroscape meet?

When was Fortress formed? etc etc.

[Rolf]

Here's the history of TW as I remember it.  Some of it is from personal recollection and a lot of it is still archived in the heroscape_ph yahoo group's messages.

I first saw Heroscape at H&L Shangri-La in December 2005.  I did not buy it then, but went home and did a lot of online research about the game.

I bought my first Heroscape set somewhere in late December 2005/January 2006.  Played it with some friends and we had a lot of fun.

On January 26, 2006 I posted in PinoyPC's forums looking for other fans of the game.  On January 31, Brel replied and invited me to join the heroscape_ph yahoo group.

March 6, 2006 - I am the 7th member to join heroscape_ph.  Brel is the first, and for reference, Gerry "freelick4u" is the 4th and Earl is the 6th.

April 3, 2006 - On heroscape_ph, Brel broaches the idea of starting up a new gaming website to cater to Philippine tabletop gamers.  Everyone agrees it's a great idea and over the next few days, many ideas are emailed back and forth through the group.

April 5, 2006 - Member "MU Murderer" suggests the name tabletopwars.com

April 7, 2006 - Brel registers the domain TabletopWars.com

April 17, 2006 - TW goes live for the first time.

(more to come)...

[Rolf]

I first met Brel somewhere in the above time frame.  Went to their house for a 3-way game of Heroscape with a friend of his, but I don't remember what date it was.

I do remember I went there after a morning shift at work and I got there in the afternoon, and that I was having car trouble that day.  We were on the floor because the tables weren't big enough, and we phoned out for pizza (my treat).  We played the Road to the Forgotten Forest scenario, with Brel and I teaming up against his friend.  We won.  I think we had a second game but I'm not sure. 

I also remember that I used the Venoc Vipers with the Venoc Warlord, and the Anubian Wolves with Khosumet.  I used one of the Wolves to attack Su-Bak-Na (Marro rider on skeletal dragon), and I scored a near-perfect attack roll.  SBN went down in one strike, to our consternation, proving that in Heroscape, bigger isn't necessarily better.

Those were good times

[ooh_dlee]

As citation and reference, Marqz PM'ed me with the following information:

April 21, 2008 - GC opens its doors.

August 23, 2008 - The very first NGG meet.  Some of the attendees were Earl and Cath, Adrian (the other one), Me, Alger and Kat, Gerald, Sef.  Some NASCAP (scrabble) players were also present gaming (separate from us NGG).

[Rolf]

Hi, let me clarify a few things -

Dec. 27, 2005 - Brel creates the heroscape_ph Yahoo group.  (fyi he's the only member until Jan. 15 when the second one signs up.)

And per Brel's preference, it's TW rather than TTW.

Sorry for digressing a lot in my first post I injected a lot of my personal experience into it, when it should have been more objective.

[Mark Humphries]

The Philippines Historical Boardgamers Club (Philboardgamers) was founded on Oct 27, 2001 to encourage the local board wargamers to meet and play more often.

[viscoos]

Hi, let me clarify a few things -

Dec. 27, 2005 - Brel creates the heroscape_ph Yahoo group.  (fyi he's the only member until Jan. 15 when the second one signs up.)

And per Brel's preference, it's TW rather than TTW.

Sorry for digressing a lot in my first post I injected a lot of my personal experience into it, when it should have been more objective.

but but but... TW means Taiwan... Its a site for the Chinese w00t

I rule this side of teh intarwebs...

Dec. 27 2005 huh, thats my 21st birthday w00t.

Anyway so that I wont be completely OT

I want to suggest to Daniel that in the Chronicle itself I think it will be more formal if we use people's real names instead of their username

Brel = Wilbert Ng (tama ba?)

yay i contributed something positive (i think)

[Rolf]

April 28, 2007 - TabletopWars' first anniversary event was held at Landes in Podium, 2pm to 4pm.  The big event was a mini-Heroscape tournament on two identical maps.  Sadly we did not have time to finish it as the venue had only been rented for a couple of hours, but if I recall correctly, Nickie and Zinegata were finalists.  Philboardgamers c/o Mark Humphries donated a Heroscape Master Set as a raffle prize.

[ooh_dlee]

Hi, let me clarify a few things -

Dec. 27, 2005 - Brel creates the heroscape_ph Yahoo group.  (fyi he's the only member until Jan. 15 when the second one signs up.)

And per Brel's preference, it's TW rather than TTW.

Sorry for digressing a lot in my first post I injected a lot of my personal experience into it, when it should have been more objective.

No worries. I just got around to looking through the clubs, groups and communities section of the forums and have updated the thread accordingly.

Thanks.

[ooh_dlee]

The Philippines Historical Boardgamers Club (Philboardgamers) was founded on Oct 27, 2001 to encourage the local board wargamers to meet and play more often.

Hi Mark,

Should I use October 27, 2001 or 1995 (as written in the Philboardgamers section of the forums)?

Thanks,

Daniel

[Rolf]

July 14-15 2007 - During the fandom event New Worlds: Transformed which was held at the Powerplant mall, members of TabletopWars and Philboardgamers were present and demonstrated several board games to the public.  Games included Heroscape, Arkham Horror, and Bang!.  Hammer of the Scots was also on display but was not used.

(huge thanks once again to Zinegata for his invaluable assistance in planning our participation and in teaching Heroscape, and for being responsible for my single most memorable, most heartwarming boardgame moment ever )


edit: added location, and link to Brel's album here:
http://www.tabletopwars.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=45&pos=0

Lots of old familiar faces 

[Mark Humphries]

Thanks for catching that Daniel. The club was started in 1995 by myself, Manuel Igual, Pepe Munoz, and Nando Cojuangco, and a few other irregulars. Our Yahoo group went online in 2001.

[Mark Humphries]

I want to suggest to Daniel that in the Chronicle itself I think it will be more formal if we use people's real names instead of their username

Good idea, never know who's who when I'm at the OGMs.